"Run, Forrest, Run"

8K - 5 MILES - 47 min 53 seconds...
my official time for the first race I ever ran!

A few of us this past weekend decided to take part in the Philadelphia Marathon by running the Rothman 8K.  Now it's no marathon or 1/2 marathon, but 5 miles was more than a sufficient challenge for us because we were all newbies to running. 

Prior to this, the most I ever ran was about 2.5 miles while on the treadmill. Even though I've been more diligent in working out as I've gotten older, running was never my thing.  The stamina and patience needed for it is usually what kills me.  Let me tell you how pathetic I was.  I remember back in high school asking the gym teacher if there was any paper/busy work he needed done on the days we would run track outdoors.  I dreaded those days because I could barely run a mile in under 15 minutes and I would often be at the back of the pack.  Thank God things have changed since then.

So in the past couple weeks leading to the race, it was fun to go down to Kelly Drive and to start training outdoors...1st 2 miles, and then adding about a 1/2 mile every week. Kelly Drive is just such a beautiful place and running there definitely became a stress reliever and a time to relax and reflect.  My main running partner sent me an email during our training and since I don't think I can re-state what she said any better, I'm just going to cut and paste her exact words :)

i wanted to share this thought with you. while i was running yesterday, i was inspired and reminded of an old academy award winning movie called, chariots of fire. i dont know if you've ever seen it, but it's about a true story of two athletes in the 1924 olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian, and Harold Abrahams. facing much opposition, Liddell sees running as a way of glorifying God before returning to China to work as a missionary. It's really a great story on finding God even in the ordinary things and how much He means for us to enjoy it. there's a well quoted line by Liddell towards the end of the movie, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." If you have a few spare hours, i think it would be a real blessing and maybe even a great blog =)

The whole experience has definitely been a blessing and needless to say I took her advice on the blog as well =). I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's on my list of movies to watch.

So in our training, the most we ever ran was 4.5 miles. We were hoping the adrenaline would carry us the last 1/2 mile and we were right. There were 18,000 people registered total to run between all 3 races and everyone is essentially running at the same time. When you get to the last 1/4 mile, there's thousands of people cheering you on on both sides of the track. It's just such an awesome sight to see: a sea of people rooting you on as you're heading towards that finish line. There's no way not to feed off that contagious energy of the crowd, and it just pushes you till you reach the end.

The 5 of us enjoying our post-race brunch

I think all of us have been bitten with the running bug now, so we're planning to do the 10 mile Broad Street run at the beginning of May next year...and dare I say maybe even the 1/2 marathon next November =).  I'm excited to keep up with the running and to see how far we'll all go...we shall wait and see.