To all the runners who didn’t say ‘Maybe next year’………. I just have to say this…..whoever thought up this whole marathon thing sure knew what they were doing. What was once a small group of 400+ runners trying to raise money to dig wells in Africa is now only a tiny part of something HUGE happening in the hearts of everyone involved. We can’t even imagine the impact we might have on the world for generations to come. We can only HOPE. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone!!! I don’t want to mention names because there were too many people involved to point out even a few. This team consists of a whole matrix of individuals who helped not only with hours of hard work but also in unintended ways simply by being there and or saying the perfect words at the perfect times. WE ALL HELPED EACH OTHER!!! The impact from having trained and run a marathon with this group has been life changing for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would run my first marathon in 3:46 and qualify to run Boston!!! In January 2012, I sat in church feeling so empty inside that I began to pray to God to fill me with something that would make me feel alive again. The lengthy sob story of how I got to that point has been left on the trail many miles back…..but anyway…..as I was praying, I lifted my head to hear them talking about getting a team together to run the Chicago marathon. My 12-yr old son elbowed me and said, ‘I really think you should do this. I’ll go to the meeting with you.’ He knew I had been an on and off runner all my life. After a couple weeks and a few miles on the treadmill I registered for Chicago. We only had about 400 members that first year with World Vision so it was easy to get to know most of the team. I made some great friends and all went well until about August when I got a femoral neck stress fracture. I was devastated and didn’t make it to Chicago that year. Oh well, next year ……so along with 1400+ others, I signed up for Detroit with Hope Water Project in 2013 but then if it wasn’t one thing it was another. After several injuries, I was hardly trained for a half by October. I had since obtained a coach but was already pretty bent and broken by then. My husband had lackadaisically gone through the training, raised a lot of money and finished the marathon in 3:58. Grrrrr….I managed to run the half, sprouted some new injuries and carved out a dark and painful memory of Detroit in my head. By this time I was really mad but even more determined. Sighhhh……In January 2014, I started training again. LOL…. I would take it one month at a time, 1 week at a time or a day at a time if I had to but running had made me alive again. Running had brought me valuable friendships. Running was therapy. And running had now grown my faith in God in spite of my shortened endeavors. I did sign up for Detroit but as it drew closer I realized I just couldn’t drag myself back there again. I went with a small group of friends and did Grand Rapids instead. I worried what it would be like to run without Hope Water shirts everywhere in sight but I had the words and blessings of all of you in my heart as I ran and listened to music for 20 miles. Then my music stopped. “Help!!!!! Oh Dear God! Thank you so much for getting me this far but please, please talk to me and keep me out of my head as I run.” At that point I took my ear buds out and heard the cadence of feet all around me. I looked around and realized I was right in the middle of the 3:45 pace group. They carried me for a few miles. And the rest was magic.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 21:30:48 +0000
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