What Am I Thinking?!

Valentine’s has long come and gone, February is almost over, and I am nearly ill with my lack of progress.  Of course it doesn’t help that I’ve been less than stellar with both my training and my eating habits.  I think maybe I’m having a mid-life crisis (a.k.a. pity party) as nothing seems to feel right these days.  And right now, I’m of the opinion that it’s too late for me to do any of my “Bucket List” items – I’m too old, too overweight, and too unmotivated to do anything different.  What do I do with that?

So, I decided to sign up to run the Spokane Marathon on Sunday, October 11^th.  Truly, I am a nut job – I’m aware of it – thought you all might as well be too!  This gives me 8 months to pull it together and make something happen.  By the way, this race has “several challenging hills along the way” with one called “Doomsday Hill” at the 22 mile mark ... that just seems like a sick joke to me.  Maybe I better look at doing a different race; this one isn’t even a Boston qualifier! 

In reality, I’m not worried about “qualifying for Boston” right now.  I just want to get one full marathon completed and see what it’s like and how I do.  Then maybe I can look at doing a race that would “get me to the big time” or in my case, “get me a check mark on my bucket list” – which is to run the Boston Marathon. 

If I can accomplish this goal – running a full marathon (not necessarily Boston) – then perhaps I will feel confident enough to undertake some other things that I’ve been afraid to try.  Fear has always been a powerful de-motivator for me … and the list of my fears is long and complicated – I’ll not get into that whole thing here; but suffice it to say, I need to get some courage (think of the cowardly lion).

How’s that for a prayer request?  Please, if/when you think of me, pray for courage and perseverance for this journey; and not just for the physical one (exercise and eating), but also for my spiritual journey (specifically my relationship to CHRIST and the path HE currently has me on).  All of this is – and has been – very hard for me … much harder than when I pressed on before to run the half-marathon.  As I said at the start, so far it’s not been a great experience:  I’m emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually drained.

I’ll leave you with this, my quote of the week by Mary Anne Radmacher:  “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow’”.

Lori <◦})><

Sharing life ... sharing Christ