In October my wife and I ran the Dogwood 25k, her first official 25k and my first trail run with the cross. One of the best organized, most beautiful, challenging, and toughest trails runs I've ever done. Most of the hills you run up during this race are so steep that as you are going up them if you lean to far forward your nose will touch the hill, a slight exaggeration. I've only seen one runner who did not walk on a majority of these hills, and he was a beast. There are numerous creek crossings, the first couple you try your hardest to keep from getting your feet wet, but eventually you stop worrying and just plow right through.
I didn't get close enough to the start line because of the crowd so once the race started I had to carefully weave my way through the crowd to get into a good spot and pace. Now, all of the races up until this point I only had to worry about being in the way at the race start. But on a trail run, the path is much more narrow and I had to be very careful that I didn't smack anyone with the cross. No one came right out and expressed that I was in their way or that I shouldn't be there. However, some of the other runner's made a few comments in a joking manner, but you could tell they weren't the happiest that I was there. Someone made the comment that I need to put a neon flag on the end of the cross, several other runners made comments about how I need to be careful or else I might hit someone. The entire run if a path was too narrow and a runner was close behind me I would step off to the side to let them ahead or if possible I would run off the path to allow them plenty of room on the path. This got me to thinking. There are a lot of people who are grateful of the work of the cross, but there are a lot of people ashamed of the cross, or who think the cross gets in the way of their day to day life. This is an increasing issue in today's society, where anytime a Christian says something it is viewed as judgmental, hypocritical, etc. We have become afraid to express the teachings of the Bible because we don't want people to become angry with us. Or there are those who couldn't care less, and go about bashing people with their metaphorical cross, causing issues and negative impressions of Christians. It is not our place to judge others, there is one true judge and we will all stand before Him one day. With the little time we have on this earth we need to love all of those around us just like Jesus loved. Jesus didn't go around telling everyone what they are doing wrong and condemn them to hell, He loved them, and died for every single person. So why should we be ashamed to speak of the cross and about God!
I have run this race before so I was somewhat familiar with how my legs would feel. But because of the extra weight of the cross, with each hill I went up my legs grew weaker and weaker from the added weight of the cross. The legs became heavier and heavier, making it harder and harder to get up each hill. As I walked up those hill, with my free hand I would push off of my thigh to try and keep myself going.
My wife ran the race with one of her best friends and they did an awesome job.
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