Jan 29, 2012 When He speaks...listen Boston 2012

 Fear not, for I am with you;  be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you,  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

-Isiah 41:10

I am a true believer in "everything happens for a reason", and "to hear Him, all you have to do is listen".  Today's workouts fell into both of these areas.  

My workout schedule for today was 14 miles.  I wanted to run hills for all of it but my coach suggested that I split the distance and do 7 flat and 7 on hills.  So, I started my 7 mile flat run on the cold dark streets of Elmhurst.  5:30 am and not another soul in sight.  The only sound I heard was the crunch of snow under my feet accompanied by a stiff wind blowing in my face.  At this point, it really doesn't matter what the temperature is.  Living in the midwest, you understand that winter can begin as early as Thanksgiving and end the first week in April.  So any day that isn't below zero is a treasure and any patch on the prairie path that is ice free, well, that is considered a gift as well.  So I began my run heading towards the Ovaltine factory.  The path was bright with the newly fallen snow from yesterday and the soft lights from the street lamps gave a calmness to the road ahead of me.  Lots of thoughts were going through my mind, especially the service project that we worked on yesterday.  John, Ian and I joined about 50 other scouts and packed food for an organization called, Feed My Starving Children.  FMSC is a Christian Organization committed to feeding God's hungry children in body and spirit.  The work is simple.  You hand pack meals specially formulated for malnourished children.  Those meals are shipped to nearly 70 countries around the world.  It is a simple task that makes a world of difference.  In 2 hours, our group packed 57 boxes of food which contained 12,312 meals. Those meals will feed 34 kids for one year.  The total cost of feeding them these meals, $2,954.88.  At the conclusion of our shift, we prayed over the food that we had put together.  What a great feeling to work with all of these young kids and see their happy faces when they learned that because of their donation of time and effort, 34 kids in another country will be able to go to sleep with food in their stomach.  As a family we have decided to continue volunteering at this organization and look forward to meeting new people and continuing God's work of helping those in need.  

Ian and I putting meals together at FMSC.

Warm thoughts continued to fill my head as I saw another runner coming towards me.  He is what I call an "old school runner".  This 72 year old youngster runs 8 miles every.  He doesn't wear flashy dry wick shirts or run barefoot or high tech running pants.  He wears the old cotton sweats and beanie hat.  He is out there every day and he is an inspiration to everyone that sees him.  He is also one of the friendliest people on the path.  Not a day goes by when I see him and we exchange hellos.  Finished my 7.2 mile run with a 9:03 pace.  A little faster than my target pace, but I'll take it.  Changed into some dry clothes, jumped in my car and headed to the Arboretum for my 7 mile hill run.

Second 7 mile run

Pulled into the Arboretum parkinglot a little after 7 a.m. and there were cars everywhere.  Almost every car that was sitting in the lot displayed either a 26.2 or 140.1 magnet.  The sun was rising, the wind was blowing and it was time to hit the hills.  I brought my iPod with me to pass the time on my run.  Its not something that I always do, but I thought that my music might give me a boost when I needed it most.  The grounds were beautiful.  They were covered in snow and the trees had a mixture of ice and frozen bark.  They were beautiful to run under and around.  I started the run with caution as I knew there would be a lot of ice on the road.  Hit the first hill, up and over I went.  Legs felt good.  No slippage with the feet and best of all, no cars on the road.  Heading into my second hill, it started snowing.  Small flakes at first and then it really started coming down. Huge flakes were falling and blowing everywhere. I started running with my mouth open in an effort to catch some flakes, but it wasn't working too well.  As my feet were pounding the pavement under this snow shower, I felt a sense of calmness come over me.  Then, one of my favorite songs started playing on my iPod; "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me.  With the memories of my grandmother passing, fresh in my mind, this song really struck a chord.  This whole last week, I held it together.  I was so strong and then, this.  I broke down and had to stop running.  I walked off the road to the middle of this open field and sat and cried in the snow.  The snow flakes coming down served as a nice curtain for privacy and helped me to finally let go of all these feelings I have been carrying around.  I knelt down and prayed for her.  Thanked God for giving me this opportunity to work through this myself and asked for strength to carry on and go forward.  I slowly made my way back to the route unsure of what was in store for me. 

I started running again and noticed my pace was incredibly easy.  I felt like I was flying up and down the hills.  I did everything I could to hold myself back.  This was supposed to be a LSD run, not a race.  My legs were moving effortlessly.  I finished the first loop and went to the second without a thought.  Before I knew it, I was done with 7.59 miles.  I ran an 8:54 pace and that was with the stopping and praying.  I think that the good Lord was speaking to me with my music.  You see, I had my playlist on shuffle so I think He was talking to me by having "Imagine" play at that time.  I also think He has a great sense of humor because when I was on the back loop and the snow and wind kept blowing, I had "Walking On Sunshine" playing and a montage of Beach Boys songs.  

Finally I am feeling emotionally relieved and stronger.  It took a while to get there, but I am so glad that things worked out this way.  All it takes is a little faith, understanding and taking the time to listen to what He has to say.

Completed:

7.2 miles  9:03  pace

7.59 miles 8:54  pace

Total 14.61