My Version of a Run

Two and a half weeks ago I completed my first ever 5K!  It was an awesome experience.  My time was just over 45 minutes, 59.8 seconds.  I finished #209 of 210 runners.  I beat out an 8 year old...go me! 

I know.  Unimpressive, right?  Perhaps at first glance.  But consider this:  5 weeks before that I started a couch to 5K running program and struggled to make it through running 1 full minute.  SLowly, I've been building my strength and ability to run longer times.

Yesterday I reached the official halfway point of the program.  I ran 25 minutes out of 34 with only 2 minutes of walking in between running sections.  Here's how it played out:  Run 2 minutes, Wall 2 minutes, Run 4 minutes, Walk 2 minutes, Run 5 minutes, Walk 2 minutes, Run 6 minutes, Walk 2 minutes, Run 7 minutes, Walk 2 minutes.

Trust me, by the time I got around to that last 7 minute section I was huffing it.  I was tired, out of breath, and feeling like I couldn't make it.  But I just kept thinking about when I started and looking at my time and telling myself I could do it.  Yes, I was running slowly.  Probably really walking if you compared me to most, but I was doing it.  I wasn't quitting.  Even though that would be so easy.  I'm not getting the results yet with my weight that I was hoping for.  I still get super tired.  I am not really enjoying it as much as I think I should.

I've been feeling a bit run down lately in my regular life.  This training process is exactly what it infers. I am pushed further than I was last week.  Sometimes I feel like it's to my breaking point.  It would be easy to quit.  Support raising isn't coming along like I hoped it would.  I don't feel like I'm getting results with students as quickly as I thought I would.  I'm tired and worn out and it seems like everyone else is winning but me.  I feel like stopping because it's too hard.  But...

I don't quit.  I keep putting one foot in front of the other.  I press on.  Giving up would be worse than what I feel right now.  I am going to finish.  And in that, I will win.

One day, I will run another 5K and my time will be faster.  I might even beat out more people.  Because I will keep training and trying and getting stronger.

And one day, I will finish this race too.  I will continue to train and to try.  I will get stronger, because He is my strength. 

 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:12-14