Ralston Creek Half Marathon, Arvada, Colorado, February 12, 2012

Race Number 47


New Year's DAY Half in TX!

I have discovered you don’t need any skill to run. In golf, by contrast, you have to hit your drives straight enough to stay in the fairway, and that requires thinking about a dozen technical details of your golf swing. In tennis, you had better master the backhand stroke, or your rallies will be short lived. In swimming…. well, you’ll drown if you don’t develop some skill. Not so with running. We all know how to run or at least walk. Notwithstanding, I have always been a pretty slow and plodding runner. After my back surgeries, I have learned to relish the fact that I can run right now (and for that matter, walk), hoping it does not end anytime soon.

The Ralston Creek Half Marathon was one of those moments to relish. The race started at 9:00 am and it was very cold (it was 10 degrees at race start and at race end the tempature was a smoldering 32 degrees) as 500 brave souls ran a challenging course on bike path and a steady climb to the foothills. At mile 7.75 the course climbed through switchbacks up Ralston Mesa, a "meer" 500 foot climb. 

New Year's EVE Half in TX

I also enjoyed being reminded that rolling hills and mesa's are always unerring discoverers of weakness, and I am pleased to report (ha!) that the hills, on this course, discovered my weaknesses. My legs and lungs burned as I trudged up some of those “gentle rolling hills.” The race took a lot out of me. Yet, it is usually the most pleasant exhaustion I know with the expenditure of  2,000+ calories and a few pounds of sweat.

This must be why I can't remember ever having a really bad run or a bad race. As a half marathon runner, I've been hotter, colder, wetter, and more tired than I've ever wanted to be. I've been ready to stop hours before I could. I've run on roads and courses that I swear I'll never travel again or even want to see again. But none of these times were bad. I'm not really sure how they could be bad. I suppose if comfort is your sole criterion for happiness, then being soaked to the skin with your own sweat and completely exhausted with two miles still to go to complete the race, would be bad. If being so cold you can barely feel your face or so hot you can feel your brain turning to a soufflé makes you unhappy….. well, then you may have had some bad runs or bad races. But not me.

Every race holds both the promise of enlightenment and the threat of embarrassment. Each mile has the capacity to embrace you or punish you. Every race has the potential to be a celebration or a humiliation. The excitement comes in never knowing for sure which it will be.  Kind of like "a box of chocolates." (Forrest Gump)

So if people were possessed by reason, running half marathons would not work. But we are not creatures of reason. We are creatures of passion.  With that final thought, race number 47 is in the books and number 48, in April, in Hollywood, California will challenge my next set of passionate strides!!

Prayer List: Miles 1-3: Theresa Flood. The niece of my co-VP, Nora. Theresa was involved in a horrible car accident in Wisconsin, yet is recovering nicely.   Miles 4-6: Emily Bickel, daughter of our Office Manager, Marcia.  Emily has four choices for college and is trying to decide. Miles 7-9: Shea McNally, grandson to the Mayor of Westminster, Colorado. Shea is battling cancer. Miles 10-13: Pastor Chuck Smith Sr. Pastor of "Big" Calvary Chapel in Southern California.  Chuck is battling a strange lung cancer. He has never smoked a cigarette in his entire life.