March 4th, 4th & 6th – 3.30, 2.79 (walk) & 6.51 Runs

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

I am reporting 3 activities this time to bring myself up to speed, as it were.

But first, I’d like to talk a little bit about the ramifications of the “13.1 Euro Bumper Sticker”.

Typically, I’m not a fan of the bumper sticker. Not only because they are a $2 item, defacing a multi-thousand dollar investment, but because you are constantly displaying who you are to friends, neighbors, strangers and everyone in between. And there is no one, saying, statement, slogan or advertisement that I can say, “Yep! That’s me, 24/7!”

That is the main reason I don’t have an Ichthys (a.k.a. Jesus fish) on my car. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a BIG fan of Jesus Christ!!! I believe with all my heart that He is the Savior of the world and we are desperately in need of Him. However, if I put one on my car, then I have to live up to it… All the time and no matter what.

While I do my best and I’m OK most of the time, there are times and seasons when that moron who cuts me off on the freeway or that jerk who takes my parking spot gets the better of me. And yes, when there is open road and fewer vehicles, I have been known to push the ole Rav4 up toward 85 mph. Not only that, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” gets me pumped and when I play it (and the kids aren’t in the car), I play it loud!!!

Very unbecoming for the Child of God. Jesus does not deserve my poor representation, no matter how infrequent my bouts of misconduct may be. So I refrain.

HOWEVER, after I ran two half marathons last year, I thought, “Now I’m a runner. Even if I never strap on the Asics again, I can always call myself a runner. No one can ever take that away from me.”

I received a “13.1” bumper sticker in my goodie bag at the Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon in L.A. last year .While I proudly tacked it to my bulletin board at the office, I couldn’t bring myself to put it on the car.

Whenever I see one of these 13.1, 26.2 or even 5k stickers on the road, I think, “Ah! There’s a kindred spirit!” and then I check out the driver to see if she’s fitter than me. I don’t know why, you can never really tell when they’re zooming past you. But still there’s that half second assessment that I, and I’m sure just about every other runner does when they encounter another runner. It's equivalent to the growl and sniff Sarah does when we pass another dog on a run.

Would I be willing to subject myself to that kind of judgment and potential abasement?

Well, I wasn’t sure. But I went ahead and ordered the sticker on Amazon. When I got it, it sat in my car for about a week.

Am I that person? Am I good enough to publicly throw in my lot with that group of <1% of Americans who have crossed the finish line of the half marathon? Am I ready to proclaim my allegiance to the sisterhood of runners?

Meh…. Sure.

I may not reach my weekly goals every time. The PR may elude me again and again. I may skip the workout all together from time to time. But at the end of the day, I’m a runner and as such I should proclaim it boldly and with pride. So there it is.

I’ll keep praying about the Ichthys …

Now for the run: No, that’s not a typo, the first two were on the same day. I asked Chris to drop me off at the GBC and ran home. The usual route, but this time I wanted to push myself. Not too hard, because I wanted to be able to maintain that pace for the entire run.

It went well and I was pretty pumped when I got home! Jordan had a pretty decent week at school, so we walked the 2.79 miles to Golden Spoon and had a treat. It was great hanging out with my boy and Sarah.

The 6.51 Mile run was training for the Great Race on the 26th. It was an out and back route and the first half was at a slight incline, which is great practice for me. I started my RunKeeper and set off.

At the half mile mark, I dropped in to a Carl’s Jr. to use the bathroom. I don’t usually go potty during a run, but I was desperate for it. I didn’t stop my RunKeeper so my pace was all screwed up. I think it had me at a 21 min/mi pace. That’s always a great challenge for me.

The route wasn’t hilly, but inclines intimidate me a bit so my goal was to run it so that I could beat my pace down to a 15 min/mi average. Working from a 21 min/mi pace I knew I was going to have to really hustle to get it down.

There is an audio cue at every 5-minute interval. By the end of the run, I was down to a 12:29 min/mi pace. I was over the moon about that!!! I had to stick between an 8 and 10 min/mi pace to get it down there and I did it!!!

Praise the Lord!!! Great run!! I’ll have to get a couple more of those in before the race. I think I’m on my way. That PR is close enough to touch!