I recently ran my second marathon. I am by no means speedy. A couple of my students asked me if I won and in what place I finished. I told them the person who won the Austin marathon beat me by 2 1/2 hours, but that out of the 4,000 people that finished the marathon, I came in in front of 1,000 of them. I know for all the astute people reading this that y'all, of course, realize this means that 3,000 people beat me. You caught me. I was manipulating the story so it didn't sound quite so bad. I think we do this a lot. Maybe we don't do it out loud, but we whisper these ideas to ourselves. We judge what's going on in our lives based on what we believe others around us would do or say or have done themselves. The reality is that my friend Emily and I trained for months and finished the Austin marathon. It was an incredibly hilly course, which was fine until the last 3 - 4 miles. Despite the hills, we both completed in our pb (personal best). Running a marathon all 26.2 miles of it gives you a serious feeling of accomplishment. It allows you to really see what you're made of and push yourself farther than you think you can go. When we compare ourselves to others, it can seriously diminish the real accomplishments we are making in our own lives at the pace that God is setting for us.
When I think about training for and running a marathon, I think there are a lot of comparisons that can be made to marriage. Patrick and I have been talking about a variety topics that engaged people discuss, and we have been through lots of experiences in our own lives, both separate and together, that have helped prepare us for this next step. But, I know that training only gets you so far. Marriage will test both of us to see how far we can go. It will cause us to live out our love in a real sacrificial way that will not always be as easy as it is now. However, I know that we are prepared to do this together, and I know that Patrick is the only person with whom I can even imagine taking this next step.
As I've been thinking about running and marriage, I've also been reflecting on the beginning of Lent this year and really wanting to pick a sacrifice(s) that seem(s) worthy. My friend Saba and her husband Ben are teaching in Rwanda this year, and they have both picked out thoughtful and inspiring sacrifices. I know that my time to make a decision is quickly running out, but I know one thing that I will give up this lent is comparing myself to others. It will let me say without any fear of judgment that I am proud that I finished the Austin marathon in 5 hours.
Also...I'm including a few pics from the marathon. I'm pretty sure that Patrick prefers posts with pictures, and I really do, too.
Adrienne and Allison, two of my sisters, came to Austin to cheer for Emily and me. It was great getting to hang out with them and relive a little bit of the college life. Here's one of my favorite stories from the weekend: We were walking around downtown Austin hoping to find a place to eat but not having any luck because it was Valentine's Day, finally our hunger (it might have been mostly mine) caused us to give up our search and return to eat at the hotel. On our walk back to the hotel we passed a few people who looked a little scary. One woman yelled at us. As we were approaching our hotel, Adrienne lifts the sleeve of her fleece and says, "Do you want to know a secret?" She then shows us her pepper spray, cocked and ready, just in case we got into any trouble. As a side note, we did make it back safely with no need for the pepper spray.
This is a picture that Adri and Alli took of us after the race. We were laughing because they wanted us to pretend like we were running - don't worry this is not actually what we look like when we're running. I think this might have also been when Allison told me that she was soooo tired from walking all over Austin, and she just needed to sit down and rest for a little bit.
Here are Adrienne, Lauren, and I in awe of Tripp's handsomeness.
