With training camp less than two weeks away, its time for an blog update. So here we go…
Physical: For the first time in a long time, I’ve actually been exercising. Walking every day with my pack on flat trails and in the hills around my house has been a major change. Yes, its very last minute ,but exercising is something that helps me feel prepared for training camp. This is one area that I feel the most unsure about in preparing. I’ve never been one for athletics and as training camp starts doubts plague me. Will I be able to keep up? Will everyone else be ready to run around all day? Why does everything have to be a competition? Going on walks seems to be my way of quieting those doubts. Right when I think, “wow I’m cold… I can’t do this on a cold day…”, the clouds open and the sun comes out. All I can do is thank God for his Gift. Then I get warm, and I think “how can I do this? I can’t breathe its so hot!” God sends a gentle breeze my way. I’ve never felt so in conversation with God as when I’m walking.
Financial: I am just past the half way point. I am so overcome with thankfulness to have come so far. That being said, October has been a slow month for me to fundraise. Once training camp is over I will have a little bit more than a month to raise a thousand dollars before my next deadline. I need to have $10,000 in my account in the beginning of December. Please pray for this to come in.
The things: I’ve done more shopping in the past week than I have in the past year. I can say that I am mostly prepared with things on my list for training camp but as we all know planning can only go so far. I’m sure there will always be something I forgot. Luckily, God’s providing about fifty or so new family members that will be able to help me out.
Spiritual: This connects with the walking section about but I can say that I’ve been looking for signs in everything. Sometimes I psyche myself out thinking so much and thats when I know to get quiet. Quiet and just listen. This is God’s plan and I have to remember he will provide. At times, I feel vastly unqualified. I’ve never really done a morning devotional, given my testimony all of once, and lived a life time of half believing and half acting. Now that I’m changing that and giving my all to God, I feel like its too little too late sometimes. Then I remember a saying they used to say at my church “God does call the qualified, he qualifies the called.”
Mental: This ranges “crap, training camp is coming” to “YAY, training camp is coming”. That about sums that up.
Overall I would say prepare for training camp has been a mix of excited anticipation and fearful doubt (a.k.a. hornets and butterflies). I’m looking forward to meeting my squad mates in person, trying new food, learning about the race, and growing in God. I’m not looking forward to camping for real, cold showers, and the overall awkwardness of being who I am as a person. Training camp is going to stretch me and connect me with people and God. For those last two things alone, I can’t wait.
