Motivational Monday - Nine Miles

Do you see the numbers in the bottom right corner of my Garmin?  

9.05

Those are the miles I ran Saturday morning. 

Me. 

I'm still in awe that my legs carried me that far.  

In awe that God has brought me this far; that he's helped me reach the point where I wasn't nervous about the 8 miles that I was scheduled to run, nor to go ahead and finish up the run even though I knew I was going to hit 8 miles well before I reached my house. 

And I'm reminded once again that it simply takes one step forward to make change and if we'll step out of our comfort zones who knows what opportunities lie ahead? 

Four years ago I had no intention of becoming a runner.  I simply wanted to get healthier.

Then on a random day in December 2009 I decided to see if I could run a mile at the end of my walk on the treadmill.  It took me 16 minutes and I thought I was going to die.

When I finished I was so proud of my accomplishment.  I remember calling my friend Stephanie and telling her I ran a mile.  I was ecstatic!!!  

And I think I caught the running bug that day.

Three and a half years later I'm still texting my running accomplishments to Stephanie, but now it's multiple times that first mile.  And while I'm not as fast as I'd like to be, I've shaved 4-5 minutes off that mile time depending on how hot it is.  :) 

Wow.

God is good.  

p.s.  Oh, and I realized as I was stretching Saturday that I just ran almost 3/4 of my half marathon.  You know, I may not run it as fast as I wanted to, but I know I will definitely be able to finish it.  Glory!