Running and God

Last night I was somewhat dreading my 11 miler I had on my dockit after church Sunday a.m. I was getting in my long distance cranky mood. This mood normally hits me mid training for the marathon due to the continuous long runs on the weekends I haven't experienced this feeling as much with past 1/2 marathon training schedules because, well, the long runs don't bother me as much because they are doable mileage. However, my travels to Hawaii threw off my running mojo. I slept little to none on the plane ride home from Hawaii- actually probably 1.5 hours total Wednesday. I had to then drive from chicago to home on Wednesday after getting off plane and when I arrived homes made the decision not to go to sleep because I only would've be enable to sleep 2 hours and that kind of sleep actually makes me feel worse than no sleep. So when I finally got around to running Friday around 2 pm in the heat and sun I really felt the toll of my lack of sleep for the week. My three miles felt like 10 and my legs felt like tree stumps, not even trunks which are alive, but instead the dead stumps that have no life. This feeling worried me about my upcoming long run of 11. To confuse my body more we decided to take the kids camping Friday night. Camping was awesome,but this meant no long early a.m. run for Saturday, instead I'd have to do it Sunday. O.k. This is where God comes in. Sunday mornings we normally go to 8 o'clock church service and then kids have Sunday school afterwards. My initial plan was to run after Sunday school and then it switched to driving in two cars so that I could go straight home after church and run at 9:30. Then I looked at the weather and it said 68 degrees at 6 a.m.and 78 degrees at 9:30 a.m. I know to some people this temp difference may not seem significant, but to me it is huge. I really dislike running in heat and so try to avoid it at all costs, hence early morning runs even on the weekend when. I really don't need to be out the door at 6 am. The other thing the forecast called for was thunderstorms from pretty much 3am until late in the day Sunday. So the rain and the heat upped my already 11 mile crankiness. My hubby knew this and so suggested he take the kids to church and Sunday school and I run early sunday am. I knew this answer would help my crankiness, but as I said to him "what does this say to our kids"- in regards to mommy missing church to do her weekly long run. Well as usual he had the perfect answer "it tells the kids we chose to take them camping and spend the weekend with them". This was true. If I had fought the "I have to do my long run on Saturday am" there would've been no fun camping and beach time fri-sat. It also meant that I hade enough recovery time at home before they came home that I could then spend the rest of Sunday doing various activities with them. I think God would be o.k. with this. I won't make it a habit of course, because I really go to church selfishly for me. I love the traditional liturgy, the music and communion. It is a routine that renews me each week. When I go to the communion rail I ask for patience, and to help me be a better mom, wife, sister, friend and of course to watch over friends and family going through tough times. I think God gave me my own renewal on my run this morning. I ran much better than I thought I was going to and reflected on the week ahead, goals, hopes, etc- not a whole lot different than what I do at the communion rail each week. I know some of your aren't into God/religion so I don't mean to bore or offend with this post. Runners struggle with time restraints and juggling schedules all the time, this was just another juggling act I had to partake in this week.