run

Top 10 hardest things I have ever had to do.
Disney Princess Half Marathon.  I know it sounds all cute, and there may or may not have been Disney princesses and characters every mile or so cheering you on and ready to take a picture with you...and grown MEN wearing tutus and wings dressed up as fairies because their wives made them...but I'm telling you, at the end of the day 13.1 miles is still a long way.  I know its's just a half, but still.  We started at EPCOT, ran down some long stretch of interstate, entered Magic Kingdom, ran around and through the castle, back down the long stretch of interstate back to EPCOT, around the ball and through the finish line. I've done it before.  I ran the Music City Marathon in Nashville 2 years ago and swore I'd never do another one ever again.  And there I was...at 4am (3am central time), in a corral A with thousands of women I didn't know--wishing I had stayed back in C and ran with Christina Rutledge.
Like I said, I've done it before so what's the big deal?  I am not a runner.  Running has always been a punishment for me. However, I started training and eventually taught myself how to love running again.  I developed this lower back pain which I thought came from tight hamstrings so I stretched extra good and kept running.  Well, Step Sing started and the pain didn't go away so I quit running.  Three weeks later and I still haven't run 50 yards and I'm getting on a plane to Orlando to run 13.1 miles.  Idiot.  I called my angel of a mother and cried and cried and complained how bad it hurt and how I was so tired of getting hurt and why me and all that good stuff dramatic girls say when they think they're the only ones experiencing the apocalypse.  "Don't run," she said.  "Just walk, or don't even race at all."  Obviously I was adopted.  Yea right I wasn't gonna just not show up.  Walk...maybe...not even race...never crossed my mind.  Not an option, crazy woman.  And as I reread what all I just typed I know I sounds super dramatic and silly talking about running, but this is the closest thing to competing or playing in a game I have come to in a LOOOONG time.
I couldn't walk.  I hobbled.  I couldn't straighten my leg.  I limped around my classroom and was constantly up and down off the floor that it took 4 minutes to get me up and down.  I slowly limped my way down the airport terminal to the last gate and sat by myself thinking how stupid I was for thinking that I could actually do this.  It wasn't until then that I realized that there was no way on God's green earth that I was going to be able to run.  So I prayed.  I didn't pray to be healed, or for God to make it stop hurting, or for Christina to feel bad for me and walk with me (well maybe once I did).  I prayed that God would save me.  I prayed that He would send down 2 angels to pick me up and carry me 13.1 miles.  From EPCOT to Magic Kingdom and back.  You know what he said...start stretching.  So I did.  I stretched and heated and prayed consistently for 2 days before I ran.  I wasn't ever nervous before the race except the morning of.  I didn't wanna not finish or have to be helicoptered out of the park or anything like that.  I started out listening to Chris Brown on Pandora and then hit a wall at about mile 8.  So I switched to Needtobreathe and God got 2 more fresh angels down there and we ran.  I ran the whole freaking race.  Of course I wanted to die and felt like I got run over by a 18 wheeler but I finished and that was all that mattered to me.
I know I'm talking about running and could totally add in some verses about perseverance and stuff like that but I'll let you look those up.  I didn't write this for that.  God is so faithful.  God is so strong.  God is so big.  I am so blessed.
I still can't walk.  I still can't straighten my leg.  I still limp and hobble and have a little swag to my step but I did what I wanted to accomplish.  I told God I couldn't do it without him and he said duh.  He showed me his grace and his mercy and his sovereignty that weekend.

Rejoice always.  I will.

Love you. Mean it.