Saturday morning I ran my second 10K. It was my 18th race and the last one I have planned before I turn 51. It's going to work out right it looks like for the Chicago half to be my 20th race. I viewed this 10K as part of my training for the half. I did shave about 7 seconds off my last 10k. That's only two and I expect to get better as it goes along!  That's the whole thing isn't it? It's not as important where we are as where we are going. If we major too much on where we are there won't be any improvement. We'll get bogged down in today...so we have to keep looking at where we want to be.  I expect over time to get faster on my 5k, 10k, and half marathon speeds. My body should be getting in better shape all the time. I am constantly working on my diet, adding miles and trying to run faster. All of this works together (or that's the goal anyway) to improve my stamina, endurance and overall fitness.  It's no different with our spiritual man: ...

My emotions are so back and forth about the my first half marathon! I have only 5 days! Yeah! ... and Yikes! I am going to have to gut this one out! I am confident that my training thus far will get me through the race. I don't have to do anything but finish! After all I am a half a century old doing my first half marathon! It still is somewhat overwhelming just to think about now and then. Life can hand us many challenges. It's easy to be overwhelmed when situations don't go as planned or tragedy strikes. All we can do is trust that our training will help us gut it out. We know the Lord is our strength - and we can do all things through Christ and those are easy to hold on to during our everyday activities. But then when the big ones come along we must trust that we have been prepare by staying in His word. Life brings us variety. Some trials are like sprints, over with quick. Others are more like marathons where we must learn endurance, steadfastness and strength to...

My first half is now less than three weeks away! Three weeks from today I will wake up having completed my first half marathon and continue training for my next one! I cannot wait for that feeling! One thing that I am kind of sad about is that no one will be going with me. Actually my sister and nephew went down to Louisiana for my first 5K ever - then they came back in a month and my nephew ran a 5K with me. And now my family does one 5K a year for my sister who has a brain tumor (It's for the Brain Tumor Foundation). Other than that I always go alone. I don't have anyone on the sidelines cheering me on... But it's not that I really need it. I am an independent person and I will run and enjoy my successes no matter what...so it's not necessary. lol - if it was I wouldn't run at all! IF other's participation or encouragement was needed there really would not be a half marathon coming up. But you know - even though I made it unnecessary in my emotions...I s...

It really is easy to get distracted. Maybe it's just how overwhelmingly huge my goals seem from where I am living right now! I was so excited to sign up for the Chicago half that I forgot it requires a lot more training as they implement time constraints. I will have to improve my time at least just a little! And that was great the other day...but now I have to get out and run another 10-miler! I took two days off because of a slight muscle strain. So that makes it easy for me to want to scale back a little. However, I have to build at least 3 more miles and the OKC half marathon is only a month away! The last week has to be tapered off so that you are running on fresh legs. (not that my legs could ever be really fresh !) And now the blister healed...but I have an ingrown toenail.. perhaps I should scale back for this week....and... Do you see where I am going with this? There is always a reason to drop off training, to scale back or to lighten up. But it takes discipline to...