But I count it all as loss......

Last Sunday at church, the sermon was on the book of Ecclesiastes and the pastor attempted to answer the question of finding meaning in our lives.   According to Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, the key to a meaningful life is a relationship with God, our creator.  The apostle Paul, in the New Testament, takes this idea a step further by saying that all of the meaning in our lives should come from our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.   The pastor ended his sermon with this verse from Phillipians:
"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ."   Phillipians 3:8

During the next few days after church, I spent a lot of time pondering over whether I could make the same claim as Paul.   Do I really count EVERYTHING in my life as a loss when I compare it with my my love for and from Jesus?   Do I really find my identity and self worth ONLY in my relationship with him?   Almost immediately I was able to answer these questions with a big, fat, resounding "NO."   I decided to make a list of all the things, that, if I'm honest, I do not count as a loss when compared to my faith.   And, for those of you who are wondering when I'm going to tie all this to running, one of the first things on the list was running, specifically my training for the marathon in June.  

After making this realization I felt sad and guilty and humbled all at once.   So during my Wednesdsay long run, I spent a significant amount of time praying, confessing to God and asking him to purify my heart and my intentions.   I told him that I knew this hobby was a gift from him and I wanted it to be only for his glory and his good purposes in my life.   Not for my own glory.   Because, when we are honest, setting personal records is all about pride.   It is all about us and what we can do and how much faster we are than the other runners on the course.   God allowed me to see the futility of this mindset.   After praying, I felt comforted, that God's grace would be sufficient to change my attitude towards running.   I felt a peace that he would, in his timing, transform my perspective to one that honored him and him alone.   I continued running, enjoying the beautiful desert scenery.   (and keeping a watch out for my beloved jack-rabbits.  The sighting count for this run was 2.  So cute!)   

I had been planning to run the last 3 miles at race pace.   (My training plan calls for this every three weeks as a way to train the body to run hard even on tired legs.)   I was sort of dreading it because I didn't feel super fresh and I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to hold an 8:31.    But God is good and he had a plan to answer my prayers, right there on the dusty Silver Strand bike path.   At mile 9, I accidentally ended the workout on my GPS and when I restarted the app, it occurred to me that this was a perfect opportunity to go ahead and pick up the pace a little.   I could let the last 5 miles be a different run in my mind; hoping that maybe the fresh technological start to the run would spread to my legs and they too, would feel a little more fresh.   I didn't want to speed up to race pace right away so I just decided to stop holding back and just run exactly what felt comfortable.   (on my long runs, I am almost always holding back to a certain degree to ensure that I stay in the mid 9's)   I was expecting the mile update to tell me I was running around a 9 minute mile exactly.   Imagine my shock when my Nikeplus man said, "1 mile completed.   In 8 minutes and 31 seconds.   Your pace is 8:31 per mile."   I know this may seem like a stretch for some of you, but I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was not a coincidence.     A few short miles before this, I had humbled myself before God, surrendered my prideful attitude and self-glorifying goals and what did he do?   He gave me the desires of my heart.   This was the first time that 8:31 didn't feel fast for me.   And it was on mile 10 of a 14 mile run.   And, to make it even better, check out my splits for the last 5 miles of the run:

Mile 10: 8:31
Mile 11: 8:47 (I think I slowed down because I was looking around thinking, "OMG! God is on this bike path with me!)  
Mile 12: 8:21
Mile 13: 8:09
Mile 14: 8:08
And they didn't even feel that fast!!!
But, the most amazing part?   The part that is even more awesome than the physical accomplishments of Wednesday morning's run?   After that morning, I can easily say that "compared with the infinate value of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord, I count a PR in June as a loss.....as garbage."   But I also feel gloriously free to keep training, relying on God's strength to motivate and encourage me; and to hope that it will be his will for me to run a fast marathon in June....for his glory.   Oh, how fun it is to run knowing that it is a gift from God, not something that I'm holding back for myself. And, as icing on this unbelievably delicious cake of a run, check out what I saw during mile 12......I had to take a photo. 

Yep....this is what you think it is.....UGA's cousin out for a morning paddleboard session.   Oh, what can't these dogs do?

Since this is already the world's longest post, I'm going to spare you any details of my 7 mile easy run on Saturday. It was 7 miles. It was easy. I averaged 9:04 pace. Susannah had a snack and a snooze. Fun time was had by all.


Definitely the best running partner I've ever had.  
  

Happy Running this week everybody!