When I first heard Chrystal’s completely radical idea to run a marathon, I thought she’d had a momentary lapse of sanity. After all, she is the mother of an almost-two-year old and is often deprived of sleep. Then I realized how serious she was about this idea of living a bigger and better story (thanks Donald Miller for being the catalyst for unrest in so many of us!) and how we could make a difference by simply - running. My initial response was, “Okay. I’ll commit to the half-marathon ‘cause that’s crazy enough.” However, with pressure from the rest of our team, I committed to running the full 26.2 miles. That’s just a crazy ridiculous number that quite frankly, scares the snot out of me.
To begin preparing for this ridiculous adventure I utilized my iPhone and downloaded the app, “Get Running” and embarked on a journey that would have me off the couch and running a 5k (funny how I never really cared about “k’s” until I began running; that translates to a little more than 3 miles) in a mere 9 weeks. Please understand - I don’t run. Never have. Always hated running. Unfortunately, I don’t have 9 weeks to prepare because our 5k is in a mere 3 weeks and I’m only on week 5 of my training app. But today I reached a major milestone and I’m pumped! I ran .65 miles - straight, without stopping. That’s over half a mile. Without stopping. When I began this journey about a month ago, running one straight minute almost cost me my life! Today I ran 8 minutes straight and it felt great.
Why does this even matter? Because I’m not running for me. Every single time I feel like stopping (and that happens quite often), I think about WHY I’m running. And it’s not about me. I sincerely want to make a difference in the lives of people I will never meet. I want to know that because of my commitment and my ability to follow through, someone’s life was made - better. The great thing about it all? My story's already been made better, too - by running in circles around the cul-de-sac.
by Ruth Dammann
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