Why My Two Year Subscription Was Worth the $24

I'm running a half marathon in November.  I've never run one before.  Actually, this is the first year that I have ever run an actual organized race.  I kind of had a plan that one year I would work my way up from a 5K to a marathon, I just never thought that this would be the year.  It all just started happening in January when I heard about a race that was being organized to help out the International Justice Mission in Cambodia.  Since this is a cause that is near to my heart, of course I wanted to do the 5K in February.  After that, the most natural step was a 10K and since I'd always kind of salivated over the local Zoo Run benefitting the Fort Worth Zoo, I decided to sign up for that race.  Besides, you get a free ticket to the zoo for running.  You really can't beat that.  After this the next goal was a half marathon.  Unfortunately that race would fall in the middle of the Texas summer, according to my haphazard schedule.  I researched and found out about the legendary "Hottest Half" in Dallas, and was determined to make an attempt at the traditionally ninety plus fahrenheit degree race when some vacation plans put an axe to that plan.  Because of various things this summer (including the almost forty day streak we had of days topping one-hundred on the thermometer) I decided that a more attainable goal would be to run the half in the fall and just put the marathon off until next year.  Or not.  If I don't end up doing the 26.2, I'll live with myself.  Somehow.  Anyway, the point of this blog is not to give you my running history.  Nor was it to run you through my plan of the year.  That just happened and now I don't want to put it to waste by deleting the above.  

No, believe it or not, this post is actually about me being sick the past couple of days.  Yes, I've had some tummy troubles, and the most annoying part of it all has been feeling like a mack truck ran over me and permanently ground me into my bed.  So, obviously, no running.  Unless you count the trips to the bathroom, but that's a little personal for the blogosphere.  Well, I was so discouraged about this whole thing, because at the beginning the training was going well, and everything was on schedule...for about a week.  Then I left town, then I left town again, and then I got sick.  I'm still training, but the race is looming.  It is starting to become a reality that in a little less than two months I will have to actually get out and make my feet travel 13.1 miles, which doesn't seem like a lot compared to the full marathon, or the ultras from which some crazy people get their adrenaline rush.  But compared to spending that Sunday sitting on the couch watching back episodes of Monk, it seems like a lot.  For someone who has never run anything close to thirteen miles, it seems like a lot.  

And to be honest, training hasn't gone super well lately either.  I went out for my weekly "long run" last Saturday, and less than three miles later I was home.  They say that running is ninety percent mental and the other ten percent is in your head.  Let me tell you, I proved every word of that sentence on Saturday.  My legs were like lead as my head struggled to wrap itself into an easy peace about my circumstances.  Suddenly it was hotter than ever, more windy than ever, more humid, every step was uphill, etc etc etc.  Monday was one-hundred percent better, and then I got sick.

Then I saw it.  I was brushing my teeth tonight, getting ready to collapse after a hard day of being glued to my bed when I read the following in my Runners World magazine:

You were sick last week and want to squeeze in some extra miles to make up for it.

THE FIX  Realize that even professional athletes rarely complete their set training schedule as it was written.  Accept the missed mileage by adopting this mind-set:  Workouts are not missed or lost; what you did on that day was what your body required that day.

In the moment I read that I felt some of the tension ooze out from underneath my shoulder blades.  Just like that, permission was given, and I felt okay with where I was.  This brought me back to another key piece of reading that has been my "permission" lately, Proverbs 16:9.  Read it if you don't know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, this whole tirade is about a lot of things.  About a race schedule that you probably didn't care to know; about feeling better about where the road (and your body) takes you; about giving yourself permission to be where you are; and about trusting God that He knows what He's doing even when you don't understand.  And why I just knew last year that it was going to be worth paying the $24 for that two year subscription.