Boston Bound 2011!

Well, friends. . . It's the last Saturday in October. The beautiful fall weather held out for one more glorious weekend run today. I was able to run in the running capris and just a long-sleeve shirt and enjoy the low 50s temperatures. Marvelous!! :) I can't help but think our days are numbered, so it's important to savor each and every run before I'm out there in five layers of clothes freezing my tail off. :)

I had wanted to blog about this when it happened, but I just never carved out the time. But...It looks like I'll be Boston-bound again this spring!! Yee haw!! :) :) The Boston Athletic Association did registration a little differently this year, only opening it mid-October. And it filled up SUPER fast.

I hopped on my computer right at 8:00 a.m. that morning to register and the site was just jammed! I tried about 5 times and got absolutely nowhere. That's when I had a little mental battle.

"Do I even want to run this? Why am I doing this again? It's so hard! Would it be such a bad thing if I didn't make it in? Should I just quit trying to register and just take it easy and find another spring marathon?"

Now, here's the thing. It's good to not push yourself to excessive extremes and get carried away by things in life that don't matter as much as others (i.e. the Lord and people), but there's also a certain responsibility we have to extend ourselves when it comes to using the gifts that God has given us. (That's a mega-long sentence. Does it make sense?)

I think we can get carried away by our world's push to "relax" and "take it easy." "Oh, everyone is so busy. You should just relax when you can. Take it slow. Slow down."

Okay, all of this is good if you're excessively busy, but it can also be horribly wasteful. We can get so caught up in conserving our energy and protecting ourselves from busyness that we actually get lazy. I think that was where I would have gone if I chose not to register for Boston.

After a few minutes, I thought about it. "Jill, seriously, what would you RATHER do than run Boston next spring?" Easy answer: NOTHING! :) Dude, it's a privilege and a blessing to be qualified to run in the super bowl of running events, and I'm going to take it! Who knows how many times I'll be able to qualify in my life. But I do know that it's a HUGE blessing from the Lord and a door HE opened to put me in there. Especially considering the fact that I finally did get through the registration process online (which I tried again after my mental battle), which was something that a ton of people weren't able to do that day.

So, I'm one of the 25,000 blessed individuals who made it through the registration in time to sign up for the Boston Marathon in 2011. Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord! I know it's a blessing and a calling to be heading back. May every step bring glory to my Lord. I'm already praying for a mind that is focused on bringing Him into the process. After all...He's what it's all about.

Love you, friends!
-Jill