Run Forrest Run...

Extra... Extra...Read all about it "Sunday, March 29th - Stacy did a 1/2 Marathon!"

Yep, that's right folks! That's exactly what I did!
My friend Melissa had asked me if I would do the Knoxville 1/2 marathon with her. I thought as long as I don't have to run it, count me in. I had joined a group that would meet early Saturday mornings and walk between 3 to 6 miles, there are other groups that would run or do intervals. The majority of the people in the groups were getting ready for the Country Music Marathon and 1/2 Marathon being held in Nashville April 25th.

Melissa lives in a very hilly subdivision, so on Sundays when we could get together, we would walk in her subdivision, to prepare ourselves for Knoxville!

Most of you know that I am not a morning person and it was hard to get out of bed at 6 am on Saturday mornings, but it was neat to be done walking around 9 am and still have the whole day to do whatever need to be done. I also met some really nice people. I'm going to continue to walk with some of the girls even when the Nashville marathon is over with, it will be great accountability to get out and walk.

Anyway, Melissa and I had left Saturday morning to head to Knoxville, stopping off in Crossville at the outlet mall to do a little damage in the shopping department, it was fun though! We got to our hotel and checked in. Melissa had done all the arrangements before I had even signed on to join her with the marathon. We were less then a block away from where the race was going to start and the room was great!!!!

1982 World's Greatest Fair ball

I'm going to need some help with this one!

We went and got registered for the race

I loved my bed! You can see I had already claimed mine by sitting on it an wrinkling it!!!

I know...I know...who takes a picture of the sink, I just loved it. I would like o have my bathroom like that, except with the bowl sitting on the counter and of course it would be bigger!

We had met up with another friend Sally, who also walks with me on Saturdays, and Sally's sister Rebecca for supper, the big pasta meal! It still seems silly to me to eat this huge pasta meal and bread the night before a race, but it really does work!

This was a neat restaurant/brewery! On the first floor in the middle of the restaurant was a huge bar. I think this had been a old warehouse. They had pool tables set up in the back!

Melissa, Sally, Rebecca and me
Yes, that is a pitcher of water in front of Melissa! I told her to just use a straw!
I am just jealous, I wish I could drink that much water!

Melissa and I tried going to bed early, but for one thing Knoxville is a hour a head of Nashville, so when we tried going to bed at 9:30 pm, it was only 8:30 pm. So we stayed up I think till about 10 or 11 pm watching tv. Then we were both awakened by two girls that apparently thought that it was 4:10pm instead of am. But Melissa went and had a "come to Jesus" meeting with them and they went away quietly!

The race started at 7 am, it was still dark out and my adrenaline started bumping when I saw all the people. I actually started the race running and probably ran 1.5 - to 2 miles right away. I had lost Melissa about 2 blocks into the race. Her walking is my jogging, she had started jogging, so I told her to go on without me.

It was great to see all these people that came out on there lawns with encouraging cheers or signs. One of my favorite signs said "Piggyback rides $20", a little kid was holding it. I told him I might take him up on it later in the race!

I had not taken my ipod because I thought I would be able to talk to people, but this seemed to be more of a serious event to people, so there wasn't a lot of conversation to be had. I was able to use that time to talk to God, pleading for help! Ha Ha, I'm just kidding! I only pleaded for strenghth at mile 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13! Anyway, I had asked God to give me a word or show me something, something just for me! I will tell you what he showed me at the end of the race!

I had alternated between running and walking most of the race. There were also bands playing at different locations throughout the race and there was one area in this subdivision (around mile 8) that had this massive stereo system set up that was cranking out the music! When I was going by, they were playing "Rocky Top"! What an inspiration for me, that's just what I needed, thank you God! When I came to mile 9, that's when I had hit the wall. The miles seemed longer and I was wanting it to be over. Sally had given us each a packet of energy jelly beans, at least that's what they looked like, we each had to close our eyes and pick a packet, I picked the orange bag, how fun!) So I started eating those and they helped and it took my mind off what I was doing!

Melissa and I had called each other a couple of times wondering where each of us were at. We figured that I was about a mile behind her. Which was really good for me!

My goal was to finish the race in 3.5 hours, the reason being, they were going to start opening up the streets and were going to start asking the marathoners to use the sidewalks. Which is no big thing, I just wanted to be done by then. I had called Melissa around mile 11 and she said that the time was showing 2 hours and 46 minutes, she was almost done. When I heard that, I almost started crying, because I knew I had just a couple more miles and I would be done, close to 3 hours! That pumped me up and I decided that I was going to start back jogging again!

Now do you want to hear about what God did for me and showed me??? As soon as I got to to top of the hill and I could see the stadium (University of Tennessee Stadium, the finish line was on the 50 yard line)! I just started running, not jogging, I was running. I had already done 12, almost 13 miles and God gave me the strenghth to run to the stadium and when I ran into the stadium, there was no one a head of me that I could see and there was no one behind me, they announced my name over the loud speaker and I was greeted with cheers and applause, this moment was all mine!!!! God had been with me the whole time, encouraging me, giving me strength and then cheering for me at the finish line! Thank you Lord!!!! I am so undeserving, yet he still finds favor in me!
I can only imagined that this is just a part of what Heaven is going to be like when we are called home!!!
My final time was 3 hours and 3 minutes and 55 seconds!