Austin Marathon

This is my first “personal post.” I'm pretty sure that only a few close friends and family check my blog so I feel comfortable being candid. I just can’t do my race experience justice without being completely honest! So get comfy because this may be a novel!

Race day, February 14th, what a wonderful Valentine’s day! This was the first race I have ever run entirely not knowing if I was going to finish. This was also my longest race (finished at 5 hours, 11 minutes), my race farthest behind my finishing goal, my most physically uncomfortable race and honestly the BEST RACE I have ever done!!! All for the sole reason that I know the Lord gave me the strength to run it. I had such peace not having to depend on myself! So here is the back-story. I started training for this marathon August 2009 with Round Rock Fit. My entire running season was injury free! Last month we did our final long run- 23 miles of the marathon course and I felt fabulous when we finished. Jump three weeks later, which brings us to last Tuesday, five days before the race. That night my feet started hurting like gangbusters! The next morning I couldn’t put them on the floor without some pain. I was having a flare up of plantar fasciitis, which I had not had since I was carrying my pregnancy weight. I think this happened for two reasons: I had been running around my house on hard floors without shoes for about a week (what was I thinking?!?) and I had gained some weight at the end of training! I know, how is it possible to gain while running an insane amount of miles? Calories in Calories out….. and I used running as an excuse to have an unlimited calorie pass for the past 6 weeks or so. That is another story which I think I will always have an uphill battle. I am not discouraged though, I’ve recently been praying for God to give me self-control when it comes to eating and I am excited to see what is going to happen over the next few months!

Back to the saga ;-), My feet progressively felt worse as race day was approaching. By two days before the race I was hobbling around on bright red, puffy feet! Less than 24 hours before the race I had pain with each step and could barely make it across the Palmer Event Center to pick up my race bib. At first I felt very discouraged that I had put six months of training into this marathon. I kept thinking about how my sweet husband spent every Saturday morning for the past half-year at home with Ava while I did my long runs with my group. I thoroughly love my runs, but 5:00 a.m. came too often and too early…. oh how I love a warm bed on weekends!

It just so happens (funny the way things are worked out!) that I am doing a Beth Moore study at church now called “Believing God.” I highly recommend it by the way! The previous week’s study was on miracles so I decided to ask God for a miracle of my own. I trusted God for his plan for this sweet time to grow my faith. In the scheme of life running a marathon is nothing compared to the needs of so many, I know this for sure. But nonetheless, this is where I was and I knew God cared first and foremost about growing my faith through this experience, not necessarily the number of miles I could run.

Here is my jewel that I can’t believe I am about to share, it is so precious to me. As I began to pray I felt such peace and almost as if God was telling me “if you don’t get to run this race on Sunday I will run a marathon beside you someday.” I started thinking about running with my Lord in his Heaven, pain free, unable to even imagine the beauty of that race course! To think, I can sometimes scarcely take in this beautiful earth! I had a “tears of joy cry” and here I was “WIN, WIN!” I had faith that God was going to reward my trust in Him, whether it was going to be a heavenly reward or one here on earth, I didn’t know yet. This was also a light bulb moment for me in my life going back to the question “why does a good God let bad things happen?” I’ve never known how to fully answer that question. I’ve summed it up in my head to the most simple answer…. we live in a fallen world but God is fair and God IS LOVE, so he will make everything right in the end…. no more sickness, no more hurt, so many of our rewards for our trials are never seen here on earth. How wonderful then are our heavenly rewards! I can’t fathom what God has in store for us! Whoo-hoo and What Peace!

So here is my miracle day: Instead of re-writing my race day experience I’ve copied the email that I sent to my sweet friend Katie:

I just had to share this with you! So yesterday I could barely walk, no joke. The connective tissue on the bottom on my feet was crazy swollen and every step hurt. SO, I have been praying this week for God to give me a miracle for the race and HE DID!!! I was able to finish, much slower than my goal, but I could care the least about my time, I feel just as blessed as if I would have won! I had honestly planned just to go start the race and by the way I was walking yesterday I hoped to make it to mile one! God is good! And what I specifically love about this miracle is that I was definitely not "pain free" during the race but I was able to run... I would take a step and think "is this my last step?" and God would give me 20 more... I'd take another step and think the same thing and he would give me 30 more steps!! I love the way God did this because he didn't make my pain go away, instead I had to ask and trust him for every second and that was so neat not knowing how many miles I'd go and He carried me all the way. I had muscle cramps starting at mile 13 (I've never had static cramping since my last marathon starting at mile 24) I could feel God by my side even then. I should have been freaking out at that point but instead I felt peace. I kept thinking how miracles aren't always a quick fix, but sometimes God works out his miracles through some sweat and tears all the while whispering "I'm here and I'm not leaving!" The fact that I didn't have an ounce of pain doesn't make it less of a miracle at all. This race was 0% Gina and 100% God!

(Back to the technical part of running, I think I had the crazy cramping because I broke the #1 rule of marathons: Never do anything NEW on race day. I added an extra insole to my shoes for the first time. I decided I'd rather trade some cramping and blisters in order to be able to put one foot in front of the other- it was worth it!)

All this to say, yes, this WAS the BEST race of my life. I whole heartedly believe that if I would have only been able to run for 10 minutes I would have made this same post and that 10 minutes would have been the BEST race of my life! P.S. I’m still hoping on getting my true race someday!

THANK YOU Sarah for coming to support me! Thank you for running up that hill with me and never losing a smile! (Thanks Jenni and Lisa too, loved having you there!) The beautiful roses are from Cass, THANK you Cass for waiting hours and hours at the finish for me!

THANK YOU Mom and Dad! It was a dream come true to have you there! It's nice to know that the two people who believe in you the most are there cheering you on. (Yes, I believe parents will always hold that title)

THANK YOU Greg! Thank you not only for race day but for all my clif bar runs, my Saturday ice baths, giving up your Friday nights and Saturday mornings for six months and being proud of me no matter what! I think the world of you! Thank you baby girl for just being you! Just the sight of your sweet face gave my spirit a lift!

AND Thank you to all my family and friends (thank you Laura, Julee, Katie, Jessica, and Sarah B.!) who were praying for me the week of and race day! Rowe parents, I knew you were praying, especially at mile 24 and 25! Despite every muscle in my lower body not wanting to move I was not only able to run, but feeling such joy doing it!

THANK YOU Lord for giving me this experience. Thank you for each step that you gave to me! What a race!