I'm Only Half Crazy:My Half Marathon Adventure Part 1

Last year at about this time I traveled to the Adirondacks to watch my friend Anna run her first marathon, the Adirondack Marathon Distance Festival .  The marathon and the half marathon are run on the same course and as I watched runners racing towards the finish, I saw a number of half marathoners.  I was struck by how many of them had my build and ran at about my speed. Watching them, I thought "I could do that" and so an idea was planted.

I'm not a speedy runner. In fact my run is more of a plod…sprinkled with bouts of walking in between. I don't necessarily enjoy running as much as I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel after I've run. And to keep me motivated to run, I try to have a race scheduled for which I have to train.  When I returned from the Adirondacks I was training for the annual Turkey Trot 5K held on each Thanksgiving Day.  After that, winter came and I put my running shoes away for the season. With sub-zero wind chills and ice covered streets, no sense of accomplishment is worth frostbite or a broken hip.  I spent much of my winter sitting under a blanket in my chair close to the heating vent.

Still, under the warmth of heavy blankets, watered by numerous cups of hot tea, that seed of an idea of a half-marathon began germinating. I started looking in to different races, the Pittsburgh Half Marathon being one of them. As a Pittsburgh native, this race appealed to me for many reasons.  The race route snakes its way across many of the city’s bridges, offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel across them without dodging traffic!

But the Pittsburgh race is in early May requiring winter training – not practical for me. Many other races I looked at didn’t fit my schedule, either.  Spring races require winter training.  Summer races mean I’d be training and racing in the hottest weather.  Winter races are held in warmer climes requiring larger travel expenses and extra vacation days.  A fall race, though requiring training in the hot summer, seemed the best fit. And what better place to spend a fall weekend than in the Adirondacks?

So on Sunday, September 27,  I will be running 13.1 miles around Schroon Lake, in my first ever half-marathon.  I started serious training around July 4^th during which time, God has taught me much. In instances in the Bible, the life of a Christian is compared to running a race. I can now relate more intimately to these examples. Over the next fourteen days I plan to post some of what the Spirit has shown me. 

Until now, I haven’t told many people about my race. Saying “Oh, did I tell you I’m running the Adirondack Half Marathon?” did not sound natural coming from my mouth.  I’m more likely to discuss the Marathon candy bar than a road race, and I’m more knowledgeable about the candy bar, as well!

Still, one of the things God has been teaching me is that I need to enlist more prayer support for certain things.  To that end, I am asking that you all would pray for me for my race.  I have some specific requests here:

1.   Pray that I finish!  If I ran the first mile in under 4 minutes but didn’t finish the race, it would all be for nothing.
2. (OK, this request is pure pride, I confess) They close the road to vehicles until 2:30 pm (or 4-1/2 hours after the half marathon begins), at which time they reopen the road.  Pray that I finish the race before they reopen the roads. Though I think I’ll be finished by then, I’m not sure.  I’m a slow runner and this is a hilly course.  It’s hard enough on the ego to finish at the back of the pack, if not last; but to be running while cars are driving by, seeing people check their watches and mouth the words “is someone still out there??”…  It’s embarrassing. 
3. (This one’s a stretch goal) If all goes well, if conditions are right – good weather, I eat right, I dress right, I feel right, I run the course right - I guess what I’m saying here is if conditions are perfect) I could finish in under 3-1/2 hours. Still slow, but acceptable for my dignity. Pray that I finish well.
4. Finally, pray that I not be so concerned with results, keep my pride in check and just enjoy the experience.

“…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” Hebrews 12:1d

Why It's Important to Check and Double Check a Map

This is dedicated to my friend, Mindy.  Mindy is a godly Christian woman, wife, mother, homemaker, homeschooler AND Occupational Therapist, to name a few of her roles.  Along with all these responsibilities, she has a strong sense of adventure and an amazing ability to not only accept the quirky missteps of life but to enjoy them.  I appreciate this quality of hers and want to emulate it.  Today, I had the opportunity to do so.  I respectfully call this a “Mindy Moment”.

Today is officially Day 1 of my Acadia National Park vacation.  One of my goals for this trip was to get in a lot of hiking.  Trails are rated Easy, Moderate, Strenuous and Ladder (which means there are portions of the trail where you have to cling to climb iron ladders.   Of course these are relative terms; one man’s moderate is another man’s strenuous.

There is a Ranger-led hike tomorrow that I would like to try, but it’s rated Strenuous, so I wasn’t sure I could keep up.  Because I’m somewhat active, I figured I could handle Moderate, no matter what level of Moderate it might be.   It would just be a matter of how well I felt after tackling a Moderate trail, whether I would try the Strenuous hike tomorrow.

I was a responsible hiker.  I carried not one, but two bottles of water and trail mix.  I had sunscreen, bug spray, a hat.  I wore good hiking boots and packed extra socks.  I even had a cool compass/whistle thing (Mindy has a compass/whistle thing, but her’s is way cooler).  AND I purchased a trail map at the visitors’ center, complete with a listing of all the trails, their level of difficulty rating, distance, topography, etc.

I reviewed the map and chose a Moderate trail – the Schiff Trail.  And then I set off.  This trail was pretty much nothing but granite steps up the side of Dorr Mountain, the second highest mountain in the park.  It was definitely taxing and I had to take numerous breaks.   Since this wasn’t a loop trail, to get back to my car I’d either have to connect with one of the other trails ahead or return the way I’d come.  Consulting my map, I could see the shortest way back would be to take Emery Path, a Strenuous rated trail.  I had thought that if I did well on the Moderate trail, I could try the Emery Path to see how strenuous Strenuous was.  Since I was having such difficulty with this path, I was rethinking this plan.

There were a number of times when I thought of turning back.  I wasn’t worn out…yet; but I knew I could find myself overly tired before I turned around and it could be a problem getting myself all the way back to my car.

Still, I pressed on.  I wanted to complete what I started.  Where would Jacob have been had he given up when wrestling with God?  He would have missed out on God’s blessing.  What would have happened had Hannah quit praying for a child?  Because she pressed on she was given Samuel.  I was going to finish this Moderate hike.  I would conquer…and then collapse back in camp!

When I got to the end of the Schiff trail, there was a way sign pointing to the Strenuous Emery Path.  There was also a sign pointing back the way I had just come only it didn’t say Schiff Trail.  It said Kurt Diedrich’s Climb, a Strenuous Trail. 

Though I’d wanted to try one of the more difficult trails, I had not planned on doing so today.  I’d walked in to it (literally) unaware and not at my own timing.  God does things like that.  He’s put me on a difficult life trail, not one I’d have chosen for myself.  If I had known when I started how difficult it would be, I might have turned back long ago or never even started.  But He knows the path He’s chosen for me and He sent His Son, Jesus to walk the same paths before me, blazing trails and leaving way signs along the way.  In fact, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, His willingness to live life as a man and die a painful, sacrificial death, my omnipresent Father is there leading me – beside still waters, through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and up steep granite Strenuous Moderate mountain trails.

Tomorrow, barring incredibly sore muscles, I plan on taking that Ranger-led Strenuous hike.  And I plan on continuing on the life path my heavenly Father has chosen for me.  And on any future hikes this vacation, I will be carefully reading the Trail maps!

 

 

Peaceful Easy Feeling

There are thousands of books, probably millions of articles and interviews written on how to handle the onslaught of responsibilities and activities and tasks we have taken on.  How to multitask, how to prioritize, how to have it all.

God says it in 8 words:

"Be still and know that I am God."
                                    Psalm 46:10

I can't add anything to that.