Purpose

thanks for the feedback and the encouragement. that helped me as i tried to sort out the results of the 20-miler. thats good to know that i can still make it and that my 20-miler wasn't a total disaster. i'm so relieved that you experienced marathoners aren't totally alarmed by my 20-miler. whew. (and woohoo!)
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i feel sort of like a heathen but something the pastor said today made me think of running! well i guess it doesn't take that much for me to compare something to running, but still... even in church?? heh.

he was talking about purpose and stuff. well i won't go into his message (even though i thought it was good), but anyway, i think i ran my 20 without any purpose in mind. i basically strapped on the headphones and just started running until 20 miles was over and done. i built up the experience all week but then when it came right down to it, i was a little distracted with some other things going on in life and i wasn't really TOTALLY focused on the run itself. maybe if i had thought about it as a little mini-marathon or at least pretended that i was running a race with purpose, i would have felt more accomplished when it was all over.

i think that in life, when you do things with purpse and focus on enjoying that exact moment, that is when you get the most out of experiences.

i will make sure to do that on marathon day. i don't want to get so caught up placing one foot in front of the other that i forget to enjoy the day and soak it all in. i want to soak it all in baby!! but also i am secretly afraid of totally hyperventilating and breaking down at the finish. heh.
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here are some pictures i took today near the "residential" Lake, located on the marathon route. we drove there after church to relax and kick back.
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weird plant.


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this is 3 pictures merged into one. i can see one imperfection but its sort of hard to spot. tricky!