Half marathon

I ran and completed the half-marathon yesterday. I accomplished my "time" goal and had a wonderful, inspiring, tearful (in a good way) day. If you ever get a chance to be at the finish line of a full-marathon, I suggest that you put it on your list of things to do before you die. I wept as people finished the marathon and gave all they had to cross the finish line. Maybe since I know the training and hard work that goes into being able to beat your body and conquer 26.2 miles, it was exceptionally emotional for me. I was the tall, blonde gringo standing at the finish line hollering, "Se puede, se puede. Bravo. Bien hecho. Vamos. Da le, da le. Muy Bien. Bien hecho!" I had a blast and loved encouraging the runners as they came in the llegada. :)

I was also greatly inspired by the man who I saw running the 10k (6.2 miles) who only has one leg and used a crutch for the leg that was missing. He only used 1 crutch!!! I got goose-bumps when I thought of him, and when my leg start hurting when I was running, I recalled the immense pain that he must be in with that crutch under his arm and it inspired me to keep going and suck it up. When we ran passed him, the entire group start cheering and calling him "Champion." He is a champion and it is people like him, who keep going and fighting despite adversity, that help drive me to run better, harder faster and to not give up and also to be so thankful for my incredibly excellent health! :)

There were about 9,000 runners for all 3 races yesterday. Maybe next year you can think about coming here, in May, to run your first long distance road race. We would love to have you. It is one of the best races I have ever done in my life and I hope to do it again next year, but I am going for the full marathon next year.

And I thank the Lord for allowing my leg to hold up for 13.2 miles. I couldn't have asked for a better day or experience.

To top it all off, we joined the team and John in Oasis and I successfully translated 2 Bible stories from English to Spanish and I had a few errors, but I actually did it. Wow! My Spanish is still there, improving daily and coming back to me rapidly. I am gaining more and more confidence and it felt so good to be sharing with the Peruvians again. I loved it!