The History

I have always wanted to run the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.  But I was never in shape to train, and let’s face it, life happens quick.  For me, once I left high school and cross country behind, I had college, got married, had a kid, started a career, had another kid, and that’s where I began my half marathon journey.  Let me say that a lot of things have changed with running since I was in school.  Technology has obviously progressed, along with sports science, and I was oblivious to a lot of this.  It was this time a year ago that I decided that I was going to run the OKC Memorial Half Marathon.  To be honest I really had no clue in Hell what I was doing, because I could barely run 2 miles without having to walk, so completing a half marathon seemed like the furthest thing from reality.  I had barely been able to complete a 5K the summer before so my confidence wasn’t exactly at an all time high.

Training

I decided that if I was going to run the half, I needed to run a 5K in under 30 minutes for starters, so I completed two of them last summer, attaining my goal, and felt comfortable about pursuing the half.  My addiction had begun.  Training began on New Years Day, so instead of being consumed by bowl games and the National Championship, I focused on training.  Training was not easy.  Especially in January.  Especially before I went to work.  I think at some point I wore 3 or 4 layers of clothes just so I wouldn’t freeze my butt off in the cold Oklahoma weather.  I kept telling myself that the January workouts would pay off in April, and all I could do was believe I was heading in the right direction.  I gradually got faster, but as any runner can attest, this was slower rather than faster.  February rolled around and I got hurt.  I didn’t run much that month as I injured my left calf, and then at the end of February I had a high ankle sprain in my left foot that I confused for a gout flare up.  I was thankful it wasn’t gout.  Training resumed in March, and that was the month I learned about dehydration first-hand.  I never drank enough water and always felt sick.  Note to self.  As I could see April creeping around the corner I thought I could finish this race, but there was one more lesson that I had to learn.

Breathing

I had never paid attention to my breathing pattern in high school or at any other time for that matter, and it took a $20 book from Runner’s World to change all that.  I read Running On Air in about 5 days, and in it I learned that when I run, my breathing and footsteps were not moving in rhythm, and I wasn’t breathing from my belly like I should have, but from my lungs, which is a no-no.  At any rate, I started to figure out the breathing rhythm when I also realized, I shouldn’t listen to music and run.  That sounds sacrilegious to a lot of runners, but in not being distracted by music, I was allowed to listen to my body and how it felt during a run.  Made sense.

The Race

I won’t bore with details from the race, but just some small observations.  First, there were a LOT of people running this race.  The staging area I was in was packed like sardines.  When the horn went off to start, my group waited at least another 7 to 8 minutes to get rolling.  The first few miles were full of people running too fast (probably myself included if I’m being honest, although I wasn’t going fast), seeing lots of support and enjoying the beautiful weather.  The race got tough for me at mile 8 when I hit Classen Boulevard and hit the wall.  I hauled it in to get done in my original goal, under 2 hours and 15 minutes, but I was tired of running.  I was glad for the race to be over.  My favorite moment in the race though was seeing this elderly gentlemen wearing a Tommy Bahama inspired outfit drinking a Martini and smoking a cigar.  I was envious of this guy and wanted to be in his shoes and I wasn’t even tired.

Next?

I have no idea what I’m going to do next racing wise.  I’m taking the next two weeks easy, forming a plan to lose another 25-30 lbs., and hope to come up with a gameplan.  I’m sure I’ll run this half again, it may be next year, it may not be.  I think it’s safe to say though that I’m not running another half this year.  Maybe a 5K or a 10K.  And training. 

Ten years of marriage has taught me to understand that I am at best priority number two in my house, but also am responsible for all that happens underneath my roof.  The first ten years were by no means easy, but I hope as we embark on the next ten that we would live in the grace that the Lord has given us.

It’s funny because I remember a bunch of little details from that day.  That morning the Columbia space shuttle exploded over Texas, and I could see the smoke from it in the sky.  I accidentally ran into my soon-to-be wife at our new residence before the ceremony (don’t worry, we didn’t see each other).  It was unusually warm that day, especially for February.  We had the wedding in my parent’s living room, which impressive enough, fit about 70 people and a few uninvited guests.  My good, good friend Erick played an ancient Charlie Hall song on my Fender amp that was picking up the play by play of the OU men’s basketball game because my parents lived not far from some radio towers.  When I think about all the little things that made that day, I laugh, and I think tomorrow we’ll reminisce and think of other random things that made the day great.

Everyone likes to use the standard Biblical  texts about love or marriage when it comes to their wedding ceremony, and I don’t think we were any exception, but if I could go back and do things over again, I would want Habakkuk 3:17-18, which says:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Here’s to ten more years sweetie of whatever comes our way.  Christ is faithful to both of us.  Love you.

You’re not crazy.  A majority of people think running one mile is plain crazy, so when you tell people that you’re training for a 5K, you may get that glossed-over look from some people who actually think you need a CAT scan.  Don’t worry, this is normal.  But here’s my comment; set a goal and stick to it.  For example, I’m running a race at the end of August, and guess what, it’s hot in August!  So if summer racing is in your plans, you either have to make the decision to train in the morning (preferably early) or evening (late).  Workout frequency is up to you, but you need to push yourself.  The race won’t be easy, so practice shouldn’t be either.  Just as a side note on this, if the race you’re going to run is happening in the morning, you need to train some in the morning, that way your body can get used to being up at that time and you can build a routine.  Besides running in the morning is better than the evening in my opinion.

Be realistic.  If you are running your first 5K, your goal should hopefully be to finish your race in under 30 minutes, but don’t live and die by that number.  Be flexible (no pun intended).  If you have health related issues that keep you training, that’s not the end of the world.  The key is consistency, not necessarily speed.  Also try to do your best in gauging how fast your race pace needs to be.  Let me tell you why this is important; when you run with a large number of others, it is so incredibly easy to let your pace fly right out the window.  For example,  let’s say in your 5K you want to run an 8-minute mile for all three miles.  I can almost guarantee that the first mile will look more like a 6-minute mile and then you get winded faster and earlier because you used up so much energy the first mile trying to establish position and rhythm.  There’s nothing wrong with getting a good start, but don’t do something rash to put the rest of your race in jeopardy.  But then again maybe you can pull off a 6-minute mile for three miles, then all I can say is rock on. 

See the big picture.  Some people train for a race, run the race, then fall off the running map.  While it may be the norm to do this, even before your first race, prepare to train for another 5K or for a longer distance race.  That way your mind stays connected to the running world.  Besides, how competitive would you be if you just ran one race and never saw how much you could improve?  But while you train for your race, take everything into consideration: sleep, free time, diet, and other factors that contribute to your overall health.  The two weeks before the race is not the time to begin really getting into the meat of your workouts; those should be long past.  Hopefully the last two weeks you are fine tuning areas of your run that will help you shave off those extra seconds that can make or break your racing goals.

Get ready.  I am by no means a dietician or a running doctor, but the two days before the race need to be watched carefully if you want to do well.  This includes but is not limited to, carbing up the two days before, having all your running gear packed, directions to the course (without a GPS), knowing where the start and finish line are, know where you want to park, having the race course mentally memorized and ready to fight through the fatigue that will come, making sure you have your racing packet with bib and all your needs, etc.  There are a ton of great free online resources for all this stuff, but the point is, be prepared (yes, the Boy Scout motto is correct).

Enjoy the race.  This always gets overstated, so all I’ll say is, if you can’t have fun racing, then there’s no point in my mind to do this sort of thing.  I mean, who in their right mind goes out to run (it’s the most basic form of survival for crying out loud?!?) 3.2 miles just for duty?  Running should be a way to have fun, relieve stress, and kill some calories while doing it.

ryan

I don’t really consider myself old at any stretch, even though the gray hairs in my head and beard would like to argue, but I began to think about being young and old. I remember myself at 17 or 18 and I see things now that I couldn’t appreciate then, but I also saw things, certain desires that have not at all changed. Eighteen year old me was learning acoustic guitar because Charlie Hall was in my world a hero, and I tried playing like him even though I wasn’t that good. I also wanted a Hammond organ and Leslie, even though back then I had absolutely no clue about how the thing worked.

But one thing has remained constant; I still have the same desire for God as I did in my youth. Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart”. Most people seem to think that if they love God, obey Him, or even delight in Him, that they will get what they want in life (clothes, fancy cars, CD players). But to have this mindset is false because when you or I truly delight in Him, He is our reward; in the end we get more of Him, which is what our hearts truly long for in the first place. I’m convinced a vast majority of Christians don’t understand this nor do their lives reflect this. I want to love God with the same passion as I did when I was 18, but not for my own sake, but so I can get more of Him!

Last week I had a gout flare up in my right foot, and I thought it would take a miracle of modern science to walk without pain again.  I took my allopurinol and felt better the next day.  I took my allopurinol every day since and last night before I went to bed my right foot hurt again.  (I know this is all uber exciting, but I am going somewhere with this, I promise…)  As I got ready for work this morning, took my medicine and then took four ibuprofren and thought all would be well.  Apparently, taking any kind of pain relief medication in addition to allopurinol is not a great idea, as it doesn’t help with the pain at all, and it only makes it worse.  Normally a steroid drug would help out better, but alas, I had none of them.

So the point I want to emphasize is two fold; a) having gout sucks, and b) sometimes you have to put up with illnesses, allergies, and general complications in life that you don’t choose.  Even if you take care of your body, eat right, exercise (which I am running again), you can’t guarantee your health.  No one can.  It’s not a fun fact, but as we age we have to deal with these things.  I pray my gout flares are minimized, and to help out with this I am going to try to lay off the red meat for awhile not to mention the beer, but it will be worth it to not have the flare ups that I’ve been having the past five days.  So if you have gout, take your medicine, and lay off the red meat and booze.  Oh, one more thing; I found out today that I have vikings in my lineage.  Maybe that’s why I can grow a boss beard….

If you know me, you know I’m a Rich Mullins fan, and when he passed away in 1997, Songs came out showcasing Rich’s best hits.  The opening track on that album is “Sing Your Praise to The Lord”, which a lot of people think Amy Grant wrote since she recorded it first in 1982, but Rich was the author of the song.  I wasn’t the biggest fan of this song the first few times I heard it, but like so many of Rich’s songs, it quickly grew on me until I could listen to the track several times over and not be tired of it.  So here is the reason for the post: in the bridge of “Sing Your Praise to The Lord” Rich essentially quotes Scripture and a long time ago I knew where it was because my Bible read about verbatim as the song goes.  I hardly ever do this since I’m a huge fan of the ESV translation, but here is the NIV translation of Psalm 113:3-6.

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.

The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

Those three verses are so sweet to me.  There’s never been any rhyme or reason to it to be honest, but it has always moved me.  So when I had this song in my head the other day and couldn’t find this little chunk of Scripture, I almost lost my mind searching the Psalms for it!  But I’m happy to report after a few manual searches plus a Google search I eventually got there.    If you want to watch Rich perform this song the year he passed, you can view it here.  I think I say this a lot, but here’s one more time: I miss Rich.

ryan

Take another step away
From the world I thought I knew
Take another step, closer to You

I know who You say You are
You say You want my joy
But my life’s full of religion
Yet Your promise stays the same…

Heal my heart and make it new
Help me fall in love with You
You know and search my ways
I will follow all my days…

Once my life was sorrow
All I knew was pain
But Your grace looked down upon me
Comforting my shame…

Walking from the man I was
Stumbling towards the light
I fall into the grace You are
And everything’s alright…

Heal my heart and make it new
Help me fall in love with You
You know and search my ways
I will follow all my days

Once bound but now I’m free
Just to walk with You my King
And You’ve called me as Your own
My life is Yours alone….

My Reformation Study Bible says the following about free agency: “All humans are free agents in the sense that they make their own decisions about what they will do, choosing as they please in the light of their conscience, inclinations, and thoughts.  They are answerable to God and to the rest of humanity for their choices.”  So our little t shirt example that I started out with would clearly be an example of free agency, and not a difference between Calvinism and Arminianism.  So with that said, what is free will?

We could exert a lot of time and energy discussing what free will is or isn’t, but a simple definition would suffice for our time.  “Free will has been defined by Christian teachers from the second century  on as the ability to choose any at all of the moral options offered in a given situation.” (Reformation Study Bible, pg. 1078, The Freedom and Bondage of the Will).  So proponents of free will theology assert (unless I have misunderstood) that a person can choose Christ to save them, and the initiation rested with the moral choice of the individual.  Even as I type these words, my heart hurts because that is simply not the Gospel.  I love how Charles Spurgeon explained this in his work, A Defense of Calvinism:

“One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession”.

See Spurgeon got it right.  He asked the right questions, and agrees with the prophet Jonah, that “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).  God saw nothing in you that was appealing to Him so that He would accept you.  This is just one of the plethora of reasons that the Gospel is so beautiful and why we must cling to it dearly!  For while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)

So  while free will did exist for a brief time in human history, it was demolished by the Fall.  People don’t like to hear that today because I think it takes away the sense of control over their lives, and if there is anything that I know about people, they want to control their own destiny.  I laugh at the phrase, but that’s another discussion.  The point is this: we can not choose Christ if He does not call to us through the preaching and proclamation of His Word, and that has to be uttermost in our churches.  You can only choose wrongly until you are His.  Praise Him that His call is effectual; it will chase you down even if you resist at first.  His Holy Spirit will haunt you, His Word will get to you in a way that nothing else ever has before.  He loves you and will stop at nothing to get you.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that you don’t choose, and in the end, that’s not even really bad news.  So don’t worry about the choices that you make everyday, God is not looking down from Heaven saying, “Nope, I had him down for wearing blue socks instead of the red ones”.  Please relax and enjoy life, but also remember He’s sovereign over all of it.  Peace.

First, the last couple months of 2011 were harder than I gave it credit for.  Most years I can cruise the last two months of the year due to the holidays and all the extra time off I normally have.  This year, I got to buy two cars, get a 7 year old ready for being a ringbearer in a wedding, and let my wife quit her job so she could stay at home with our little one.  That’s a lot of change in a very short amount of time, so to say it’s been an adjustment is a total underestimation of the situation!   But I’ll take it because I know as stressed as my wife can get being at home sometimes, she’d rather be at home then working.  And as much as I miss the extra income, it’s nice to know I don’t have to go figure out where my kids are everyday when I get home from work.  But you get the point….

Secondly, and this is where I wanted to make the bigger announcement, I’ve been thinking/praying over the past year about recording a 5 song EP.  Not top studio quality mind you, but something that I can say is mine and I can give to friends, family, and maybe score an occasional gig out of.  Over the past year I’ve slowly been rebuilding a very small but modest home studio, and I feel like I finally have all the pieces in place to be able to pull this off.  I’ve got an idea how I want this to sound like, and I think I can get the players I want for this project, so I’m revamping a few older songs that I’ve written and never recorded, and hope that they sound better years later.  But I’ve been thinking, and when I was young(er) I always wanted to put an album together one day, and I thought it would never happen because I didn’t sing great or couldn’t play any instrument.  At least one of those issues has been resolved, at least I hope!  But more details will be revealed as I put them into action.  All things taken into account, I hope to be done with my EP by May or early June.

So that’s all for tonight’s edition of my ramblings.  Stay tuned, because next time we will be discussing the difference between free will and free agency.  Fun topic!