This post will be pretty long and wordy, with zero pictures (lo siento) but that doesn't make it any less important! So you should probably still read it :)
Throughout this whole training process and the half marathon, I prayed for a way to glorify God through my running...and he gave it to me! So of course, I'm here to share it. :)
The week leading up to the race, my left foot was in some tremendous pain. It was off and on, and seemed to get worse after I ran. The weekend of the race finally came...and I could hardly walk, it was horrible! I went to the doctor earlier and they said that they thought I had cellulitus (don't ask me what that is or how you get it...I'm still not sure) and that I could just take some antibiotics to get rid of it, hoooray! So day 1 of antibiotics and I already saw a huge difference. My foot was still pretty sore, but not as bad as before and it wasn't red like it was before. Slowly but surely it was healing! I was ecstatic. So on Wednesday I decided to just go ahead and continue on with my training, so I ran about 3 miles. Not too bad...but after my foot began to hurt a bit more. Same thing happend on Thursday after my run. I headed back to the doctor for a follow up appointment, and he asks how my foot has been after taking the medicine. I told him that it was great, and the redness had completely cleared up after a day! Well, apparently that doesn't mean great things to the doctor, because it seemed to heal too fast, so they ruled out cellulitus. Uhhh? So here I am, with a painful foot, and some puzzled doctors. The doctors said that there wasn't much I could do for it, other than just ice it and take it easy if it got really painful. It was completely out of my control, completely left up to God.
I prayed and prayed for God to heal my foot, and to allow me to still run the race and train in a way that praised Him - what that way was yet, I wasn't sure. Race day comes, I get out of bed, and I can't walk my foot hurts so bad. Eventually it loosened up a bit and was a little better, but for the whole morning leading up to the race I was in some serious pain. How in the world was I going to run 13.1 miles?? By this point I was starting to get nervous about the race in general, and I was beginning to freak out about hurting my foot even more. So we line up in our corrals, do some stretching, and camp out to wait for our turn to begin. It's finally our corrals turn and at this point the anxiety and nervousness had turned to excitement! I'm beginning to forget about my foot, trusting God completely and leaving it all up to Him! Well you guys...I can not praise God enough! The race started and off we went, the beginning of the 13.1 miles in darkness. It was odd, I won't lie. It took me a while to remember how to run, for some reason I felt a bit off, and to get in my groove. But those 13.1 miles were amazing! Although my foot pain didn't completely go away, it was still barley noticeable...and the most important part: I WAS RUNNING! I couldn't walk a few hours ago and here I was running my first half marathon! I finished the whole half marathon, running the entire way, and afterwards? my foot felt amazing. It's day 3 after the race and so far...my foot has been as good as new! A few little pains here and there, but nothing like before. If that's not God's way of answering prayers and giving me a wonderful opportunity to praise Him, then I don't know what is! The verse Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ who strenghtens me" - has never been more true for me then it was this weekend :)
B.Hines
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