By the grace of God, IT IS FINISHED! 2,014 miles logged running in 2014. I cant remember exactly how, but in December of 2013, I ended up in the Facebook group 2014 in 2014. Thats where it started. It seemed like an impossible goal, 150 more miles than I logged in 2013, which was the most Id ever run to that point. But I thought about it, prayed about it, and felt pulled to give it a shot. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. ~ Romans 12:2 I knew without a doubt I couldnt do this by my strength alone. If I was going to log that many miles, it would only be because God willed it and kept me healthy and strong enough to keep going. So the goal was set – 168 miles per month, 39 miles per week, 5.5 miles per day. I knew from the start, if it was God’s will it would be, otherwise it wouldn’t. Cold weather made for a good start to the year. I was ahead on miles at the end of January, and March was my best month ever for miles with 203. I had one major concern at that point. 2014 marked the 20th wedding anniversary for my wife and me, and we were booked on an Alaskan cruise in June to celebrate. She asked me to promise not to run on the trip. (In exchange for that promise, she didn’t balk when I booked our return flight through Salt Lake City so we could run the Bear Lake Double Marathons in Utah and Idaho.) That meant nearly two weeks of no running. Even with the double marathons booked at the end, that would make it impossible to maintain my average of 40 miles per week while we were gone. After four marathons in the first three months of the year, I was ahead, but could I stay far enough ahead to finish June with half the 2014 goal miles? Nothing else can explain it. It had to be God keeping everything on track. I finished the month of June with 1008 logged miles for the year, exactly one mile over my target to stay on pace. It was the summer heat that could derail me after that, but God kept me going, even through the heat and humidity. July marked my first successful completion of a 50K, the Full mOOn 50K in the Ouachita Mountains. I DNF’d this race after 23 miles in 2013, so I signed up again to give it another shot. The weather wasn’t any better this year, but again, God kept me going. I was one of the last few finishers, with a time of 8:53 (that’s 8 hours and 53 minutes), but I did cross the line without boarding the sag wagon like the year before. That would be the last of my long races for the year until November, but the Good Lord kept me on pace with miles through the summer. Cross country season posed the next challenging to staying on pace. Meets on almost every Saturday forced me to switch my long runs to Sunday most weeks. I’m not a big fan of training runs on Sunday, especially long runs, because it makes it too hard to get to church. But after staying on pace through my busiest time of year, I was more convinced than ever that God HAD laid this mileage goal on my heart. Then things seemed to fall off in October and November. I got busier at work and started finding excuses not to run. Mostly I just felt tired. I even stopped updating my mileage log daily. Though I set a PR at the MidSouth Marathon, and completed a second marathon that month, I was beginning to wonder if I’d make the 2014 mark and reach the goal. Finally, at the end of November, my motivation returned. I went back through the history on my Garmin and the Running with Amanda page on Facebook and updated my mileage log. I needed 180.25 miles in December to reach the goal. 180 mile months aren’t easy under any circumstance, but December weather and Christmas were enough to make it a more unlikely mark to reach. Looking back now, I think those tough months of October and November were God’s way of making sure I leaned on Him to reach this goal, and making sure I remembered it would only happen by His grace and not by my strength. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:24 But faithful He is! Through the St. Jude Marathon, and the next week a sub 2 hour finish at the CASA Half Marathon, He ran with me. Through the races and the training runs, every day He pushed me, pulled me, put me with the right people to keep me going. With every run finished, and every day that passed, it looked more and more likely that this was going to happen, not by my strength or my ability, but by God’s will and God’s grace. Today I needed four miles to finish, to reach the 2,014 mile goal. The weather was cool and clear, perfect running weather, and the four miles clicked off with relative ease. When I reached the car, it felt good to have it behind me. So thank you Jesus, for running with me, for motivating me, for pushing me, and for giving me the strength, desire, and discipline to keep going. And thanks to all the folks who helped me along the way too. I’m not going to start naming names, because I’d no doubt leave someone out. But to all my running friends who ran with me, encouraged me, motivated me, etc., many thanks to you also. It’s been a long journey and I’ve already corresponded with many who are setting a goal of 2,015 miles in 2015. Let me make clear right now, the Good Lord has NOT laid it on my heart to make this my goal this year. I have thought about it, and prayed about it, and feel no call to repeat this feat next year. My goals this year are to run 10 marathon or longer races in 2015, to spend more time with my family, to hike some on weekends without races, and to do a little fishing this year as well. I’ll still be running. I’ll still be preaching from this asphalt pulpit (and on social media of course). And I’ll still be working to raise awareness of the dangers of teen substance abuse and to honor Amanda’s memory. But I have NO set mileage goal this year. Once more, thank You Jesus for getting me through these 2,014 miles. There is no way I could have done it on my own. And thanks again to everyone who helped me along the way. I wish you all a very Happy New Year. May you reach all your goals and be blessed along the way.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 19:15:43 +0000
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