Making Choices

I have a young friend who is graduating from college in 2 weeks.  As she prepares for her future and we talk about her choices, I think about the choices I have made in my life and will still have to make.

One of my recent choices was looking at my current lifestyle and realizing that while the people in my family tend to live a long time (my grandparents were in or close to their 90s when they died, my parents are in their 80s) I can live a long time or can I live BETTER for a long time.  I have never been one who enjoyed working out a gym so I decided I would try running.

I started "Couch to 5K" at least 3 times and never got past week 2.  A friend from work took the Genesis 5K program and recommended it to me, so I signed up.  It was some of the hardest 10 weeks of my life that ended with a 5K race.  Some of those class nights when I was cold, or discouraged, or hurting,  one of my running buddies would encourage me with "we're up, we're moving forward, that's more than some people can say."

The first day I ran 20 minutes without stopping I felt like maybe in the distant  future I would be able to finish that 5K race.  One of my practice days I decided that I didn't care how long it took I was going to run 3 miles.  It took me almost an hour but that day I knew I could do it, even though it was still hard for me to run for a long time.

So Saturday, December 7 was the culmination of our Genesis 5K training with the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis.  Since I have arthritis in my knees it was an appropriate run for me.  :)  One of our classmates in the program had given her "running" testimony the week before the race.  She has muscular dystrophy and said during her first 5K she claimed the verse Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".  I had practiced, tried to eat healthier, and trained my body.  It was time.

Saturday morning I got up early and did all I was supposed to do for the race - don't wear anything new (I did wear new Christmas socks), eat a light breakfast, drink some water, took some Aleve and then prayed and claimed Philippians 4:13.

Now, I didn't set any records.  I finished 38 out of 40 in my age group.  I finished 273 out of 282. I finished 181 out of 193 females. But I FINISHED :)  And I finished running.  We had to set 2 goals for the race.  My goals were finish a 5K, and finish a 5K with no walking.  (that was hard for me to do - run without taking walk breaks).

I'm not a runner yet - but I'm getting there. And my time WILL get better,  I have a personal best to beat now.