Running's not even my thing but....

If you ever feel unprepared, just remember that I started training for a ten mile race five days before the actual race. It happened this way. I have been meaning to start running here but the heat has been quite terrible so I delayed all types of exercise until I was told that Familia Feliz does an annual race from town to the mission - 13 km. I knew it was happening some time but I thought I'd have more than five days to prepare. I wake the girls up at 5 so that they can have personal devotions and then we have family worship at 5:30. I am with the kids the rest of the day and no one in their right mind wants to go running in the day light so my only option was early 4am. 

Just to be clear, I'm not a runner. I aspire to like running but it's not reached that point yet. Nevertheless, Tuesday morning came, I woke up at 3:50 and went running with two other sm's. It was still pitch black outside with an occasional streak of heat lightning to confirm that there were no cows crossing the road. As we started to run, there was something almost soothing about the patter of feet on the pavement, the stars flickering above my head and the occasional car headlights killing our night vision.
One day of exercise down, four days left. But then I got sick. It must have been my body's way of warning me to not try to run 10 miles without training but I'd already decided my fate, sick or not. I read once on the internet (aka, the most reliable source) that you shouldn't exercise when you're sick because your body is to busy fighting off the sickness to exercise. Maybe that's common sense but who has common sense when the alarm goes off at 3:50 to wake you up to run?
Friday morning, I obeyed my alarm and went running. Two days of running 3 miles to prepare me for my 10 mile race. Things weren't looking so bright but there's a stubborn streak in me that refused to let myself believe that I couldn't complete the whole race. With this motivation tucked in the back of my head, I mentally prepared my mind for the journey as I stretched Monday morning on the outskirts of Rurrenabaque. My first priority was to watch out for the kids and keep them safe which seemed like a good reason to take it nice and slow the whole way - jogging style. There was a slight change in plans and that we wouldn't be running 10 miles because we didn't want to have to cross and pay for the toll so we started our race 7.8 miles from the mission. Way more doable. 

As the minutes ticked away to the pounding of my feet on the pavement and one by one the kids got tired and stopped to catch a ride on our mission's truck that was following along behind to pick up stragglers, the Bible verse that I had read that morning to my girls kept on resurfacing in my head. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race..." applicable, except that I had not yet finished the race, I was very much still running it and had a long way to go but it kept my spirits up as I kept a steady pace mile after mile.
I was the fourth volunteer to complete the race and the third girl to arrive but all I cared about was that I'd arrived and that I'd made it the whole 7.8 miles running without stoping. Maybe I'll even attempt running that far again in the future after my feet feel better.
The moral of the story though, is that being stubborn but motivated can get you to the end.... but it wouldn't hurt to prepare more than five days in advance for my next endeavor.



Below are two of the SM's, Lindsay and Josh after we finished our race.