I Survived!

I survived and completed my first marathon last Sunday! Thanks for your prayers! Sorry for the delay in an update. I was recovering, but I did not post an update because I was waiting to receive some professional pictures that were taken at the race. Unfortunately because of the large number of entrants they are still not available, but I did not want to delay any further. Plus I had a few good friends follow me around the course and they took some good pics that you are seeing here.

A cold front ended up rolling in Saturday night, and race day temp started at 51 degrees and only went down from there. I actually was very happy with the temp, but I was a little worried about the forecast of thunderstorms. The Lord decided to hold off most of the rain and I only got sprinkled on a few times, Thank You Lord!

I am very glad I chose to set the goal of finishing in 5 hours because during the last few miles my legs wanted to stop, but I wouldn't let them :-). It was a great race, I felt good throughout. The cheering fans and many other runners were good distractions to get my mind off of my aches and pains. I kept a pretty steady pace of 11:21 and finished just under my goal at 4:58!
I am not sure if this will become a regular thing for me or not but I am very glad I did it, and I am excited I can share it with all of you. I hope it encourages you to persevere in whatever is going on in your life right now.

Marathon!!!

Yep that's right I am a little wacko! I am going to be running in my first marathon this Sunday, Dec. 9! I am excited about this opportunity to really put my body to the test, and to literally 'run the race that is before me'. For those that do not know too much about marathons, a marathon is 26.2 miles (42.25K) long. I have been training for the past 4 months, and you know from my previous blog back in April that I have run a half-marathon (which led me to believe I could run a marthon, with proper training). So I think I am ready for the Dallas White Rock Marathon! I am not looking to break any records, just finish :-). My goal for the race will be to do it in under 5 hours. That's right, I will be running for 5 hrs!! Please pray!

You can also track me during the race! You can go here and sign up your email, cell phone, or pager to get updates of my time at different mile markers or one update of my finishing time. I will also post my results here with pics of the race once I recover :-).

I also wanted to apologize for still not updating you on my last week in Romania from this summer. It is on my to-do list. Also I wanted to thank all of you who prayed and sent financial gifts toward my new MacBook Pro laptop! I got it and have been enjoying getting to know the Mac world. I feel like a novice with my Mac computer which is a little odd for me since I know my way around a PC pretty well, but it has been a fun learning experience that is continuing.

Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Please pray for me as I literally run a race set before me, and please continue to pray for me as I run the race of life and ministry that the Lord has laid before me. And even though that 'cloud of witnesses' refers back to the "Hall of Faith" mentioned in chapter 11, God has placed each of you in my life as part of those witnesses that allow me to throw off everything that hinders me. Thanks for your partnership!