Before I begin writing this blog, I need to give mega props to the big man upstairs, my Lord, my Savior, my Healer, my Comforter, my Redeemer, the Tres en Uno, Padre, Dios, el Unico, the Alpha and Omega, Creator, etc. Thanks be to God! If it wasn't for the Sovereign King who reigns on high and his grace and mercy and love, I wouldn't be able to type this right now!
At 8am this morning, SoHee, Marc, Nancy, and I started off on a journey through the lush, luxury surroundings of Highland Park as we paced ourselves through the North Shore 1/2 Marathon. Was it 13.1 miles of torture? Some miles were definitely harder than others:) For your reading pleasure, a recap of the 3 hours of cardio is to follow...
Marc, SoHee, and I managed to start together and kept up with each other for about 7 blocks. Then speedy Marc decided to continue his pace and Slow-Hee and Slow-Ro (new nicknames for me and SoHee) decided to remain at our slow but steady pace. At about mile 1.5 we encountered the first hill. Not bad. It was a gradual increase so all we had to do was push forward, keeping the same pace.
At about mile 3, we hit our first water station and then headed onto a nice non-asphalt, heavily shaded trail (parallel to the train tracks) until we reached mile 4. During our time on the trail, SoHee and I managed to speak out a couple of worship tunes to keep our minds off of the humidity and heat. The Lord provided several moments of relief as he directed some gusts of wind over our perspiring bodies.
During miles 4-8 we must have picked up 2 water bottles from every water station which was placed almost at every mile from 4 until the end. One bottle was used to shower and stay cool where as the other was carried and used as a thirst quencher. After drinking at least a gallon of water during the race, I was surprised that I didn't need to pee like a banshee! I guess that only means I was sweating like a banshee instead:) So far we had kept running with a quick stretch at mile 4. Then when we arrived at mile 8, we walked about a block before heading towards "the hill."
Since we are from the Midwest, we usually don't see many hills. And probably what we consider a "hill" is what someone in San Franciso would call "nothing." As we got to mile 8.6, a lady sitting on a lawn chair began cheering us on and telling us to enjoy the way down the hill. She chuckled when I asked her if the hill that we were going to be jogging down would be just as steep of a climb going up. She confirmed that it was going to be a doosey:) On the ground at the start of the decent was a spray painted happy face. The best part of the decent was the fact that we were staring at Lake Michigan the whole way down. Reaching the bottom of the hill with no problems, we saw the road curve to the left and then right when we turned, saw the smiley face with a big frown. For the next block, we were on a steep climb. Good thing it didn't last for too long:)
Several times during our run, we were called to pray for our fellow runners like Nancy and Marc. It felt really good to know that we were being prayed for as well and helped us keep strong. We were so happy to reach mile 10 and it only took one foot step past that mile marker to have gone as far as SoHee and I have ever ran in our lives. Our adventure was hardly over. We did manage to see something very typical of "front running" marathon athletes.
After passing mile 10, a volunteer on a bike who had been encouraging us for most of the race came by to tell us to keep our pace or the old man was going to pass us. We really didn't care who was going to pass us. I had some blisters developing, a weak right ankle, and SoHee was cramping up! I was running a little ahead of SoHee just past mile 11 when I noticed over my right shoulder that SoHee wasn't the one huffing and puffing near me. It was the old man! And as he passed me up, I looked at him and noticed he did not make a pit stop at the port-o-potty:( And being down-wind from him at this point in time wasn't a great strategy. Needless to say, SoHee and I dramatically decreased our pace and increased the distance between us and him.
At mile 12, we ran into an issue with the directional cones disappearing. At one point we had to choose whether to turn right or left down a street. I figured we would go left and for about 500ft, ran in the wrong direction until a car passed by and told us to turn around. My lungs immediately shut down, my face turned pale, and my rhythm was beginning to fall apart. I immediately called upon the mighty, mighty most high for an intervention. Greatly, he delivered and got me through the last mile. I couldn't believe that I even took the 50 yard dash at then end like a 50 yard dash.
Praise God for his presence during this race! It was definitely bearable, knowing that God's strength was sustaining us and fueling us to endure it to the very end:)
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