Marathon Week

I can't believe it is here. The week of the marathon has arrived. A month ago I never would have thought I would have made it to this point without much pain. The last year has been one of great difficulty for me. Here is a quick summary of my year.

2 weeks after the Memphis St. Jude Marathon last year, I got out to do a 4 mile run. After less than a mile I had to stop. My knee was in so much pain, I couldn't run another step. After a couple of months my knee did not get better so I went to several weeks of physical therapy. While this helped, I was still unable to run farther than 5 miles without pain. I had a couple of cortizone injections in my knee which freed me up to run a half marathon in April. However in June I ran a 10 mile race and the next day was unable to walk due to the pain. I began wondering if I would ever be able to run a marathon again.

I had not run more than 13 miles in almost a year and then during the end of October I decided I was going to try to run 18 miles. I had a new knee brace and was going to run as long as I could. I never really thought I could have done the full 18. However mile after mile I got more confidence. While my knee ached, it never really got any worse. After almost 3 hours, I finished my run and knew my hopes for running the Memphis St. Jude Marathon were alive once again. Since then I have run 20 miles and several other long runs to help me gain the confidence for this great marathon. As this month ends, I will have run almost 130 miles for the month.

So here I am the week of the marathon, feeling so blessed and so inspired. Pending some unforseable event, I am 6 days away from standing at the starting line for the children of St. Jude. Unlike the last marathon, I feel like this one is a complete gift. One God has enabled me to attempt as I really have no reason as to why my knee has strengthened enough to allow this great run. But I do know on December 5th I will run down the streets of Memphis once again for more than 4 hours. I will again be inspired by the famlies of the children of St. Jude who come out to encourage us as we "run with endurance a race that has been marked out before us." While this race is nothing compared to the great race we run as mentioned in Hebrews 12, the race on Saturday is so much more than a race.

To date 30 people have sponsored me this year as we have raised almost $1700 for St. Jude. We have raised $2,900 for a two year total. I am so thankful to everyone who has sponsored me and encouraged me. I will be blogging a good bit for the next week. Thanks for following along.