On Sunday, April 3,2016, Toby and I completed our 2nd Mike-to-Mike Half Marathon. We completed it in the time I estimated, given the training and injury struggles I endured preparing for this race!
Training started in January and was going well until I hurt my back in February. I was only able to complete 4 of my training sessions in February and 7 of my training sessions for March. I felt completely unprepared and sad. I really desired to do well. I have been hurt for the last 2 years and I really wanted to be more like the “real” runner, I used to be. Not that running has ever been effortless for me, nor am I any where close to being a natural born runner; but the feeling of just me and God hanging out strolling along is what I long for. It has not been like that for a long time. Please do not mistake, God is still with me when I run but it’s been more like a crutch I am grasping to rather than a friend I get to talk to. So is this season I guess.
I thought multiple times about not running, quitting and just plain giving up. The only entity that would benefit from my quitting would be the race production company that would keep the fees we paid. And the ramifications of me quitting would be great. The one public place Toby is completely included, a part of something, is when he is racing. He would not have been able to live out the inclusion message, he has been given to exemplify. A new chapter of Ainsley’s Angels Fort Bragg just started here in Fayetteville/Fort Bragg, their mission is great, we wanted to be a part of their inaugural race, and I did not want Nate and Elijah to feel abandoned and be the only Assisted Athlete Team out there racing that day. There is the mother in me. I pressed on despite the excruciating sciatic pain I was having in my buttocks and left leg.
The pain was bad enough that the night before the race, in bed I cried. I absolutely thought I would not be able to get myself to the race much less run…….. BUT GOD. I prayed I asked the Lord to use me in this race as he saw fit. I submitted to Him, quite frankly because if He could not get me to the race I would not get to go. Everything in my human self that I tried to feel better and to not have pain was not working. So I slept.
I woke up with no pain, I could move, stand, even squat with no pain. WHOO HOO!!! We were going to do this. I choked down breakfast because I always find it difficult to eat before a race even though I need to eat. Slid into my “tight pants”(blog for later), my new AA shirt, body glided the needed glide spots and laced up my shoes.
We arrived and chatted with race friends took a few pics and cleared our path to the start line, “MAKE A HOLE”, I shouted. It worked, I guess everyone in a military town knows what the means. I didn’t even get a “what are you talking about” look. The pictures pre-start look like I am scolding my buddy Nate. I was not, I promise!!
The boys were ready. Just wait for the horn, because the Gun is only for the full race start. Wheelchairs don’t get the GUN!!!!
So it began.
My back and legs felt great, I attribute that to my “tight pants!” My ankle was starting to ache. I didn’t injury it but it would swell sometimes, hurt sometimes, and sometimes it would be fine. It loves my cowboy boots!!!! So shoes folks make me some cowboy boot running shoes!!! Runners will buy them. Cowboys will too!!!
A short time into the race, it occurred to me; as people were passing us and talking to us, telling us how great it was that we were doing this, just what the purpose was of the race. It was even more significant when Nate reveled that he too, in fact, had really battled with sickness that had him thinking this race was not going to happen…….But God.
Both Nate and I had been seriously attacked in our physical nature. The enemy, of the message we have to share, tried to take us out. The enemy failed because LOVE is greater.
THIS IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!
A parent, struggling with their own challenges, putting them aside, sacrificing their comfort, ignoring their pain, in order to satisfy a desire to promote inclusion in the world one event at a time. For their child and others, so that someday no child will ever be left out, shoved into a self-contained environment and ignored.
THIS IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!
A parent driving on in the hope that inclusion will someday be the standard, something that ought to be; not what it is today, ticking the box under legislative, bureaucratic lenses of implementation of inclusion.
THIS IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!
A parent accomplishing bringing a peaceful smile to their child’s face, even though, the child may never in verbal speech be able to say “thank you, I love this or this is fun.”
THIS IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!
A parent sending His son to die for my sins and yours so that we may be free from the penalty for our sin. So that we may be freely included in the family of Jesus Christ as brothers and sisters with him in Heaven.
“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.”
Galatians 5:13-14 MSG
LOVE CROSSES THE FINISH LINE!!!
Thank you for listening!
therealvonnielinn 