Indianapolis Half Marathon

So we survived. Weeks of training (for me.. for Dan it was more like 5 runs lol) finally paid off. One of my good friends, Val, mentioned to me a while back to start doing more interval runs during my shorter runs to bring my time down on my long runs- and it definitely worked! The goal for our last half was just to finish; to not pass out on the side or get picked up my the car that picked up the people who were running too slow. This year we hoped to break 2:15. The morning was freeezzing, and we didn't get to the start until a little after 7:30 (when the race started!) and had to jump the fence, but we were with Brittany who has run this half before and she assured us it was ok! I think the best part was when Elliot, Brittany's brother, started screaming "water, water!" about 10 seconds into the race lol

Because we jumped the fence.. we ended up with the fast people, so that definitely made us start out faster than we normally do. We trained to do our long runs in 9:45/ 9:30 pace, and we started out around 9:08. Well, when we got to the first mile, our time was off. My watch said it only took us around 9:15 to do the first mile, but according to the race time it took us 10 minutes. I didn't think too much of it until we got to mile 6 and I checked my watch and it thought we had run 6.75 miles when we really had only run 6! This was not good- because it meant we were running slower than we thought we were! Such a bummer. So, we picked up the pace! My hamstrings were killing me by mile 9, but we managed to keep a steady pace to the finish getting 2:14! The best part about it was that I learned I could actually push myself during our race. Hopefully this was good training for the full 26.2 in a couple months!! Overall though, it was a great weekend of seeing the fam and hanging out with friends :) My mom and dad drove in from Ohio and Jon and Holly came and cheered us on! It was so fun for them to be there, and we got to hang out with them which was great. Here are some pictures!!

On side note, last week was such a great wake up call spiritually for me. The past couple weeks before the 6th grade sleepover were really exhausting. I was prepping for the sleepover and had just gotten back from Louisville and had to write two papers! We had a good talk in Bible Study about what is our "sun" (basically the sun is difficult things that God allows in your life that can cause you to produce fruit.. or cause you to wither) and my sun is busyness. Every time life gets busy my time in the Word gets less and less and I get nastier and nastier. I'm going through Philippians right now and last Thursday read Philippians 3:

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. "

I bolded a couple words that really stood out to me to me in this verse because I can't say right now that I am really straining toward holiness- that I am pressing to make time in the Word and allow God to transform my life. I have more of an attitude of "hopefully if I have time I can pray and read today." So, starting tomorrow I hope to wake up early and spend time in the Word. To go into the day with a renewed mind that I am being perfected in holiness through every little happening during my day. So I won't get worn down by the mundane things in life such as cleaning, dishes, and laundry. CS Lewis once said:

"The thing is to rely on God... Meanwhile, the trouble is that relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing has yet been done."

Daily, I have to recommit my life to God. Daily, I have to understand that life is busy and I have to fight for time in the Word. Daily, I need to seek and ask for God to be the all sufficient One in my life.