2010 Cross Country Championships - Klamath Falls Oregon...and the preparation for it...

On Wednesday in my devotion, I was inspired with the verse Hebrews 12:1, "Let us run the race that is before us and never give up."


On Friday night, sitting on the hotel floor in Klamath Falls, my prayer was, "God please take my body that I feel is fat and slow and broken, and my mind that is weak and feeble, and make them into something beautiful for You. That's all I have God - my weak and insufficient self. It's my sacrifice for You - it's for You to have for Your glory. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee. God I trust You. Blow me away."


On Saturday morning, during our pre-race warm up, my prayers/thoughts echoed the words of a Relient K song ("For the Moments I Feel Faint"). "I think I can't, I think I can't, but I think You can I think You can... Gather my insufficiencies and place them in Your hands..."


Now, I'm wrestling with being ok with my race and with understanding/accepting that everything happens for His glory and for His purpose. But I still wrestle with seeing His plan and purpose in all of this... I ran the slowest race of my season and possibly my career. I placed 7th on my team instead of in the top 5. I was beat by two girls who hadn't consistently run cross-country until this season, which was hard to take because cross-country has been "my thing" since my sophomore year in high school. (But I'm proud of them - they had amazing races!) My legs absolutely died. My calves were on fire. I wanted to collapse half way through. Yes, this is a very tough course will lots of hills and higher elevation. But no excuses. None of that should have happened. I thought I was so ready. I wrestle with defining "my best" when there is no quantitative proof, only subjective qualitative questions such as "well did you feel like your ran your hardest?" The thing is, I don't know. There's always the "what if I could've ran faster. What if I could've pushed more. What if..." Without the concrete evidence of a personal record time-wise, I don't know how to judge whether or not it was my best. Our team, which was ranked 6th coming into conference, placed 8th (out of 9 teams). Very discouraging. Very disappointing. A very tough way to end my collegiate cross-country career. I'm really unresolved about it. I don't understand why it ended so badly. It's hard to accept. But I must, somehow. Because it happened. And I need to let it change me for the better, somehow.


Even though I'm still wrestling with acceptance and almost cry every time I think about the race, I know God's plans are perfect. God's plans are greater. And that life goes on. New chapters, new "races" are ahead of me. In the immediate, athletic future, is my track season. Bring on the 5k and steeplechase. I will give my best. I will train hard this off-season. I will pursue breaking 20 minutes on the track in a 5k, even though I don't enjoy running 12 laps around a track. And in the metaphoric way, I will pursue this new "race" with Jason, as we enter into marriage in 265 days. Life goes on. A very good life. I'm so blessed!

Warner Pacific Invitational, Portland OR

Oh, and I suppose I should also just throw this out there. On Saturday (16th) I finally got a PR. Yep that's right! I ran a 20:16 5k, which is a 4 second PR! Praise God. That was our last race before conference!

Willamette Invitational

Today I raced what felt like the best race of my life but then I didn't PR...so that becomes a frustrating feeling. My time was 20:42 and I finished 5th on our team, 138 out of 239. I did race faster than our last meet at OIT, so that's a good sign! Here's some fun pictures!

The Corban XC Team Is On Fire!

No literally... Yesterday we just got back to campus after going to a park in Salem for practice. Our bus shut off, and when Coach Brad went to restart it, smoke started coming out of the hood. We thought it was just over-heating, so it was kinda a "oh I guess you'll have to get off the bus here" thing as we took our time getting off, until a couple people got off and saw flames under the hood! We got off much quicker after that! Everyone was off safely, and they even tried using fire extinguishers to put out the fire. That slowed it down a bit, but soon the fire spread into the whole entire bus! Windows were shattering and tires popping. The electric lines it was parked under caught on fire too and a line came down and was sparking against the pavement. Our whole bus was destroyed! God really protected us though, because no one came close to being injured. Our starting-blocks for track and coach's clipboard were the only things that got left on the bus. And the power was out last night for about three hours because of the downed line, which was a bit frustrating because I had two tests to study for! But we survived! And we laugh...because cross-country is never noticed on campus. But now everyone is talking about us! We even made the news!

Disclaimer: this news clip makes it sound more threatening than it was - we had plenty of time to get safely off the bus! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taQrwkOHacQ&feature=player_embedded

I'll post a couple pictures and maybe another video later...

OIT Meet in Klamath Falls

"Take my feet and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee"

On Friday afternoon our cross-country team took a 4 hour bus ride up to Klamath Falls, Oregon, for a Saturday meet hosted by OIT (Oregon Institute of Technology) at Steen Sports Camp. This was the first meet I got to compete in and our teams first 5k meet, although they'd run a 3k meet two weekends earlier. I was nervous. The race was awful. I ran a 22:33 which I'm pretty sure is worse than anything I've ever run in high school! The course is TOUGH! It had hills, parts in thick mushy grass, and parts in sandy/dusty/powder. You couldn't settle in strong and find rhythm because the whole time you were working. The only good about it was everyone ran slow. The first place girl usually runs in the 17s and she ran a 19:01! And I did still place with the top 5 for my team! I'm ready to conquer the next race! More pictures to come!