Ok, ok, so that was merely the first thought of a great realization. Here is how it all went down.
Fun fact: Wolverhampton has the longitude and latitude coordinates of 52.5900° N, 2.1500° W. As such, today, June 17th, the sun rose at 4:44 a.m. and set at 9:37 p.m.; while sunshine is one of the top ten loves of my life, I do not appreciate it making an appearance before five o'clock in the morning. On the bright side (haha, get it?), this late departure of the sun has provided me with a wonderful setting for night runs.
This year, running has been a wonderful outlet for me; however, that has not always been the case. My entire childhood was predicated around the fact that if I was doing a lot of running it was probably because I did something wrong. The words, "On the line" will be forever strike into my very core. Gone are the days of running from end line to end line and surprisingly enough I have taken to the streets. Last summer, somewhat begrudgingly and at the insistence of one, Lindley Bell, I took up running in road races. There started my love-hate relationship with running; but, if I am going to be honest...it is mostly hate.
There have been times, on more than one occasion, when I have used a very feeble excuse as to why I should not go on a run: it is too cold, it is raining (those two were pretty common), I'm tired from work, etc. After a lifetime of being given workouts, schedules, and being told where to run and for how long, it has been a relief to dictate my workouts. At this point you are probably wondering where this monumental epiphany comes into play.
I have recently decided that I do not have any valid excuses why I should not be running on a daily basis. The days have gotten longer and the weather has gotten "nicer." So this evening I set off literally into the sunset and began my run. It started off all well and good (because it was all downhill) until I was on my way back and had to climb the long incline I had so joyously scampered down at the beginning. So I put my head down and with the mental encouragement from Sarah Jurewicz, "Drive your knees up, Up, UP!!!" I eventually made it to the top of the hill and thought, "Huh, well that was not so bad."
With a quarter of a mile left in my run, that is when it hit me, "How dare you curse that hill! You have two strong legs (thanks to WWB), how dare you not take on the challenge of that hill every day!" At this point I was feeling slightly ashamed of myself, which is an incredibly odd feeling at the end of a workout; yet, there I was sitting in my disgust on my front porch. I was not so much mad at myself that the run was difficult, or that I am slightly out of shape, but that there are so many people who would give anything to run. All over the world there are those who because of injury, debilitation, persecution, poverty cannot do something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other and running.
Running is an amazing thing: it is therapeutic, good for the body, and good for the soul. I am grateful that God has blessed me with the ability to run; I am not the fastest and on occasion look like Phoebe running through Central Park. I only hope that this feeling of gratitude will continue to permeate into other areas of my life. I pray that when I am unknowingly unappreciative I will be reminded of just how lucky I am.
It's actually a pretty simple concept: Run for you. Run for God. Run for those who can't.
As always...and as he continues to prove...Life is Good, and so is God!
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