God Provides!

The wind was supposed to die down and temperatures were supposed to rise. I woke up this morning to see the sun; I cleared my energy for the day doing my meditation and set my intention that I would thoroughly enjoy running in the crisp air. I visualized going around Jamaica Pond. When I let our cat Alex out, I realized the temperatures were still frigid. I knew we had to get miles into our legs so I began to psyche myself up...and then God spoke through my husband who asked about finding an indoor track. I called Boston College where I am an alum and received a voicemail. I called Boston University where I am also an alum and just happened to have my alumni card. They told us we could get a monthly membership; the track is 1/7 of a mile so I started doing the math - 91 times around but who cared? We would not be in the bitter cold. When we arrived, we learned to find out we can do a guest pass for only $10/person for the day so we opted for that. We got oriented to the FitRec center and got on the track....my husband set his watch to record our laps; it was my job to time our splits. We were doing 16:00 minute miles for the first 6.5 miles and then, since we had done 13 miles last week, it was time to try to pick up the pace for the back half of the miles. And we're running and running and we're doing 15 minute miles but running really fast and then when we reached 3:30 (which was our previous time for 13 miles) we're still running according to the lap o meter. I thought, well gee, maybe the mileage was off for Jamaica Pond and we're running really fast now because we want to finish when my husband realizes that we had been running on the OUTSIDE of the track and the mileage is for the INSIDE of the track. No harm no foul as they say - 14 miles and 3 hours and 45 minutes later, we finished! And for the first time, we really felt like Marathon Runners. I am learning what to do if I feel cramping - water, gatorade and/or power gel and I also pray, inviting God to keep the muscles nice and loose. Interestingly enough, when we picked up the pace, I was distracted from the pain and focused only on finishing. I ran 14 miles today....I thought back to when I first started walking Wollaston Beach - I could only walk for 20 minutes and today, I ran for 3 hours and 45 minutes. I celebrate and give thanks to God for setting forth everything I need to make this journey. It is mystical and magical and marvelous and magnificent. And of course post long run care is as important as care prior to and during the training run. I drink tons of water to flush out the lactic acid and stretch, stretch, stretch.
This journey is phenomenal because I am learning to transcend what my physical body is telling me - like it's time to sit down; let's go have lunch; why are you doing this to me? and I listen to my Spirit which is fueled to the starting corral at the Boston Marathon and this Spirit along with the crowds and the love and support of so many will fuel me to go from Hopkinton to Boston on April 20, 2009.