Well with not long to go and quite frankly very little ability of 'running' anywhere I thought I better take the opportunity to go out and do a bit of training. I usually do this with my friend and it consists of fast walking and chatter with a bit of a token downhill sprint if the gradient obliges.
But today I decided to go out on my own and see if I could really push myself. Well I did - onto all fours, but we'll get to that in a minute.
So today while out I was repeating the mantra in my head 'pick your feet up, pick your feet up'. I started off walking briskly, made sure no-one was looking and broke out into a run, I must've covered at least 15 yards before I had to stop and catch my breath. I was a little disappointed I hadn't gone further, but not to worry; I picked my landmark, the start of a long straight road and started to run again. I ran for a minute and didn't need to stop so I carried on to the first junction, crossed the road, didn't need to stop, so I carried on. I'd been running for about 2 1/2 minutes without stopping and didn't feel like I needed to 'I'm Forrest Gump' I thought, 'there's a chance I might actually be able to do this run' I started to feel really confident, thoughts of half marathons filled my mind and which charidee's I would like to raise money for.........the next junction came and went, I didn't need to stop, so I didn't.
Then into my vision came the incline 'don't panic' I told myself, 'you've done really well, just slow down and walk for a bit' so I fixed my sights on the landmark at the bottom of the hill 'if i can just make it to the dog poo bin........' then it happened.
It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that running and me aren't natural bed-fellows and there would be nothing for it but for me to humbly withdraw from the race. I started to compose my apologetic resignation in my mind and did some quick calculations as to how I could match the money already raised so as to soften the blow.
Clearly the fact I have two left feet is a divine message from God Himself that He doesn't want me to run for the 'poor, oppressed and needy' who am I to ignore that sort of intervention...........or maybe it was a message from God telling me that things aren't straightforward, you are going to hit obstacles (in my case, usually the pavement) but the end goal is in sight and if you persevere you will reach that goal and your commitment to it will be rewarded.
Fortunately I started to believe the latter, only this morning I had been looking at Exodus to Deuteronomy, where the Israelites faced many trials and wandered for years until finally reaching the promised land of Canaan, which goes to show that studying the Old Testament can be relevant to today! God had made a covenant with them that He would bless them with land and descendants and that covenant although it took time was realised.
And our sponsors have made a covenant with us, that they will donate to the worthy causes we are supporting if we complete the race. So I may stumble and trip my way through the whole thing but I will will reach the promised land on 20th May!
