Running a 10K, also known as, Learning to Love my Body

I posted below about my decision to enter a 10K race. I've run a couple of miles here and there for the past 4 years, but I have never trained for a race before. 

David has been telling me for years that running is more mental than it is physical. I've never really believed him. However, when I was discerning whether or not I could sign up for a 10K race, I realized how many negative things I thought about myself when I was running. I had what felt like a news ticker scrolling silently at the bottom of my mind when I was running that said things like this: You're not really a runner. If people saw you running, they would laugh at you. Who do you think you are? You're too tired to do this. You're too lazy to do this. If you tried to run a 10K, you would be the slowest runner there. 

You get the idea. 

I decided that this race was important to me. Not only because I was running for a cause I believed in, but because it would require me to change the way I talked to myself. It would require me to be kinder to myself. To learn to appreciate what my body is capable of doing. 

Last week, I figured it was time to get serious about training. I told myself that I was going to run 3 miles without stopping. (I've never done that before) Before I got on the treadmill, I told my body how grateful I was for it. I told it that it was amazing. That I didn't care if I was the slowest runner at the race, I was just grateful for legs that worked, for a heart that pumped blood to my legs, for lungs that filled me with oxygen. And as each mile passed me by, I told my body what a phenomenal job it was doing. My new ticker would read something like this: Great job, body! You are doing such an amazing job! I know you would LIKE to stop, but I'd really appreciate if you could run just a LITTLE bit further. Thank you SO much for cooperating!

You may think I'm a total looney, but it's working! Last week, I ran a total of 10 miles and this week I have increased my daily mileage to 4 miles. I still have 2.2 miles to go in order to be ready. I still may be the slowest runner at the race. But, I am learning to love my body and that is enough. 

Run for Congo Women

I've followed the work of Women For Women International for a couple of years so, when I heard they were hosting a 10K in Colorado, I decided to sign up!

Here's what their website says about the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

Over the past decade, a brutal conflict has devastated much of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), leaving the country without a functioning infrastructure and most families in a state of crisis. More than five million people have died as a result of the violent conflict, most through disease and malnutrition and. Women are often directly targeted by combatants using rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

 

Women for Women International in DR Congo is currently assisting almost 7,000 women through financial support and a one year program that includes rights awareness, health education, and skills training. The organization works with communities in Bukavu, Goma, Fizi and Baraka in the heavily affected South and North Kivu provinces in Eastern Congo.

There are two ways that YOU can help:

1. Sponsor a woman living in the DRC. For $27 a month, you can help change the life of a Congolese woman. The direct assistance from sponsorship will help them to pay for food, medicine, and other lifesaving needs. It also supports the educational efforts of Women for Women International. To become a sponsor, click here. 

2. Participate in my 10K fundraiser by donating to my page. Make a secure, online donation by clicking here. 

The race is Saturday, September 19th, so please help me reach my goal before then!

"There are plenty of people who pray for peace, but if praying were enough, it would have come to be." 

--Jewel

David's 14er

Yesterday David went with our friend, Matt, and hiked a 14er. (A peak that is higher than 14,000 feet) They hiked Mt. Antero and took some incredible pictures! 

I ♥ Colorado

I am beginning to feel like my blog is a real "downer" SO, in case you're feeling that way too, here are some pictures from Carrie and Greg's recent visit to Colorado. We drove to the top of Mt. Evans and got some spectacular views of the state I have fallen in love with. =)

Called by God, Ordained by the Church

Last week I took United Methodist Polity and it was impossible not to face my lack of progress in the candidacy process. I am MORE than 2/3 done with my seminary education, I will graduate in June, and I cannot get certified. I didn't seek out certification until November of 2007, even though many of my friends started seminary as certified candidates. However, I never anticipated that, 21 months later, I still wouldn't be certified. 

The reasons for this are many--some of them are my fault and some of them are not. (Although, when I cried to my pastor at Trinity yesterday his first words to me were "This is unacceptable." Not the fact that I was crying, but the fact that I've had so much trouble getting people in my conference to pay any attention to me, respond to emails, phone calls, etc) 

I am feeling frustrated. I cry when I think about it. I feel anxious about graduating from seminary and having no job. The lack of progress makes me question my call; I can't help but think that maybe I'm not really called. The Church doesn't really want me. 

BUT, when I said these things to Greta, she told me, "Tiffany, there is a difference between being ordained by the Church and being called by God." And, after being in Israel/Palestine, I have to tell myself that she's right. Regardless of whether or not I can get ordained in my home conference, I know that I am called by God to serve in ministry, whether I am ordained by the Church or not. 

I also take comfort in Psalm 139, which was read in worship this past Sunday: 

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down, 

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, 

O Lord, you know it completely. 

You hem me in, behind and before, 

and lay your hand upon me. 

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; 

it is so high that I cannot attain it. 

Where can I go from your spirit? 

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me, 

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night,"

even the darkness is not dark to you; 

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; 

that I know very well. 

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret, 

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written 

all the days that were formed for me, 

when none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, 

O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

I try to count them--they are more than the sand;

I come to the end--I am still with you. 

The Children's March

I wrote about the march to Tuba in an earlier blog post here. Here is a short video of the kids walking to Tuba. 

A couple of videos

Here are a couple of videos that were taken in Tuba. The first one is long, however, if you skip to the end, you will get to meet one of the shepherds! The footage is pretty shaky, but it gives you a sense of how young the shepherds are, how many sheep they are responsible for, and what the terrain is like. 

Click here for the first one and here for the second one. 

The second video is also long (almost 4 minutes) and was taken by a fellow delegation member while we were detained. The older man with the weapon (and the red crocs!) is "settler security" and he is arguing with Shaun, one of the CPT full-time staff. Ahmed, in orange, is filming the entire conversation with his video camera from B'tselem. You can also see how young the soldiers are in the background. What you can't tell from the video is how bleepin' hot it was...