Indianapolis Mini Marathon

So the pictures you see are my running apparel for the largest mini marathon in the nation: 35,000 people. That's more than the whole population of Sidney! Wowzers! What an event! I've been training for the last 10 weeks in preparation of what took place yesterday. Mitsu, Stephanie and I headed to Indy the night before- they were the ones that encouraged me to be part of the race - here we are prior to our race!
I was hyped; my goal was to cross the finish line. Walking to corral "F"- there were 26 corrals- each letter of the alphabet. The purpose of the corrals was organization from the fastest legged people starting in "A" to theoretically the slowest in "Z"- but for those who did not submit a time they were placed in the back. Thankfully I submitted a time! Going back to my running apparel for the morning-I wanted to write this verse on the back as an encouragement to people, but I was not expectant of how many people encouraged me because of my shirt. The first person to talk to me was Joe who was also placed in corral "F." Throughout the race, I had many people who said- I like your shirt- and each time I was encouraged- their words blessed my soul. As I ran, I enjoyed praying for people. We ran over many railroad tracks- and I began to pray for people not to get stumbled in their footing. I also noticed a couple people with bandaged calves- and I prayed for them- I was reminded of the verse that talks about the LORD binding the brokenhearted. I must say I LOVE the LORD for His super abounding lovingkindess- I felt so loved by Him yesterday as I ran. Along the 13.1 miles there were supposedly 106 bands ( I don't think they all woke up in time!!). One of the bands played Hillsong's Salvation is Here. It was fun as I ran- I looked at the singer and responded by raising my hand looking at him and saying "it's going to be alright!" My spirit was encouraged. Then I saw a man dressed in a spiderman costume and another wearing spiderman socks. I do really like that movie, and just was encouraged. Then we approached the actual 500 speedtrack from mile 6 to mile 8 and while running I heard a song that I had just talked about to my co-worker Sue- as she has just become a grandma. Sue said she is called Mama Sue- which reminded me of the Michael Jackson song- Wanna Be Startin' Something- where they sing mama se mama sa- so I termed Sue Mama sue...ha, ha. That might have been really confusing, but I can't tell you when the last time I heard that song- and I just smiled at the LORD. As I ran I looked at the sky several times and saw 3-4 jet stream crosses in the sky....again, I smiled at the LORD. Around mile 9 a man passed by and said- thank you for that verse- that is just what I needed as he exclaimed "Hallelujah". Again I was blessed by that. Running by this building I noticed it said children ministry and I started to pray for that building and noticed that it had the names of the LORD on the outside. I spotted my two favorite names of the LORD- El Roi- the God who sees and Jehovah Shammah- the God who Hears- again more smiles on my face- thank you LORD!! Then at mile 11 I heard a voice behind me say- we run into each other again and it was Joe!! Joe who was at the beginning of the race. What an encouragement. We talked about the goodness of our LORD for the remainder of the race- we exchanged how the LORD has taught us through our illiotibial band injuries. Joe shared how he runs in the morning before daybreak, but saw a beautiful sunrise and was reminded of the Chris Tomlin song- Indescribable and ran with his hands opened up in thanksgiving. As we neared the last tenth of the race- Joe said- are you ready to open it up? He allowed me to go first as we sprinted with our hands open in thanksgiving to our LORD to the end and I could hear his words of encouragement behind me. I have to say- words of encouragement are huge! What a blessing this training has been. I enjoyed the accomplishment of finishing the race well. Yes- may I hear- and all of us who follow Jesus hear- good and faithful servant- you have run the race well and with endurance- I need to continue to fix my eyes on my beautiful and faithful Jesus!