5 Miles of Thought.

Saturday was the Women's Run. It's only a 5 miler (no prob for people like Alina or Jarad).

But for others, 5 miles gives you lots of time to think while you run. I was running a little bit late, getting into Anchorage, and as I changed my shoes at the car, I felt the tiniest little rock in my shoe. But I ignored it, because I was late, and still needed to get in the long line for the bathrooms before staging at the start line. Then, I just forgot about it... till mile 3. That's when I felt the unmistakable start of a blister, in the spot where I knew there was a rock. Just a tiny little thing. How could it cause so much pain? This may sound silly, but in my head, as I'm running, I'm likening this little rock to sin. How many times do we, in our everyday life, think: "oh, there's just a few bad word in that movie", or "I'll just go over the speed limit a little bit, I'm running late". "The clerk forgot to charge me for that soda, but I don't want to drag all the kids back in there again." Nobody will ever know. Just this one little thing. How many 'little rocks' are we carrying around in our shoes? We think, oh, I'll take care of it later, and then we forget about it, till we're half way through the race, and let me tell you, that's the last place you want to be when you realize you've neglected to take care of the little things. The advisary is very good at making things seem like its no big deal. But trust me, I felt that blister with every step I ran those last 2 miles, and it caused me to almost say "oh, I'll just walk for a little while, nobody will know". But I didn't, because someone would know. And it is that same person who makes up for what we lack. He is able to carry us those last few miles, when the pain is too much for us to bare...

Anyways, these are the little things that come to my head as I'm running the race. Just think of the inspiration I'll get during the half marathon! (I'll have to work up to that one:) Oh, as a side note, I shaved 12 minutes off my time from my run last year. Yeah me!