Run, Forrest, Run!

I don't really know what happened today, but lets just say the Lord has blessed my legs... After years of trying to break the perpetual 10 minute mile, I broke it by a longshot today. I hope this was not just a fluke, but in all likelihood it was. The stars must be aligned just right or something. It was so beautiful outside today, I thought about running all day. I pictured myself running as I was walking around the plant in slacks and loafers. So, despite a long and busy day at work and staying late and having to study for a test tomorrow night, I changed and hit the streets as soon as I got home. I decided to run my 5-mile out and back route, and I seriously wasn't sure if I could run the whole thing. My goal was to get home in 50 minutes, partly because I wanted to stay under or at the 10-minute mile and partly because I was pressed for time. Well, I think I ran the first mile in about 8 minutes. Wow! I thought I better slow down so I wouldn't keel over after the second mile, but I kept a pretty decent pace. I could actually tell that I was running faster than normal, but it felt good, so I just kept running. I got to my turnaround point at 22:18. Ok, stop here and notice that this is LESS than a 9-minute mile pace (which would have been 22:30 for the 2.5 miles). So I turned around and just kept running, thinking if I could run a 10-minute pace on the way back I would be very pleased with the run. I got back to my house at 45:37! I have been looking at my watch all night just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I drove out the route beforehand, so I know it was 5 miles. So I know this is a long story, but please forgive me because I am beside myself over this run. With the total time, it comes out to 9 minutes, 7.39 seconds per mile. I know that isn't fast in running world standards, but compared to the unbreakable 10-minute mile this is unbelievable. I decided a few weeks ago that my goal for the upcoming Cooper River Bridge Run 10K would be to finish in under 1 hour. My past performances were 1:09:56 (2003) and 1:17:53 (2004). At today's pace, I will have no problem meeting that goal. Like I said, I hope this wasn't a fluke. Barring unforeseen injuries, I think I will make it under the goal time. And now, if you are still reading, let me remind you of what my blog said on November 8, 2005: "I was just happy to run, even just a few blocks, and get some fresh air." So just a little under 4 months ago, running a few blocks was a major milestone. I could continue to drone on about this and add in lots of spiritual encouragement, but I will leave it at that.

Continue to bless these legs, O Lord, for they art thine, not mine.

Deep Thought

"Work: it's as interesting as you find it to be."

This little nugget of wisdom just came to me like a vision, and I sensed that the world should be privy to such probing depth of thought.

Weekend

Well, my birthday got off to an early start on Friday as three of my friends treated me to a weekend away in St. Augustine at the beach. We stayed at Holly's parents' condo right on the beach, which offered a great view of the very rough waters. Tucked away inside the comforts of the condo, we enjoyed a leisurely Saturday morning complete with breakfast and time to sit around, read, and enjoy the view. This was followed by more relaxation as we experienced good old-fashioned pampering in the form of facials (yes, including cucumbers) and parrafin wax for hands and feet. I topped all this off with a hot bath and afternoon nap. We then proceeded to trouble ourselves with getting showered and dressed to go out to dinner. The girls treated me to dinner at Holly's favorite beach restaurant, Creekside Dinery, and I thoroughly enjoyed the broiled shrimp and live entertainment. The weather was pretty nasty, so rather than run around town getting wet and cold, we went back to the condo and shared a bottle of wine and some ice cream. I think there were some margaritas mixed up after that, but I had drifted off to sleep after the long hard day of relaxing. Sunday morning we relaxed a little more for good measure, then packed up to head home. They were nice enough to humor me by eating at Waffle House on the way home, which was a great finale to the weekend.

Thanks to Holly, Julie, and Emily for a great time! Also, thank you to Julia for the sweet birthday wish by video. We missed you!

And this is just the beginning... next weekend my mom and nephew are coming to visit and celebrate my birthday as well!

Feeling Good

I am sitting at my desk, actually working (except for this few minutes), and I must say that I just feel good this morning. I have a delightful cup of coffee and am enjoying it thoroughly. My body feels good after a good 4-mile run last night, even though it was treadmill versus road running. My heart feels good after a full evening of good conversation. Actually, I talked so much last night, my throat is on the verge of being sore this morning. I had dinner with a friend, and we talked for about two hours. Then I talked for about an hour with my best friend from high school. That hour was actually all catching up on the here and now of life, so we are a little behind on reminiscing the old days, but our 10-yr reunion is in a few months. I have no doubt we will reminisce plenty at that time. We are both a little shocked at how long it's been since high school, and even more shocked at how "grown up" some of our old friends are. One guy in particular we remember as the hot soccer player, dreamy kind of guy, and now he's married with a baby and has some really important sounding financial job in the energy sector. I guess we are grown up too. Well, I digress. I basically just wanted to share that I'm feeling good this morning and appreciating it.

Dilbert

I feel like Dilbert every time I walk down the hall, around the corner, then around another corner, only to find that the "Restroom Closed" sign has been posted due to cleaning. As soon as I round the second corner and it is in sight, I stop, sigh, utter various non-expletives, then turn around to walk back down the hall, around the corner, and back to my office. What a waste of time. I wish I had a video surveillance camera on that door so I would not have to waste my valuable time walking down the hall when I could be doing things like this, or even something useful.

Tozer on Simplicity

In keeping with the theme of this blog (and of my life), I try to post anything I find related to living a simple faith. This is from The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer:

"Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.
If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now, as always, God discovers Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to the essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without a doubt God will quickly respond.
When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectivey prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the and lies our great woe. If we omit the and we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.
We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the One."

The bold is mine, the italics are Tozer's. At the risk of adding anything to dilute the strength of Tozer's words, I must at least say that I agree. I love the church that I attend, the preaching, the hearts that people have for sharing their lives, the worship that we experience... but I also have to stop sometimes and realize that all the excess is exactly that - excess. No activity that we partake of is essential to the work that has been completed by Christ. I am not an opponent of the church by any means. It is essential to our unity as a body of Christ, but it is not a substitute for our pursuit of God in Christ.

Too Short

That's right. It's not that I am too short (though I am kind of short), but my PANTS are too short. My sweet friend Veronica, who has made a habit of giving me all her clothes when she tires of them or they don't fit, recently gave me a new installment. One of the items is a pair of jeans from Ann Taylor Loft, size 6 petite. Normally a size 6 is way too big, so I almost didn't try these on, but I liked the look of them. So I tried them on a few days ago and was pleased to find that they fit great. They seemed to be just barely long enough, but I didn't have shoes on, so I voted them into my wardrobe (I am the only voting member of my wardrobe board, so they passed). Well, this morning I pulled the new used jeans out and put them on, walked out the door, and headed to work. One of the many bad things about leaving the house at 5:30 in the morning is that there is no time for clothing deliberations. If I make a bad decision, I must live with it all day. Well, on my walk into the plant from the parking lot, I had the upsetting realization that my light-colored socks were way too visible. That's right, I'm ready for a flood. The jeans are irrefutably cute, but they are about two inches shy of being cute AND long enough. Thankfully I will spend all day at the nuclear power plant, where on even my worst fashion days still rank in the upper echelon of fashionable dress.

For All the Inquiring Minds...

NO NEWS FROM GEORGIA TECH!

Mom, you will be the first to know - I promise :-)

Who Said There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

Believe it or not, I'm eating one right now. Our cafeteria vendors got pretty excited about Valentine's Day today (definitely more excited than I am), and they are giving out free appetizers during lunch. The lunching hour around here is officially from 11am-12:30pm. Some people take that to mean those are the cafeteria hours, while others actually spend that entire time pretending to eat lunch. Anyway, on my first trip down to the cafeteria today at 11:15 I found the line running all the way around the room, out the door, and almost out of the building. I went back at about 12:10 and had much better luck. The goodies included chicken wings, two varieties of meatballs, fried chicken bites (normal or sweet&sour), nachos and cheese or mexican dip, fruit, cheese, and a few other items. All this for free and a drink to boot. Well, I put $1 in the tip jar, but still basically free. The real test now is to see whether this free lunch will feel like such a great gift when I try to run this afternoon. I'm already doubting the outcome of that one!

Joy

I have been realizing this weekend just how quickly things change, how the ebb and flow of life can take sharp turns without the slightest warning. My life has not changed drastically of late, but the flow of it seems to have changed much. The relaxed mundane pace with which this year started as I returned to a normal work schedule has evolved into a more stressed, stretched, and spontaneously changing pace in the past few weeks. Some circumstances have played a role in this, such as my class becoming more time consuming, Bible study getting into full swing, and work taking more time than the 8 hours a day I was spending there in January. I went for a run this afternoon along the canal, and I was thinking about this change. In addition to the change of physical pace, my heart's pace has been affected. I am being reminded of the battle that must be fought to maintain a focus on what is important before getting dragged into the "urgent" distractions all around. Just one month ago, as life's pace was slower and refreshingly normal, I really sensed a true joy in my heart. In my Bible study we are learning about the fruits of the spirit, of which one is joy, and it is defined as "delight in God for the beauty and worth of who he is." In addition to this definition of what joy IS, the study points out that it is NOT something that can be lost based on circumstances. In light of that truth, I took a little extra time today to stop and think, to look ahead at my week and anticipate the crazy long days, and to realize that my battle this week will be a real one. I know I've quoted the wise Ferris Bueller on this before, but I will state it again, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." I don't want to miss it. As for some inspiration from a more established author, 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." The devil would just love for me and you to get lost in the shuffle, be overcome by the urgent, and to hold loosely to a joy based on circumstances. May we be self-controlled and alert this week - alert to the coming onslaught of busyness or even loneliness that will attempt to suck the life and joy out of us, and self-controlled in remembering to seek and savor the true joy that is all around us.

Observation

Men are so proud of themselves when they realize they're working...

Serenity Now!

12 weeks and counting until April 28.
12 weeks.
12 weeks.
12 weeks.

I feel a little better now.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

This afternoon's rain seemed somehow appropriate for the day. I really don't know why, because I'm not a big fan of rain in general. I went to a safety committee walkdown at work, and I mistakenly volunteered to cover the outside areas. The pending rain had started before I made it down the stairs and outside to start the "walkdown". Nonetheless, we found a few things that could be improved upon on our outside ladders (the weekly focus). After work I was supposed to meet with a friend to run and pray (not at the same time). We stayed inside and prayed but never made it to the running. To her credit, she walked in with running clothes in hand, asking if I was up for it. I declined. I'm a fair-weather runner. While I don't mind the rain so much, the 53 degree temp made the decision for me. So maybe I'll make up for it tomorrow after work.

Speaking of running, I am training for the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K (April 1) and so far up to 3 miles for my long runs. I've been really excited about this after all the neck issues of last year. In fact, I think the running helps!

I'm finishing up a few hours of stuyding at my favorite coffee spot, and I must say this was a fine evening to sit and drink coffee and study. Dark, cold, rainy. The only improvement would be lack of studying, but I'll take what I get.

School update: On this day, the 2nd day of February, I have not yet received anything from GT. I'll keep everyone posted as the days go by.

Reason to be Thankful

As I have been getting settled into my new office, I unpacked a few boxes this morning. Two of those boxes were left basically unopened for the last year and a half. Some items of interest that I found include:

Prevacid
Tums
Gas-X
Pepto

These were just a few of my near-daily requirements back when I had bad stomach problems several years ago. I am so thankful today as I realize that I rarely use any of these anymore, much less all of them every day.