Day 19 - Running Mates

February 24, 2009 by john.

Wow - 8 days since my last entry, not for lack of anything to write about, but more just not taking time to reflect and gather my thoughts to share. So let’s get caught up…..

After my record breaking day last Monday, I thought I’d push a bit harder on Wednesday’s run and shave a bit more off my time.  So I picked up the pace a little and noticed about halfway through that my left knee was really starting to hurt. About two thirds through I had to slow down and concentrate on just finishing by walking. I even had to slow my walking to about 3.7 mph instead of my normal walk of 4.0. Final time 42:54, 3 minutes longer than Monday. I hobbled back to the shower and found that I even had a hard time walking out of the gym.

My dear wife, Debbie, came up to my office and brought a knee brace, ace bandage, ibuprofen and some salves, doctored up my knee and went on about her day. You would think that after so many years of seeing how God works things out in our lives that it would become common place. NOT! The only day that Debbie wasn’t called into the local elementary school where she substitute teaches was last Wednesday. Any other day that week she wouldn’t have been available to come to my rescue. God knew that I needed her more that day than the school, so he made sure there wouldn’t be a need for her there.

Speaking of the phrase “My dear wife, Debbie”, I’m not differentiating which wife is dear - just got one and don’t want more! When you’ve got the best you don’t need any extras!  Although Debbie has jokingly said if I get another one, just make sure she cleans house - she wouldn’t mind sharing that.  Well, that’s my attempt at wittiness at 2:30am…… Better move on…..

One thing that I’ve noticed in reading through various websites and blogs about running, is that there is occasionally an event called a couples race. That concept intrigued me, so I did a little more searching to see how it works. Basically two people sign up together, their ages are combined to place them in a bracket, and their running times are combined for the final tally. So at the end of the race, while maintaining their individual identities and individual times, the final result is based on the team effort of them both. It also seems that many times the couples that sign up and run in the race have also trained together as partners, each encouraging the other as they get ready for the big race. Running mates is a good term for that relationship.

Running mates is also a great description of the relationship between Debbie and me.  Through the race of life we feed off of each other’s strengths, support each other in our weaknesses, encourage each other and keep pushing through to the end together.  While we will both reach the finish line independently with our own identities and our own finishing times and results, the team effort will have yielded much more that either one of us could have done individually. I am so blessed by the good Lord to have a running mate that adds such depth, breadth and color to my life.

So what about the knee?  I’ve given it a few days rest and will be back in the gym on Wednesday. I kept it wrapped for a few days, but not even doing that now. It has been prayed for and I believe that through God’s Holy Spirit healing has taken place and I need to move on. Debbie recently wrote in her blog, Farmer Woman, “Passion is what drives us, focuses us, excites us, encourages us, gives us the determination to push on when it’s just not fun to push on.”  It’s not fun to run right now, but I’ve still got something driving me on to keep going. I’ll start out walking the 5K again and build up from there. As I mentioned before, my goal is to finish the race. I have no time to beat and am competing only against myself. Of course with the NEXT race I will have a first race time that I’ll naturally want to beat, the testosterone will kick in, hmmmm….. there ARE other people running, wonder if I can place…….. well, you know how it goes. But I’ll leave that for the next one.

I went to the doctor Monday morning for my normal blood pressure and blood sugar checkup and mentioned that I had injured my knee last week, but it seems to be getting better. I told him that I was going to start back with walking and build back up again unless he had any other suggestions. His only comment, in a scene worthy of the Marx Brothers, was that if it hurts when I run, don’t run. Do something else. Well, THAT’S helpful. Sorry, the passion is still there.. I’ve got to finish that race.

I’ve said before that I don’t know why I have this passion to run a race. My normal response to the existence of a race was “Why?”, not “Count me in!”. But I’m starting to get a glimpse of one of the places where in God’s great kaleidoscope of colors this may be fitting in. A couple of weeks ago at church I mentioned to a friend that I was starting to run. He said “you need to talk to Sharron, she runs marathons.”  I had no idea. Sharron has been an acquaintance for several years, but we’ve never really had anything other than normal pleasantries to say to each other.  I asked her about her running, she got excited and called to her daughter, Stephanie - who is also a runner, “Hey, John’s started running!” Boom - connection made. And God steps back and smiles because the family tree just grew a little stronger. He knew what was coming down the pike and had a reason for that connection to be made.

Fast forward to this past Sunday.

Sharron mentions something about a “family restructuring”.   Because we have made a connection, Debbie and I were able to approach Sharron to ask about her “family restructuring”. That opened up an opportunity for me and my life running mate to share some of the shadows from our past as an encouragement to Sharron that even in the worst of times and through some of life’s greatest pains, God still has his plans and He can change things around in a very short time. Without the connection made a week or two earlier, I don’t know that I would have felt as free to approach her or for Debbie and I to open up our lives to her as we did. So is this one of the reasons God put a passion to run in my life? Yes, I believe it is one reason, although I don’t think it is the only one.

The kaleidoscope has ever changing patterns as the various colors collide with each other. I wonder where my color will be in the next pattern in God’s kaleidoscope!

Thanks for stopping by!

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