I may have blogged about this before but every time I drive by a certain church my reaction is “really?  are you serious?”…  Who in their right mind names their church “The Winner’s Circle Church”.  I just picture horses with big horseshoes of roses around their necks.  Rates right up there with my other clueless name church down the road a bit… the “Change of Life Church.”  Probably filled with a bunch of menopausal women and mid-life crisis men.  Not someplace I’d like to hang out personally.

I know, I’m being petty but really?  It’s like the Fifth Third Bank.  Why would you want to be known as the fifth third bank?

Where my mind has gone today:

• Burned bridges are opportunities for redemption
• I should not wait for conventional means but leap toward God with trust and wild abandon.  Running to God is a time for being impetuous.  (John 21)
• I am often so discontent because I don’t know the plan RIGHT now.  I need to learn the power of trust and waiting.
• What is happening at this exact moment that I do not see?
• When I think I have “met the mark” I really need to do “one better” and have a Genuine Encounter (with a person or with God).
• Soak in the present, don’t miss it.

Six AM and waiting for the race to begin. Stretching and taking pictures while everyone was smiling and not sweaty.

Aaron at the start.  I was on the other side of the road and much farther back.

Aaron at mile 6.  His time at the 6.1 mile split was 57:17.8

Me at mile 6.  My split time at this point was 1:15:48.9 so I was running about a half hour behind Aaron the distance which would only become greater.

This is Aaron at his half-way point, which would be my finish point.  His 13.1 mile split was 1:30:45.2.  Or at least if I read the results (which are confusing) correctly.  He’s still looking fresh and chipper.  Of course he had been doing training runs of 19 miles so the 13 was nothing to him.

Me coming in to my glorious finish.  Okay, maybe not a full out run but I did run the last two-tenths of a mile and semi-sprint across the finish line.  No walking across for me!  I have to admit the last two miles were real killers for me.  My pace after mile 11 slowed by about a minute a mile and my calves started hurting.  I found that if I did a slow job it was better than walking so I was doing this little shuffle down the running path.  But I was still passing people so I was doing better than some!  I want you to note that I beat the little kid… lol  Of course there were several under the age of 12 that beat me, but they weren’t at the finish line with me. 

Look!  I got a medal!  It’s amazing how a stupid piece of metal and a t-shirt that says finisher makes you feel.  The volunteers were really great, you cross and they would grab you if you looked like you were going to fall over (mostly the marathoners), hand you water, and cut off your timing tag so you didn’t have to worry about remembering to do that later all while cheering and loudly proclaiming your greatness.  Yah, I was great for a moment.  My finish time was 2:54:20.3.  My Garmin watch showed a moving time of 2:49 which means I had about five minutes of “still” time…. um…. fixing the blister time and a port-a-potty visit.  I SO wanted to beat my previous time but only did by .2 seconds.  I think that counts. 

We had to kill time waiting for Aaron to cross the line so Otto and Wren practiced their best statue poses on the concrete pillars.

Aaron came in with a time of 4:47:48.4.  He sprinted the last tenth of a mile.  I mean seriously sprinted!  It was hard to believe he had just run 26.2 miles.

I believe his first words across the line were….. ow, ow, ow….. oh God…. ow….   But he soon began to smile.  They stuck an ice cream bar in his hand and he hobbled off to find his friends and the free massages.

Here’s Aaron with his running buddies.  They had been training with him since the springtime.  Two came in ahead of him and one right after him.  This was the third marathon in 28 days for the guy on the right.  Yes, THREE marathons in 28 days.  I seriously doubted his sanity.

Mom and son, survivors.  We look as happy as the early morning picture (no we were happier because it was over!), and relatively sweat free thanks to cooler weather and clouds.  Aaron had poured water over himself so he was soaking wet, but not stinky wet. 

I kept telling Aaron that I was the rabbit.  It was nothing more than a dog race and I was the mechanical rabbit running the rail.  His job was to catch me.  He said he tried but just couldn’t do it in the end.  For his first marathon his finish was great and he says he’s going to do it again.

I will stick with being the rabbit.

Tomorrow, Sunday the 27th, is race day.  I will be silly enough to be running a half-marathon.  13.1 miles.  The weather says it will be hot.  60 degrees or warmer so I’m sure it will be slow going for me.  My goal is to average a 13.5 minute mile which will put me in under 3 hours.  I’m not exactly as prepared as i was for last year’s race and mentally I’m REALLY not prepared.  I will be running it solo this year so I’m not sure how that will work out.  I have my little ipod to keep my company loaded with music and a short 2 hour book in case I get tired of music.  I like running to audio books, they keep me thinking.

My “support team” has staked out a few spots where he can give me encouragement along the route and replenish my water bottles if need be.  The race has water stations every 1 1/2 miles so water isn’t an issue but I like MY water, not nasty city water.  lol  Spoiled I know. 

The big event of the day really though is that my son will be running in the full marathon at the same time I am doing the half.  We do the same course only he will do two rounds of it while I will do one.  He is hoping to finish the marathon in under four hours.  I just hope I beat him across the finish line.  lol

He has a double digit…. number 19.  I don’t know if that’s because of his early registration or because of our speed grouping.  Either way 19 looks impressive.  1226 not so much. 

I’ll let you know if I meet my goal and survive the whole ordeal.  After the race we head home then we go to the theater to see Camelot.  I better take a nap before or I might not stay awake through the singing and dancing. 

Check out my lawn.  No wonder I don’t have any grass, it’s all acorns!  We had a bumper crop of acorns this year and the entire front yard is covered in them.  They say you must plant about 100 acorns to get one to grow into an oak tree.  With those statistics we will only have about ten thousand new oak trees sprouting up soon.  The squirrels haven’t even bothered to gather them, they just feast on the ground.  It’s made them into lazy little buggers.

In other news. 

The past week has been one of great turmoil around here.  There are major management changes in my husband’s company and well…. they aren’t handling the introduction of the new management/promotions/transition very well.   My husband is just plodding along, not sure how the changes are going to affect him, it appears that the implementation of a “good old boy” network is in the works and he is not a good old boy.  That’s just fine and dandy with me.  In any case it will prove to be very interesting the next few months as the transition slowly takes places.  March 31st the new management will all be in place and I’m sure a few more people will be leaving in-between now and then.  Employees in the home office are mostly affected by the changes, employees in the field are confused, and I’m sure investors are worried.  The man at the rudder remains the same so that guiding hand is the same, which is good.  The sail setters and rope handlers are the ones changing and that might cause a few sails to go flapping once in a while.  Or maybe not.  Maybe everyone will handle it better once it’s settled down a bit.

I often wonder what my son-in-law thinks as he watches what our country is going through, the fundamental changes in our government and society.  My son-in-law watched his country change completely, the old was gone and I think he’d agree a bit of chaos replaced it.  He watched everything he knew as normal and true to crumble and be destroyed in a very short time frame.

I see that happening to our country but amazingly there are those that don’t see it.  Or they welcome it.  The change from rule by law to rule by decree.  The class warfare and the entitlement mentality. The growing divisions within our populace.  A Senate that won’t even pass a budget as required by law.  Money being printed like magic.  Appeasement of Muslims and vilification of Christian (or simply conservative) based beliefs.

I wonder what our country will look like in four years.  I’m not sure my grandchildren will ever know the freedom loving, hard-working, you can do anything you put your mind to country that I have known.

It was foggy this morning.  Quite pleasant.  We were driving to church so I didn’t get any pictures of it but according to the forecast we will have fog again tomorrow.  I think I will be out taking photos in it because it was so beautiful.  Plans for the week: 

• Nitrox class tomorrow for diving.  Husband off work so he’ll be underfoot and I will accomplish nothing.  I have just accepted this as a given after 34 years of marriage. 
• Hannah getting an ultrasound tomorrow to determine due date since it’s a big mystery right now.
• Plan where I am moving my tea roses to.  I have to get them out of the front yard so the deer will not have them for nightly dessert.
• Take out the variegated whatever bushes in the back yard. 
• Determine where the blueberry bushes are being moved to…. same issue as with the tea roses, stupid Bambi.
• Work in the pottery, get a few things thrown and shaped.
• Order the book on majolica.  I decided that I need to do majolica for the beads I’m making for my brother’s bead shop.
• Run.  Walk.  Run.  Walk.  Rest.  Eat a load of pasta.  Race next Sunday.

We went to church with Cora and Vova today.  We went with the intention of listening to a pastor visiting from Uganda but he didn’t speak, he’s speaking tonight.  But we heard the pastor for the first time and enjoyed his sermon.  Made me reconsider a few ideas I had about children’s ministries.  Still mulling that over.

Better go study my Nitrox manual.  Don’t want to not understand my gases.

Sometimes acronyms are annoying but today my brother introduced me to one I got a chuckle out of.  I also made note of it so I can use it in polite company where I need to call someone a Jackass.  Okay so maybe I never really “need” to call anyone that but I admit I think it.  I am far from perfect. Anyway, the acronym is ODO  standing for “odoriferous rectal orifice”. Just too good not to take note of.

So I basically have one week until my half-marathon race.  I’m not sure I’m ready for it.  I was supposed to run 6 miles today but I haven’t even put on my running shoes.  Motivation is not happening.  I will run and hopefully finish in a better time than I did a year ago.  We shall see though since I’m going to be running by myself instead of with a partner.  Aaron is running the full marathon and I told him my goal is to beat him across the finish line.  lol  He will zip off running his 9 minute miles that might slow down to 11 minute miles and I will start out with my 13 minute miles that will slow to 15 minute miles.  No way I can count on him to pace me and I’m not going to kill myself trying.  I do have a Garmin GPS running watch that is amazing though and hopefully it will keep me on pace.  I am setting a goal of 13.5 minute miles and have also set up intervals where I run for 5 minutes and walk one minute.  If I keep my pace I can do that the entire race and finish in less than 3 hours (my goal is to beat 2 hrs. 56 minutes).  Of course that may depend upon the weather too.  If it’s 65 degrees I won’t manage that speed.  45 degrees will be much better to run in.  No rain or wind though please.

My husband is helping out in his most supportive manner…..he brought me licorice today. 

I think I figured out my bad mood of the other day.  It has to do with the show Downton Abbey that I started watching.  I realized today that I struggle with the “class” society portrayed in this show.  I know it was the way British society functioned back in the late 1800s and early 1900s and accept that as a part of history.  It really is what the entire show is about.  The upstairs lives and the downstairs lives and how they intersect.  What I struggle with is that I experience this today and I don’t like it!  I realized that the attitudes of the titled and wealthy are all around me with some people who I know.  Their superior attitude rankles and irritates.

I was in a situation recently where I spent quite a bit of time with folks who would consider themselves high society.  At one point we were to walk a few blocks to a bus station for transportation to our next place on the trip itinerary.  I grabbed my suitcase and started walking.  It was about three blocks, nothing too much and I had packed my usual restrained self.  I look back and see that my husband and I are the only ones pulling our luggage.  The others were looking for a porter or someone to move their luggage for them.  Some gave in and carried their luggage but most put out more effort to find someone to carry it for them than moving it the three blocks themselves would have been.  I wish I could say that I handled it well, but I probably didn’t.  I stayed quiet about my struggles and tried to act properly, or as expected but I’m afraid I failed miserably in private.  I just didn’t understand it, the expectation of being waited on.  I didn’t feel I deserved it, and I didn’t want it.  More than that, I didn’t understand why people would want it or think they deserved it.  I am not too good to carry my own luggage.

The show Downton Abbey brought that all back to me.  I don’t like “class society.”  I think I like it worse when I’m put on the high society step of the ladder.  I do realize that I can’t look “down” on those who believe they are high society, and I have to guard against being judgmental towards them, but I seek to understand why anyone would want to put themselves in a position where they couldn’t enjoy the friendship with a waiter, or hair dresser, or store clerk.  To do so limits you so much in potential friendships and relationships.  It is a fine line.  Believing I am worthy yet not walking as though I am above others.  Recognizing my true value but even more the true value of others.

An interesting part of the show is the attitude of some of the servants.  Fully accepting their “lesser” position and feeling that it is ordained, not daring to step out of line.  They truly believe that it would be improper for them to step out of their position and try to better their situation.  Such an odd time in society, and yet I do believe it continues on today in many subtle forms.  And so I struggle to just figure out what I think, how and why.

And such musings created a bad mood.  Which I have mulled over and discarded, but it still nags me as to how to handle this all.