An Inner Battle and a Conquered Course!

Today I ran the Ronald McDonald 5K Course, it was an awsome and amazing run and I can't thank God enough for all the things that he gave me today.

I was debating about running today, I hadn't signed up, becuase I wasn't sure if I had trained enough, but on Friday I got to thinking about running, I soo wanted to conquer this course, I wanted to be able to run it all and say that I accomplished it! I wanted to be able to say that I completed my goal, well today I did it! :)

When I got up this morning the weather was perfect! the temp was amazing, not to hot which is what I was worried about, and so I decided that if after church this morning if it was still perfect I would go sign up. I went to sign up at 12:20 or so, and as I am walking to sign up I hear thunder, I am thinking oh boy do I really want to pay to run in a race to run a course that I am not sure I can finish in the rain? I stopped for a few minutes, thinking thru my head, nowing that I had this huge inner battle from last year, and said yup. As I signed up I was excited!!

Soon enough it started to sprinkle, so they decided to start the race a little early, the crowd was pretty small, but I started in the back. As the race started I tuned into my ipod, with nikeplus and all and took off :) I was passing a few people, but the BEST part was no one was passing me, cuase iw as in the back.. which made my mental status think I was doing great.. and for me I was.

The course is fairly hilly, the first is a downhill, My goal was to pace my self, and my moto was to run my race, the first downhill I tried to lengthen my stride out a little to get a little more out of it, but then the downhill quickly turns into a uphill, and then a flat, all before hitting mile 1.

At mile 1 my pace was 11:12, I was doing great for me! :) yay!!! At mile 1, the course goes on an uphill again, by this time, it was raining, but not like downpouring, I could hear God's thundering in the background but thankfully no lightening, and the rain was just gentle enough to run through and feel wet but not drenched. But before we even got to mile 1, we had people turning back, cutting thru the course, there are several spots on this course where i suppose you could cheat on mileage.. and there were people doing so. I was smiling on the inside and hte outside, because I was still runing, I was thinking mentally wow I am not giving up, I am not giving up on me, It's a mental game now, and I can do this!

In mile 1, there was a nice lady standing outside her house with an unbrella handing out garbage sacks to people, I didn't take one but what a thoughtful idea. During mile 1 there is a long uphill, followed by a short flat, and then a short downhill before you reach the half way point! I was soo smilling, at this point, I was jamming to my music, feeling great running and thinking I may just conquer this course! I saw a few more people walk off the course, which encouraged me even more to keep on running, I would pass a few people and my goal became to not let them pass me back.. I accomplished all of that! :)

At the halfway point there is a lonnnng uphill, My music is jamming and I am listening to I run for Life by Melissa Etheridge, I love this song, it's one of my favorite songs lately, its a song about her running for life, about how she is past her brest cancer and now she runs for her self, friends and family, for life.. I think of it so much with my friends, I like to think I run for people who can't, I think of one of my friends going thru cancer right now and how maybe she can't physically run right now, but I can for her, and it motivates me to run harder.

I get to mile 2, it's all good! It's a flat run for a while, I'm tired, but I am smiling, I am hot and thinking I wish it would rain a little more as it's let up a little bit, and within seconds it starts to rain again, Thanks God! I get to the hospital and I am almost there, It's a short downhill followed by a long uphill, but I can do it! I feel like I can run for hours right now, Mentally I am strong, I feel like everything is going right everything is postivie, everything is way better than i could ever have imagined. As I reach the Ronald McDonald House, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face! I am almost there, this course is almost conquered! I finish tear off my number chat with the people infront of me, I am just super psyched I did it!

I did it, with more self esteem than I have ever had in my life, I put my inner battle I had with this course on the line and conquered it!, Instead of tearing my self down because someone passed me I challneged my self and encouraged myhself when I saw I could pass someone or keept going. Instead of saying I wasn't good enough or I wasn't going to make it, I was thinking this course is conquered, and I am God's child, and he's provided an awsome body for me to run with..

I can't thank God enough for today, for all that he has shown me over the past year, all that he has changed in me, physically, mentally and spirtually, its soo cool to see me grow in a year :) I thank God for holding out his powerful rain, lightening and thunder till just after I got done running :) The race was wonderful, for the first 5K of the season, I'll take it!