Lessons From a Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my first half-marathon (13.1 miles)! Super happy about it!

Right now, walking is only possible if I wobble like a penguin. Stairs also cause immense suffering. This will be my life for the next few days...

On the brighter side, I wanted to briefly cover some important things I learned along the way:

1. It's so cold in the D- Seriously though. It was really cold yesterday... and yet I still managed to sweat a ton. I was sweating like that guy on that one Axe deodorant commercial... which leads me to my next point.

2. Sweating in the cold leads to Hypothermia- Les Stroud and Bear Grills taught me this truth many years ago, but my body refused to learn from it. I didn't quite reach hypothermia, but my legs were pretty much numb by mile 10...Stupid over-productive sweat glands...Which brings me to point #3.

3. Sweating + not drinking enough water + cold muscles= Lebron style leg cramps at mile 11- My penguin wobble actually began near mile 11 when my frozen legs decided they'd had enough. I managed to finish the race but it wasn't the glorious sprint through the end line that I envisioned. Instead, imagine a mix between the Tin Man and a toddler a with full diaper... That's probably how I looked running at that point.

And out of all the important lessons I learned, this next one stuck out to me the most:

Encouragement actually matters- Basically the entire 13 mile stretch was lined with people who were just there to cheer the runners on... and they probably cheered for a good two or three hours straight as all the waves of runners passed by. That's literally all they did.

At first I didn't really notice them but as the race went on, I realized how important to my running they actually were. When I got tired or reached a steep incline, their cheers helped me keep going. And when my legs cramped up and I was visibly struggling, they encouraged me on all the more.

Somehow, they actually helped. They weren't providing my legs with physical energy. And sometimes, it didn't feel like what they were saying was true. "You're almost there!" at mile 9 didn't initially feel true. But the more they said it, the more I realized that they were actually right. Really, they were encouraging me to believe. And the more I believed, the easier the running became.

So if you love to encourage people, please realize that our world needs you more than it will ever admit. And it needs you now more than ever before.

There's a lie in our world that says that you, individually, have to do everything that Jesus did in order to fulfill your destiny in God. It's not true. If God made you awesome at encouraging people and you love doing it, don't let anyone pressure you into doing something else. Maybe your not supposed to run the same race they're running. Maybe your job is simply to be amazing at encouraging the people around you... It actually does matter. So do it like it's your race. You're extremely important. I need your encouragement and so does everyone else.

Let your heart be free to encourage!