My Half Marathon

I did it! Well, I have trained for three half marathons and ran two. I wasn't sure I could run the whole thing this time since I only allowed 2 1/2 months for training but I did it and ran the whole thing. My moto "slow and steady." That actually makes me laugh because that is not from my inner competitive spirit but what I had to repeatedly tell myself while I trained for this half. Not only that, I have never ran one by myself so I had that going on also, but the Lord took care of that for me. I met a sweet lady around mile 3 by the name of Sandy who works at the Wal-Mart home office. It was her first half and we were both solo. We ran the next two hours or so chatting about whatever we could think of and both felt happy to have found a running buddy. Scott ran his first half and did awesome. I think he is hooked. Jen, Michael and the kids did a great job cheering us on and making us feel supported. One of my favorites quotes is from Jaxson, let me set it up for you. It was a COLD day and the kids had been outside for a while and since I came in about 40 minutes behind Scott the kids were done. After I finished I was stretching a little and Jax so kindly said something like "can't you stretch at home?" Enough said.

For some reason this half was extra special for me. Maybe it is because I am older now or because I have two healthy children, or maybe because of the growth I have had in my spiritual walk over that last 9 months. I don't know but this race was about rejoicing in the Lord for completely healing a little asthmatic girl and being healthy enough to do such a long run. I am so blessed to have parents with such great faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that at a prayer service they presented me to the Lord with complete faith that he could heal their daughter. HE DID and He deserves all the glory for that. I am keeping myself healthy and singing along the way that the Lord gave me a healthy body. I don't know how different my life would be had that not happened. I do remember the hospital stays, the IV's, the oxygen tent, my parents counting how many times my chest rose while I laid down and the fact that I felt older than everyone by the time I could blow up a balloon. Now that I have children I can imagine what my parents felt like going through all of that. I am truly thankful for what I can do and believe He has protected my children. If you read this I hope you will rejoice with me. Just wanted to share. Here are some pictures from our race.

Here is Scott's finish - check out his face. He was hauling it in to beat a few people he had hung with along the way. Yea Scott!
Here is my finish.
I am almost finished. The lady in red behind me is Sandy.
We did it!
They found the gator! A slightly larger version that what they have but they had fun.
Here is Scott about half way I think. Here are the kids cheering on the runners. They are so cute and such good motivation!
Looks like they had fun to me. Here is Camden dancing to the music at the finish line.