Almost a year behind posting.. Rock the Parkway 13.1 April 2013

The first part of this post is going to be me bragging on my wonderful wife! Right before I ran the half marathon I rode my bike alongside my wife as she ran her first official half marathon. We had a friend drive us 13.1 miles away from our house and drop us off. It was a hilly, hot, and windy day, and she suffered from some knee and foot problems. But she dominated her first official half marathon.

Rock The Parkway Half Marathon

My mom, my wife, my puppy, and I all drove up to Kansas City for me to run the half with the cross. The best part of this race was before the race. I had to rush down to packet pick up so I had my mom carry the cross down to the start line for me. My mom is one of the most supportive mothers that God ever blessed a kid with, but outgoing is something I would not categorize her as. So for my mom to carry the cross for me was a big deal. She said she could feel everyones eyes starring at her as she walked with it. I'm hoping for the book to get her to write something up for me ;)

The lesson I want you to learn from this race is the knowing when God will provide and when we must do things ourselves. It is hard to balance out trying to do everything yourself and not leaning on God or leaning so much and God that you don't do anything. I have a bad habit of not properly training for my races. Whether that's because I get too busy with work, the weather is too cold, or I'm just too lazy. When you see me standing at the start line of a race you can typically assume I haven't ran for a few weeks or that I barely trained for this event. Some people go through life expecting God to open all the doors and that what ever happens.. happens. Other's go through life controlling everything they possibly can because they feel helpless if they don't. God has blessed me with the gift of running and through training I have been able to run ultra events and because of my strength I am able to carry the cross. Now, God gave me this talent and with out Him I would not be here or be able to run. However, if I never trained would I be able to run 100 miles? I can try to do these things with out training but it makes me more susceptible to injury. In everything that I do I give God the glory, without God I could not run that many miles while carrying the cross. However, this does not mean that I am not supposed to train and do things myself. So, as we go through life we should not expect God to do everything for us and wait for doors to open, we should go through life working hard and listening closely to Him so that we know which door to go through when a door does open(Not every door that opens is of God). 

The half marathon was tough, you would think that after I had ran a marathon with the cross, running half the distance would be easier... but that is not the case, especially if you don't train properly. Around six miles into the race I started struggling with some muscle cramps. I talked with lots of different people and listened to their stories and I shared mine. One guy passing me said, "I don't think the Bible meant it literally", referring to the scripture where Jesus says take up your cross and follow me.  

Overall, it was a great race, and when I was finished we drove all the way to arizona for our cousin's wedding.