Day 17 marked the kids' first day of school. We had no problems getting everyone up and ready. The excitement of the first day and the pre-week planning all made it a smooth morning. My reading was one of my favorite passages in Matthew, which tells of Jesus explaining why he uses parables to speak to the people. He explains that knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to some and not others. Many people can see and hear, but cannot perceive or understand. The more we dig for knowledge, the more God rewards us with understanding. It is music to my research ears.
I had already determined that I was going to do a practice half marathon today, so there was no use in procrastinating. The challenging thing was deciding how to hydrate and fuel during the run. In a race all of that is taken care of for you. There are water and food stations and you just throw the trash on the ground when you're done. Here, I would have to pay a fine for littering and I doubted that there would be any little water stations along the way. I brought a bottle of water, a bottle of chocolate milk, my phone and my house key. What a pain to carry that for the day.
The first two miles were all hills. I determined to hydrate every two miles and drink the milk at the half way point. I did well switching my running and walking and was keeping my 15 minute per mile pace. So long as I'm under 16 minute miles, I should be able to complete the marathon. My goal is to run a 15 minute per mile half in Salem, a 14 minute per mile half in December and a 13 minute per mile in January. By mile five I was tired and hungry. I drank the chocolate milk, which was - sad to say - warmer than I had hoped. By the half way point, I had a lot of energy and was able to run my fastest mile yet.
God's word saids that if you drink of my water, you will never thirst. I was claiming that promise because by mile 9, I was out of water, and out of gas. I regretted not bringing some fruit snacks with me. I was still ahead of my time, by a minute or two, but knew that I still had 4 miles to go and it was all in the sun. I began to think of who I knew along the way to knock on their door to refill, but no one was home. I stopped listening to the music and just started walking and praying. It was a nice welcome break. By the time I hit the 11 mile mark I was refueled, not with water or sustinance, but with adrenaline. I also took a detour into a shaded road, and began my walk/run pattern again. And a half hour later I was home - 43 minutes faster than my half marathon time in Disney. Success!!
I managed to pick up a pebble or two along the way in my shoe, and my feet were really sore. I recall a friend telling me that the best thing to do was get into cold water to reduce the inflammation from the run. Since a cold bath did not seem appealing, I just kicked off my sneakers and socks and jumped in the pool. What most people don't realize is that until that moment, I have never been in my pool. A few years ago, I had been swimming in my parent's pool, and as I climbed out the ladder, I broke it. My dad in his attempt to make me feel better said that the ladder was over twenty years old, which it was, but he had climbed in and out for over two decades with no problem. I haven't been swimming since, even in my own pool, because I don't want to repeat the same thing. But at that moment, I didn't care. The water was refreshing and I stretched and relaxed in the knowledge that I could complete the half marathon in a few weeks.
I managed to shower and headed to the kids' school to find out how their first day went. My kids are ones that readily volunteer information, I have to coax it out of them with carefully crafted questions. They were especially talkative today as we headed to my parents town to have dinner with them. It was a fun day and by evening, we were all ready for sleep.
Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Matthew 13:16
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