My training is officially off to a running start! For those of you who haven’t heard about what I am training for, check it out here!
I actually began training for this half marathon back in June, and it has been a slow, sometimes painful process. But the Lord has been revealing a lot to me even through the seemingly insignificant task of training for a run! My mornings spent running are also spent in conversation with Him, and it has come to be a really sweet time that I look forward to. Granted, I still hit snooze on my alarm and fight for the motivation to get out of bed at 6:30 to hit the road, but when I finally drag my lazy self out there and start running, it is always worth it.
It is sometimes a struggle to keep my mind on the Lord when I am running. The first few minutes are easy, and I am usually thanking God for things like the strength to run, for new beginnings each morning, for cool breezes, stuff like that. Then, my body starts taking over my mind with thoughts like “you really don’t have to hit your goal today…look at you, you’re already breathing hard and you’re only on the second mile!” And then it becomes a battle…a battle between mind, body and spirit! But I find that when I am able to turn my focus back to the Lord and keep it off of my stopwatch, or my physical discomfort, I am able to keep going. The Lord has been teaching me a lot about dependency on Him lately in my life, and it is amazing how He can show up to give me understanding of a deeper dependency even in the midst of something as seemingly mundane as a morning training run.
So, as far as physical progress goes, I am up to running 6 miles in 1:02:03! I am almost halfway there, as the half-marathon is 13.1 miles. I have been encouraged by the progress I have made, but I could also use some prayer as I have been fighting through some physical injuries at the same time. My left hip has been inflamed during and after each running session, which I suspect may be a form of ITBS (iliotibial band syndrome) and my right foot has been inflamed as well. I am trying to ensure that I am getting plenty of rest days in between training days, and this has seemed to help. All of that to say, I would greatly appreciate your prayers for my physical health and healing as I continue training.
I am going to get new running shoes tomorrow (Lord willing), and I am hoping that a more stabilizing pair of shoes will help facilitate less inflammation as the training process continues.
Thank you all for partnering with me in prayer and in financial support on this! If you haven’t committed to partner with me in prayer or financially and you would like to be a part, please e-mail me at [email protected]
