La Sonya

Photos by Bethany Gerber Before the race Musings of an international runner. I can't believe that a year ago this month I first thought about running a half marathon. Me, the person who had never even ran a whole mile. I wrote about the fear of running and of committing to run the race. It was scary, it was big and I was sorely out of shape. I did it though. I ran my first half marathon . Brittany helped me, I owe her lots and lots. It's amazing to go back through and read what I wrote about running, how I learned to love it and gain the energy from it. I continued to run during the summer and once I got here to Tanzania I looked for my daily route I could take. Here in Usa River I found such great places to run and run I have been. I even got Kellie, the Havilah volunteer, to run some days with me. On the first day of meeting the volunteers from Cradle of Love I found out about a race taking place on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and I knew I was going to run another race. WAIT ....

It's spring and I think instead of getting cabin fever I have gotten running fever and it's catching! I love hearing how other people are thinking about or actually getting out and running! It's good, it's fun and what a great thing for your body and heart. It's good for my heart because I think while I run, I process life. When I'm not thinking about how I will get enough energy to make it up the hill, I am thinking about what God has done in my life or what He will do. My heart has a chance to get cleaned out. Today I ran with Brittany, I was tired to start with but I wanted to go. It's strange how I want to go even when my body doesn't. The extra milage was a bit hard but it can't kill me. I even attacked the hills with some vengeance and Brittany gave me encouragement by informing me I was going faster than I had before. I never thought I would be training for a Fresno 1/2 marathon. I'm excited about it. I can call myself a runner now right?

Today I have been given the number 1662. It is my official race number. I have paid my dues to race. I am in it to win it!

Last year when I lived in Skotselv, Norway I would often refer to my world as a snow globe, the kind you buy in the fancy souvenir shop. The fluffy cold snow floating gently down to the ground was a sight to behold. Walking a mile down the hill at temperatures below zero was not so terrible because I lived in a real snow globe. Today I live in a slushy machine, the kind you see in a 7-11. The snow is falling almost as fast as the snow is melting on the road. The flakes are big and fatty. When you go anywhere you have to watch out for the swirls and dips of slushy. Going for my long run today was like jogging in the middle of the mix cycle of the slushy machine. My feet were soaked, my hoodie drenched and my nose runny. But I ran, I was skeptical at first but after the initial shock of jogging in rain/snow/water I was good. Brittany and I plugged along at first at quite a fast pace as if somehow we were trying to outrun the falling snow. At mile 3 I slowed to a slush and she kep...

Since telling the world about my plan to run the half marathon with Brittany I have been motivated to run. Which is a good thing. However when the clock says 6:15 am I am not as motivated and very thankful for Brittany, who is eager and her energy and drive to run. It's funny because I want to run this. I want to accomplish this. Yet, it is easier for me to joke about how I hate it, be grouchy about running and talk about the negatives about the whole thing. Each time it comes up I fall back on fear and talk about how hard it will be. Why? What am I afraid of? Failure? I shouldn't be because it's only 13.1 miles and I can do it. That's why I'm training. I know that I can make it in under 4 hours, that I can run over half of the miles. Sure, looking at the map is overwhelming, looking at the clock in the am is daunting and pushing up all the hills is really hard. But I can do it. I can . I know I can. The second morning of running it was Brittany, myself and a frie...

I am a bit afraid to type this tonight. Simply because if I do it will be recorded in the world wide web. Forever someone will be able to pull it up and judge me. They will be able to take what I said and compare it to what I did. That's scary. That's permanent. That's real. I think however I need to say this, I need to type it out. I'm a kind of person who needs to be held accountable, I need encouragement, I need support and I need to do this. Tentatively I am planning. . . ah this is hard. . . Iamplanningonrunningahalfmarathon . I am planning on running a half marathon. There I said it, I typed it for the whole world to read and judge. To the world I say: Judge away. To my friends I say: Help! How it happened: Brittany came early to camp to help in the office and we were talking about going running together and after talking to another old camp staffer who is running a half marathon the first of May, Brittany and I talked about how it would be cool if we could run a ...