top ten

here are the top ten reasons why i should not, for any reason, run long distances or races of any kind:

10. i have heavy bones. not easy to carry around for miles on end.
9. the idea of a "runner's high" is completely lost on me. i have, however, experienced several water break highs and walking break highs.
8. these things typically start before the sun comes up.
7. i find gu disgusting. just seeing used packages laying on the ground makes my gag reflex set in.
6. the "optimal" running gear involves a LOT of spandex. no thanks.
5. hills make me break out.
4. there is a greater than 50% chance of my toenails turning black and falling off due to the constant pavement pounding.
3. summers are too hot; winters too cold.
2. i never know which side of the road is the correct side to be on and am so over "elite runners" snubbing my ignorance.

1. runner's trots. need i say more?

and the one and only reason i will continue to run and sign up for these events that push me physically, mentally, spiritually and in every other way possible...

let me just tell you... i love these crazy liz-adies. never ever ever ever would i ever think i would want to be apart of a freaking athleticly-based anything, but here i am, two halfsies in, and it is ALL because of them.

i love the fact that we HAVE to train and there's no way we're doing it alone, so we keep each other accountable, adjust schedules as needed, and make the time. we therefore find ourselves with hours on end to catch up and untangle the webs our lives get into simply by running and talking it out. training with these precious friends of mine makes me better. period paragraph.

so after an hour delay... wind... sweat... up hills, down hills... bright spots of PETIKEI and others waving along the route... a little tik tok and a lot of serious prayer... we ALL crossed that finish line on sunday morning. we did it and we did it together.

there were definitely some times over the past three months that i would have rather watched the food network from 9am saturday to 9pm sunday and skipped a few of those dreadful, never-ending town lake expeditions. or skip a run after work because i wanted to go to happy hour without being a sweaty, hot mess. or told the girls, "you go ahead and do it this time; i'll just be the loudest cheerleader for you at the finish line!" it would have been really easy to do that.

but i just flat would have missed out.

donald miller wrote a book last year called "a million miles in a thousand years." i would be shocked if i haven't mentioned it before now, because this book has changed how i view every aspect of my life. the book essentially tells us that our lives are supposed to look like movies that we'd like to sit down and watch, not a boring, monotonous, anti-climatic, waste of time. one of his major bullet points is to purposefully create "inciting incidences" to make your story what God designed it to be. he says "...humans naturally seek comfort and stability. without an inciting incident that disrupts their comfort, they won't enter into a story. they have to get fired from their job or be forced to sign up for a marathon. a ring has to be purchased. a home has to be sold. the character has to jump into the story, into the discomfort and the fear, otherwise the story will never happen."

the word picture of our lives being a series of stories, woven together with ups and downs and memorable situations and people we'd never know or places we'd never go if we hadn't been intentional in making sure we pushed ourselves gets me all kinds of warm and mushy inside.

so, in conclusion: i had a great 3M halfsie with my girls and can't wait to do it again next year. oh and i hate this but two of us didn't make the picture above and that would be amy "powerhouse" chapman and little kitchen! how we didn't get a full group pic, i'll never know. i also just came across this quote from the book that you must get (like now) and it was one of my favorites:

"if i have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, enjoy your place in my story. the beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as i have created you."

preach it, donald. xoxo, sem