Birmingham Half Marathon

This was my second race in England and my second PR. No I don't think that it is the Fish & Chips or all of the ales. In all honesty it might be a combination of the cooler temperatures, with all of the walking and the fact that my body has finally recovered from and absorbed all of those hard 70 mile weeks before Boston.

I apologize if this post is too much about running or too much about my faith in God. Both things are very dear to me and so this post may be a bit more personal than the rest.

I will start by saying that today I ran a New York Marathon qualifying time. Still this post is not to aggrandize myself and my meager running ability. I was never a good athlete in school and will never get payed to run. For so many years I have run to deal with my insecurity, life's disappointments, failed relationships and on and on. The only reason I can run is that God has blessed me with my health and strength but that fades and will fade. I learned that lesson all too harshly this fall. A very dear friend, a British man whom I thought I would have a pint with this fall in London died of Cancer. This friend and former pastor made a huge impact on my life and I think he finished his race strong. Today I knew that I had put myself in good position to run a New York qualifier but about mile 11 or 12 was beginning to get tired. I was running behind a man whose singlet read, canceresearch.co.uk, I immediately thought of Nick. Nick finished his race strong because he never lost his faith. Even though he was in so much pain at the end of his life he still praised God. As a result I am not angry at God or disenchanted by Nick's death but encouraged by his faith and his perseverance. In my little way I knew that I had to push through the pain strong to the end today so that I could say that, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race". I want to be careful with this analogy because I know that this was hard for everyone and nothing like an unimportant road race. What I want to say is that God used Nick in so many powerful ways and I admire him for being strong until the end.

Birmingham put on a beautiful race. The fans were out, the elite runners were there and I had a blast. Around mile 7 or 8 when I was really just hitting my stride I thought about Chariots of Fire and the quote, "when I run I feel his pleasure". I am thankful to God for the gift of running. In Boston I saw the crowds as hostile aggressors closing in around me. I built a wall against them so as to not let them in but I took a completely different approach with the fans in England. I high fived the kids and the old ladies as I ran by. I embraced the English city of Birmingham and had fun with them. It seems that they had fun with me as well.