Human After All

I've had a few people ask about my running recently, so here's an update ... it's almost nonexistent.  The past few months have been a challenge, but hopefully I'm back ... but better than before.

I got really sick in February.  I thought it was a cold at first, but it lasted for about five weeks and kept me in bed on many different days.  It was to the point that I was really starting to worry something was seriously wrong.  I got checked at the doctor and everything was fine, but it took a while before I had the energy to do much.

I tried to stay active during the illness, but it was almost impossible.  I've ran through almost every kind of sickness and minor injury over the past ten years ... but this one kicked my butt.  It was the one thing that kept me from running for an extended period of time.  During the down time, and the weeks that followed, I gained about 15 pounds.   I was 191 on the scale yesterday.  I lost motivation and really didn't care much about anything besides my family, work, and Royals baseball ... they are the reigning World Champs ya know!  But I think I'm finally back at it.

With the exception of no control of my diet, I've actually been moving a little more lately.  I'm trying to build back my mileage, and slowly get back into shape. We ran a half marathon a couple of weeks ago, and besides my time being my third slowest half marathon ever ... 1:37:02 ... surprisingly I didn't feel too bad afterwords.  It was a little surreal watching runners blow by me who I done the same to in the past, but we're just at different points in our journey right now.

I think the illness was a much needed wake up call for me. Overall, I try to be kind and caring to people, but unfortunately, many times I can flat out be a jerk.  Too often I get full of myself and consumed with "being the best", and don't treat people like I should.  I train really really hard, but I get prideful about it.  I convince myself that there aren't many guys my age doing what I'm doing, and my head gets really inflated.  It's stupid, immature, and small. Getting knocked flat on my back reminded me that I'm human and vulnerable like everyone else ... and it can all be taken from us in the blink of an eye.

So I'm trying balance being competitive ... with humbleness and kindness.  I gotta tell ya, it's a bit of a challenge.  I used to try to focus on the fruits of the Spirit ... love, joy, peacefulness, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control ... found in Galatians 5:22-23 if you're interested.  But over the years, that has eroded a bit.  I need to practice a little less beating my chest, and a lot more thankfulness and humility.   I've be blessed with the best life ever, and am trying to express that outwardly a lot more than I do.  But don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna run hard, lol.  I just need to do it with a little less vibrato ... and shrink a little around the waist first.  Have a great day!