Running On Faith

So often when I am believing God for something, He will send me some form of encouragement: a scripture, a dream, or one of those little moments of synchronicity. These things are like spiritual GU. They're sweet and give you a burst of energy to keep going. 

But what do you do when there is no GU?  

Everybody knows that carbs and running go hand in hand, but the body has an alternate fuel source: fat. Some people actually train themselves to run on fat because unlike carbs, which run out after 20 miles or so, you can keep going on fat virtually forever.  

Perhaps the spiritual equivalent of running on fat is running on faith. The kind of faith that stands in the absence of any circumstances assuring you that you are on the right track. (Imagine the faith Noah had building an ark when it had never rained before!) The kind of faith described in Hebrews 11:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Faith is a SUBSTANCE. Faith itself is the evidence...in the absence of any evidence. 

If you can tap into that, you can keep going forever--no longer dependent on externals because your fuel is what's already inside. 

Tour Des Fleurs 2014 - Race Recap

The Last Christmas, I received a unique gift from my dad.  He promised to run this year's Tour Des Fleurs 10K with me and wrote it up as an article in the local newspaper, as it might appear after the race:

What a wonderful gift, with bonus points for creativity! 

TDF falls on my birthday weekend, and this being the third year I've done it, it's become something of a birthday tradition.  But running it with Dad made this year's race a little different.  It wasn't about a PR, just about being with him.  

I checked MilePost on race day morning and found this quote, which pretty much sums it up:

Dad was a little frustrated that his training hadn't gone quite as planned over the summer, but to his credit, he'd worked through issues with his knees, modified his form, and ran 5K, 5 miles, and eventually a whole 10K...more than he'd done in 40 years!!!  So proud of him!

During the race, we adopted a pace he has nicknamed the "tortoise shuffle" (appropriate for a man whose screen saver used to read, "I'd rather be the tortoise!").  Slow and steady was the name of the game, and it strikes me that Dad's approach to the 10K was the same as his approach to life.  Choose what you think you can sustain, and do it consistently over time.  Then finish strong!  So that's exactly what we did.  :)

We were joined near the finish line by my brother, who'd run the race on his own (a week after doing the second half of the Erie marathon with me!).  We didn't set any records, but we finished...together.