2:26:18

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

We did it! My God and I completed our first marathon together this Sunday, February 18th, 2007. It was an awesome experiment in my strength in will and faith in God. As you read, 2 months ago I was asked to run a half marathon. Now I have been running on and off for the past 9 months. But in those 9 months I ran only 2 miles maybe once per week…and that is stretching it a little, and never 3 miles at one time. So, I was asked to run the 2 months ago and started training for the half marathon which is 13.1 miles. I started running maybe 3 times per week on average 3 to 4 miles per run for training. On the weekends I would run every week a little further. I started with a 5 mile run, then the next week I went to a 6 mile run, and then I ran for an hour and a half with 3 minute walk breaks every 20 minutes, finally ending my long runs with a 10 mile run 2 weeks before the half. Well, yesterday I did the Austin Half Marathon in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 18 seconds. A thing I am very proud of donig with only 2 months of preparation.
Around the 9 mile mark the pain kicked in. It was very tough and my pastor is absolutely right, you really don’t pray that much until you are stretching yourself to the point where you have to rely on faith alone. It is amazing the amount of prayer time I got to have yesterday with God from mile 9 to 12.5. It is also amazing the things you start to think about and remember after awhile. How your mind wanders on those long runs. Things that pissed you off come up and give you extra strength to push thru the pain. How He uses everything is amazing to me.