love like that ...: Finish with more character than when you started ...

that was the theme of the Disney marathon yesterday ... and I LOVE it for so many reasons. I know it's a play on words by the brilliant Disney markerteers, but it is also true for anyone who sets out to run 26.2 miles! You discover along the route parts of you that you never knew existed ... and you find in the end of determination and perseverance to push through pain, diasppointment, and discouragement. I feel like I DID finish that race with more character than when I started. I remember two years ago when Laura and I ran together the sense of accomplishment we felt in the end and her commenting that that day and the determination to finish that race would always be up there in the list of most significant things! For many people it's a "bucket list" goal. For others, no desire, never gonna do it and that's ok. For those who do, though, there is a sense of accomplishment that you've started something hard, sweated (or frozen) through it and DONE it! But it's more than just for a marathon. Isn't that kind of the point of the race we run with life? Isn't the goal to finish with more of God's character in our life than when we began?

Let me share with you some life lessons I learned from the marathon experience (let's face it, it wasn't just 6 cold hours yesterday!) ...

1. It's mostly mental! (I know, I know, I just wrote a whole post on that, but it REALLY is more about what we set our mind and heart to do. Our body will always want to stop before our mind!!) As we traveled our eight hours home last night, I aked the girls, what percentage of marathon running do you think is mental? Immediately, they all piped in with some number of 90% or greater! Now mind you, these are all young, fabulous runners who all finished in less than five hours and they are saying the same thing as me, the slow and steady 40 year old! It really is a LOT of mind over matter. There was a lot of telling myself that I could do this, that I needed to keep this pace, that I should run to this point and then I could walk for a while. All of life is a lot of mental. Well, really, a lot of faith. We don't always have the want to in us to do what we need or commit to do. We don't always even have the skills or the means. But sometimes its just something that we HAVE to do and we do it! I will note that the mental thing is soooooo much easier when you have someone by your side. Angela and Beka ran the entire race together! We all started together, but one by one we pulled ahead or behind one another except for those two. I head many times last night as Beka reported her results to friends and family. "I could have never run the whole thing without Angela! She kept me going!" Yes, she would still have finished on her own, but to make the goal of running the whole thing took a little more, it took a friend by her side who kept running and saying "run, Beka." Again, same is true for life, we do so much better when we do it together!

2. SOOOO much is out of our control! Florida had a rare ridiculous cold front take up residence over the state this week. There were actually snow flurries predicted for Saturday morning (oh, we were so glad we were not out running the half on that cold, drizzly morning!) As we sat warm and toasty in the hotel's breakfast area, we saw runners returning from the 1/2 and it was NOT inspiring. We really felt for them! But we also got serious about the fact that barring a Red Sea kind of miracle, it was going to be COOOLLDD Sunday morning as well! So, we went to the store in search of gloves and earwarmers and jackets and were thankful for some "throw away" clothes we could shed when we "warmed up!" What we wouldn't/couldn't do was quit because the weather was miserably cold. Windchill in the low 20's for that 6 am start time, temperature around 30, not much above that at the finish. There are TONS of things we don't enjoy about life. Tons of things that just happen and we are left to deal with them. Tons of things we have no power to change. Sometimes we get a little notice and we can work on adjusting to the "new" ... sometimes we just put on our big girl pants and deal. But no matter what, we don't give up!

3. I LOVE the spectators! I made it because of the spectators. Disney has fabulous spectators who braved the cold to stand outside (sometimes for hours) to cheer on family and friends ... and even strangers! They lined the roadways and the parks. They had amazing signs and sometimes even snacks and treats. They dressed up, they danced. They read bibs and called us by name. Strangers, and they called us by name ... I don't know how many times I heard, "Karen, looking good!" "You can do it, Karen," "Keep it up, Karen!" "Karen, you're almost there!" I wish I had pictures of the spectators! There were TONS of them! The one who most impacted my run, though was a lady on a long stretch of roadway at about mile 17 who held a homemade posterboard sign that said, "If it was that easy, we'd ALL do it!" I saw her as I apprached and I actually got tears in my eyes that I was really doing something that was NOT easy and that everyone couldn't /wouldn't do. At that point I was walking a lot more than I was running and my muscles were killing me. I was feeling like anyone could do this as poorly as I was. And then, there she was, like God just beamed her down from heaven right when I needed her and as I passed, she looked me in the eyes and said, "Karen, you can do it!" We all NEED that community in our lives, the people who come along beside us and encourage us, pour their lives into us, spur us on, kick our butts. And, we all need to BE that for other people as well. Doesn't have to even be people we know, but people for whom our words and actions become lifegiving! There were tons of tough places along that route yesterday! There are TONS of tough places in this life. What makes the difference is those who cheer us on along the way!

4. Gonna admit a little pride, here! Early in the race, I made it my goal to run my best when people were watching and to allow myself to slack off when we were on the desolute roadways when we were just a blob of runners moving past honking cars. I think I do that with my life as well ... put my best foot forward when people are watching and then slack off when I am alone, seemingly unwatched, in the walls of my house or car. Hmmmmmm ... while many of us live that way, what we do in the private places is just as important (sometimes MORE important) than what we do in public! Those habits and attitudes that we think go unseen still influence how we live in the "seen" places! Yes, maybe walking through some of the roadways meant I still had the strength to run in the parks, but by the end I was running when I could, walking when I couldn't and realizing that character is who we are when there's no one there to see. Do I give it my best at all times?

5. Carb loading. One of the BEST parts of the weekend was the carb dinner Saturday night! Eating all the pasta my little heart desired and my waterlogged stomach could hold with no guilt since we were running 26.2 miles on Sunday! All weekend we had been trying to be wise about being prepared physically for the race. We drank water like crazy and thus, made bathroom stops EVERYWHERE! We had powerbar and sharkie snacks. We had healthy meals. And then we went for the pasta Saturday night. We all crowded into our booth at Unos pouring over the menus and when the waitress took our order she commented, "Ya'll must be here for the race tomorrow." "yeh," we beamed. "How'd you know?" "Well, you all ordered water and pasta. Kind of a dead giveaway!" There is so much that goes into a good run. We talked alot about this on the car ride on Friday. How you eat. When you eat. How you sleep. When you run. How you feel. How you've trained. Weather. Shoes. Same thing is true with life. So much goes into a "good" day. Attitude. Quiet time. Distractions. Discipline. Prayer life. Circumstances. Some of those things you can control. Some of them you can't. Some of them you prepare for ahead of time. Some of them you deal with when they come. I want to be wise in how I discipline my life for this race God has prepared for us. I want a steady, healthy diet of those things that build me up in him (not the junk I so often waste time on and with). I want to spend time training myself for godliness. Praying, reading, journaling, talking. I want to do things that improve my attitude and outlook - getting sleep, eating wisely, exercising, being wise with my time.

6. Can't take your eyes off the goal! There were somewhere between 22,000 and 24,000 people who registered and paid for the marathon this weekend - it is one of the largest races anywhere! That many people planned for the marthon, committed to the marathon and made a goal of the marathon. Some dropped out because of health concerns or circumstances out of their control (I think we had 3 BCM girls pay and then not train, so they just didn't go!). Some got to race weekend and decided it was not worth it to get out in the ridiculous cold (not gonna lie. I've done that with 5K's before, picked up the t-shirt and then snuggled back into my warm bed!). Some started the race, but never finished. Officially, 12977 people finished the race yesterday. That means slightly over 50% of the people who signed up and paid their money actually crossed the finish line yesterday! God is pretty insistent when he reminds us to count the cost of following Him, not to just commit as long as it's fun, convenient or beneficial to us! Luke 14:27-29 reminds us, "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 'He started something he couldn't finish." I wondered several times along the route, what the point of no return was ... that place where you'd come too far to call it quits ... was it after the half, at at 16 miles? 20 miles? Yes, there were times the hurting, cold, human part of me wanted to call it done. But quitting was NEVER an option. Not at mile 1 ... mile 10 ... mile 17 or 21.

We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means.

So let us run the race that is before us and never give up.

We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.

Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God's throne.