On Friday, I’ll be leaving for Chicago and on Sunday I’ll be running my first marathon! I am really excited! If you would have told me 5 years ago that I’d be running a marathon (in my lifetime let alone 5 years from then) I would have laughed in your face.

However, over the last 5 years my life has changed dramatically (You can check out my posts on 5 years changes everything). Over the years I’ve developed my own “Bucket List” of things I want to do before I die. One of them is to run a marathon! I began running when I got out of high school to lose weight. I got up to running 5 miles consistently never breaking that barrier. This year, Pastor Larry ran the Disney marathon and I decided I wanted to run one this year! PL said, “Yea baby… let’s do it!” We started looking for marathons and decided on Chicago!

That was in January of this year. We laid out a 20-week training plan together that we would start in May 2008. We started running in March…. since then we’ve:

• Run over 481 miles

• Put in over 2 1/2 days worth of running

• Spent a few hundred dollars on shoes, gels, hotel rooms, flights, etc.

When I think about that… all that for one race that will last less than a few hours. All of that to run a 26.2 mile race and cross the finish line. All of that with nobody patting you on the back, cheering you on, or anything of that nature.

Over the course of this week I want to talk about lessons that I’ve learned in training for a marathon. It’s been a long, but exciting journey. I hope the lessons I’ve learned through this experience will add value to your life.

So I am exactly 28 days out from the Chicago Marathon and I just finished my first 20 mile run and finished in 3:14:24 which is roughly a 9:45 mile. As I said before, I’ll post updates about things I’m learning throughout the whole experience that I hope can help you.

Pastor Moore, who has been giving me tons of practical advice when it comes to running a marathon told me that toward the end the most important things will be what I eat and how much rest I get. To say it simply, I’ve found that to be a fact. I don’t have a problem on the eating side, for me, it’s taking time to rest.

I’ve really realized in my walk with God that so much of my relationship with him depends on:

• What I eat
• How much time I spend resting in His presence

Again, for me . . . I have no problem getting in the word, reading books, listening to sermons, etc..(Eating). For me, it’s taking time to wait on Him. In the Word, God says, Be still and know that I am God. He tells Moses on top of the mountain to just be. I constantly have to ask myself, am I too busy to spend time resting in Him? I know if I am, that in the end, I won’t have the outcomes I am hoping for.

So Ask Yourself:

Are you eating right? (Getting in the word, reading books, listening to sermons)

Are you taking time to rest? (Spending time just waiting on God, praying, just … being)