Running

In trying to fit back into last-year's clothes I decided to take up running. I am not a runner and it has not gone all that peachy. In fact, most days that I run I do it "kicking and screaming." But I have found something to motivate me. A 5k.

It's an interesting thing how much more focused and motivated you can get when you have a goal in mind. In fact, the sweetest thing about this 5k is that it is for a good cause--a family is raising $ for financial assistance for children who attend Learning Dynamics Pre-school in Orem. Their young son attended there for one year before he died unexpectedly last summer.

So, I'm doubly motivated now and have talked several of my children into running it with me. (The rest of them will do the "family walk.")

I think one of the hardest things for me has been just putting that first foot on the treadmill. I don't know why it has been such a struggle. I'm wondering if I am the only one who feels this way and wonder if every other runner is yelling "Yahoo I get to do my running again today!"??

One of the things I've learned from running is to push through that first mile.

On one occasion I had finally (don't laugh) reached .5 mile and got a terrific side ache. I tried to breathe through it but this time it was just not letting up much. I kept going, thinking that I might need to stop. The problem with stopping is that I would probably not get back to finishing.

So, I pushed through. But, a strange thing happened when I finally hit 1 mile. Not only did I not have a side ache, I was energized! I had gone from not thinking I could do much more, to finishing that day's goal in record time. Go figure.

I feel like the last 7 months (almost 8) we've been running the race of our lives. Either that or we are in some intense training. Our goal has been to get Talitha better. We know that the only reason we have been able to get through it this far is with your faith and prayers and strength from the Lord.

It's an interesting thing how much more focused and motivated you become when you feel out of control and some tragedy reminds you how you need His help even more intensely.

Even on days we feel aches and pains from it all, we look at our little trooper and feel courage.

We cannot let her down, so we keep running. We cannot let Him down, so we keep running.