To celebrate my 1 year anniversary let's do a little Bible study on running!
The word "run" is included in 65 verses, "running", 24 verses, "ran", 61 verses, and "runneth" 11 verses (KJV). Though some of these times are referring to running water, blood, or tears, there were plenty of amazing runners in Bible times.
Here are a few characters who you may not have known were into running:
Abraham, Eliazer, Rebekah, Laban, Rachel, Esau, Moses, Aaron, Jotham, Samuel, David, Cushi, Ahimaaz, Elijah, Gehazi, Zacchaeus, Peter, John, Philip, Rhoda, Barnabas and Paul.
I won't explain the circumstances of their runs here, so you'll just have to read and find out yourself!
Now that you know what I've been up too lately, since I obviously haven't been spending any time blogging, let's catch up on my marathons. I have completed 8 marathons in 8 states in the last year and a half. Here they are!
This was our 2nd year running this marathon, and it went really great! I set a PR of 3:49:49, and that time is still waiting to be beat.
This was an unforgettable experience. It was muddy...maybe you can notice that in the picture. At about the half way point I fell through a bridge by the side of raging Otter Creek. I just sat there for a minute and started to cry. It was a fun one. It was a three lap course around a loop and each lap was muddier and scarier than the first. I reached the end, and my watch read it was only 25 some miles! I needed my 26.2! There were a few of us who just kept going till we got what we needed to make us happy.
We had signed up for this marathon in 2018, but it was cancelled due to extreme heat. We were stuck with doing the half then, but not this year! It was a beautiful day for a long run. It was a painful one however. I had the super great idea to run a 10k race the day before, and I had been struggling with knee pain for quite some time as well. The morning of the race we drove there, and when I got out of the car I could literally barely walk. I somehow limped along and got it done. It was slow, but it happened. My knees eventually recovered thankfully.
I loved Alaska! Support for this race stopped at 4 hours, so my goal was to beat that time. It seemed like there was a lot of down hill and the lovely Mendenhall Glacier could be spotted across a lake. I heard there were bears around, but I did not have the pleasure of running into any. I was on a pretty good pace the first part of the race until I hit the wall. I managed to finish in 3:57:53. After a nap that afternoon, Mama, Bethany and I hiked up Mt. Juneau. I thought the mountains were marvelous.
Look at my halo in this picture! When we drove down to Illinois on Friday night our hopes of actually getting to run the next morning were pretty low. The forecast was for thunderstorms, but we had already signed up, so we figured we might as well pick up our packets. We enjoyed touring the expo, and I took part in the Pump N Run, a weight lifting competition combined with the races. It was great, but I was sure sore the next morning. A lot of prayers were being said, and there was no lightning in sight when the runners took off for the race! It did rain a whole lot, and we were soaked, but we all were happy! I especially enjoyed running by the Rock Island cemeteries.
The hills, the huge medals, and the pumpkin pie were the highlights of this race.
Florida is flat. It was a hot race, but the lovely palm trees provided some shade. I absolutely loved the ocean and beaches. We had a great time kayaking and biking as well. We toured the Everglades, and a new animal gained a spot in my top 5 favorites--alligators! It was hard to leave the Sunshine State.
And then there was Louisiana! This is a nice picture, except it says my finish time. We left our home in Iowa during a raging blizzard to fly down to 70 degree temps in humid LA! It was a good time to go to the home of the LSU Tigers after their football championship. We even got to see Mike the live tiger mascot. Climbing to the top of the capitol building--the tallest in the nation-- was fascinating the day after the race. So much history there.