Half Marathon 2 in the Books!!

Half Marathon #2 is complete!!  Sadly my phone crashed and I lost most of my pictures :(  I had a few  saved so I'll share with you what I have once I get them printed from shutterfly and scanned in.  I've decided next disney race I think I want to try and run with an actual camera.  The ones on my phone came out kind of blurry and I lost most of them due to some kind of glitch.  I ran this one 13 minutes slower than the last one because I actually stopped to take pictures this time around and to be honest I hadn't been training as hard.  However, I must say I am very proud of myself.  I know I've mentioned this several times but I still can't get over the fact that I'm running and enjoying it.  Since May I've run over 285 miles. Wow that's amazing, seeings how I could barely go a mile when I started and honestly hated every second of my runs.  I've set 2 goals for myself for 2013..

1. Train and complete a marathon (I just want to finish no time goal in mind) 

and

2. Complete a half 2:10 or better.  That'd be shaving off 13 minutes of my PR

I think these are reasonable goals, I'll just have to monitor my knees closely.  The KT tape helped my knees again for this half so I hope it continues to work for me.  My entire body ached after the half on Saturday but I think that was more from the lack of training.  I won't make that mistake again!  Wine in Dine I had very little pain and appreciated being able to walk around the parks the next day pain free.  So I've officially completed 2 half marathons, so what's next?  Two more of course!  My next one is on Feb 17 here in Gainesville.  I'm excited to be running it with my roommates :)  I plan on going at a slow pace as I'll be running my 4th half marathon the very next weekend at Disney!  I'm addicted to these disney races hahah. After that, I think I'll take a rest for a bit.  

Someone asked me the other day why do I put myself through all of the training for a silly medal and 13.1 sticker...I just laughed and then explained although those things are great that's not the purpose of my running.  As I've mentioned before I run for the glory of God.  It's my way of dropping everything and running to the Lord.  

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, ...And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 

Living a Christian life is hard work.  It requires running from sin and perseverance through struggle.  We must run to God to live the life he wants for us.  My eyes aren't on the medal at the end of the race but on Him.  The Lord sets my path and keeps me running to Him.  If I were running for myself I could almost guarantee you I wouldn't have made it a week but He has made it possible and I'm almost ready to take on half marathons 3 and 4!

Q:  Do you have an active faith or are you finding yourself running in circles?