TheRunningRev.Com

Lumberjack Days Ten Miler

It was a beautiful morning in Stillwater, calm winds and blue sky, high end yachts filled the water, it was a perfect day for a race.

I had no idea what the topography of the course was going to be like so when we boarded the bus to start I paid careful attention to the route we took... we went uphill and then uphill some more! This was going to be a downhill race, I hoped my quads wouldn't snap before the end.

There was no great fanfare at the start, in fact I only knew the race had started because people started streaming over the start line, so I followed. For a few seconds I thought about running a comfortable pace but then decided to just go and run it. But for one training run a week before the race I hadn't gone ten miles since the National Marathon in March, so I was interested to see what I could do. My goal was to run a 7:40 pace, as I'll need to maintain this pace over 26.2 to qualify for Boston.

I did it, 7:40 pace 1:16:36 finish time.

The only question I had was, is this a PR? I ran a 7:40 pace in the Army Ten Miler last October so I knew I had ten seconds of wiggle room... It was a PR by 6 seconds!

Jenny also ran a great race but that's her story to tell, first born was a great cheer leader, second born ran a great kids mile and the little one made it a full 1/2 K in the toddlers race!

A great day shared with family and great friends, Brian and Jan.

13 in Wisconsin

It was thirteen miles around Lake Wapogasset yesterday. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was peaking through a thin cloud cover and we (Jenny and I) were moving at a very reasonable (slow) pace. It's the longest run Jenny and I have ever been on together and I can't wait to go on some more long runs with her soon.

Next Saturday it's the Lumberjack Days Ten Miler.

The God Who Slows Down To Run With Me!

Last night at our interval workout I ran the first of my sets alongside Alisa Harvey. You may be asking, "Who's Alisa Harvey?" Alisa is the world record holder of the indoor masters mile, and the US record holder for the masters 800 and mile outdoors, 800 and 1500 indoors. Alisa has attained a level of athletic performance that I will never come close to achieving.

So what happened last night? Did I speed up so I could run with the best in the world? Not exactly, Alisa graciously slowed down to allow me to run alongside her (she headed off with some faster runners about half way through our second set). But for a few minutes I was running around the track with the best in world!

There is a another story about the best in the world slowing down to be with us. It is the story of God becoming human in Jesus. It is the story of God walking alongside us, working with us at our pace, gently guiding, encouraging and pushing us to be become more like Christ. A transcendent God, one who is wholly other, would be impossible for humanity to comprehend, or develop an intimate relationship with. So God, who is transcendent, became imminent in the person of Jesus, so humanity could experience redemption, develop an intimate relationship with God and have great hope for the present and the future.

The God who stated that no one could gaze on His face and live, the God of whom Isaiah cried, "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips... and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty" is now running alongside us as Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:6-7)

Will you acknowledge the presence of Jesus running alongside you today?

Moving to Alaska ;)

OK, I'm not really moving to Alaska, but after today's run I certainly want to! Nine miles just shouldn't be that hard. But when the temperature is 80, the dew point is 70 and the humidity is 80 it's just not much fun running a long way!

It's summer in VA and that means hot and humid. It also means that by the end of August I'll be running 20 miles in these morbid conditions in preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon. It's going to be a challenging summer of running.

What I don't know is whether my slower runs in the heat (8:42 pace today) will have a negative impact on my speed come fall.

Running Together

Last night it was interval workouts at the track. It's a great workout and hopefully I'll see the benefits of it before too long.

Before we started our intervals Jenny and I ran four laps to warm up. After the first lap was completed our 2 year old ran up to us and declared that she wanted to run with us. We slowed way down to allow her to keep up with us and taking hold of our hands the three of us ran about 200 meters before we left her with her sisters. In terms of exercise and physical results it was worthless in term of relationships and love it was priceless.

What price do you put on relationships? You can calculate this by looking at the activities or results you pursue at the expense of relationships with others. Now tell me, is it a fair trade?

A couple of weeks from now I won't remember much about last nights workout but I will never forget holding hands with our youngest child and running (very slowly) round the track with her.

JFK 50

This morning I mailed in an application to run the JFK 50 on November 22. I could feel the butterflies in stomach as I filled out the application, addressed the envelope and placed it in the mailbox. What have I done?

As I approach forty later this year I'm beginning to wonder why my midlife crisis is resulting in the JFK 50, a sports car might be more expensive but it would be a lot easier to!

I have never come close to running this distance. I've never run this far in a week let alone a day! How will I do it? The answer is simple, I will train for it, I will work on my hydration and nutrition needs and when the time comes I will be ready.

The apostle Paul tells us in Corinthians that we should enter strict training in our spiritual lives as well. There is a big difference between trying to do something and training to do something. With proper training we can accomplish far more than we ever could imagine. Yet, far too often we are satisfied with merely trying and when we fail we quit. I know too many Christians who try to pray for thirty minutes only to quit after a few days, go into training, start with much less and build up, take step down weeks to allow yourself to adjust. Yes, our spiritual training really can and should mirror our training for running.