God,Family and Beyonce' and my first 10K

High Five me friends,family and foreigners! I did it! I ran for 6.2 miles without stopping in 1hour,12 minutes and 27 seconds. This from a 49 year old woman who as a teen had exercise induced wheezing and kept Primatine Mist by her side" just in case" for many years.
How did this come about? My daughter, Ali took a running class last semester at U. of A. and decided that she and I should sign up to run the Peachtree Road race on the 4th of July. At first I balked and then I remembered a prayer I had prayed when I turned 49. " Oh God, next year when I turn 50 I want to be healthier than I was at forty,off these blood pressure pills and truly able to do whatever you need me to do physically as well as spiritually." Running the Peachtree also just happened to be on my "bucket list". Praying I wouldn't kick the bucket in the middle of the race, I agreed to "go for it" with her.

I had recently lost about 10 lbs through Weight Watchers so I had some help in this area for my training but I am not gona lie I had never been a runner and it was hard to begin. The first couple of months I mostly walked and ran down a few hills. Ali came home for the summer and really pushed me to run longer. As the weeks went by I was running 3 miles without stopping and had lost 7 more lbs.

My husband was very excited to see me making such progress in my weight loss but especially in the running. He had always been such an exceptional runner in his teens and in most of our marriage until injuries slowed him down. We began to have a new topic to discuss together that we both were interested in. This new hobby was certainly proving to be good for my marriage.

Race day proved to be one of the mildest days on record for the 4th of July. One of my dear friends who has run the race before joked with me and said,"It's only this nice because you are running it." I do not know exactly what she mean't by that comment but if God was smiling down on me or if it was just good timing on my part, I would count my blessings".

Ali and I stood side by side and felt all the excitement in the air as the flag fell and we began our run. I did not preset my ipod to a special playlist but just let it begin randomly wherever it had left off. The first song was,"Our God is an Awesome God". I began to praise God for getting me to this place beside my oldest daughter doing something I had never done before. I then turned the music down and enjoyed the crowd. Ali and I high-fived each other at each mile marker until we got to the 3rd one and she gave me a look like,"I am out of here,Mom". I nodded and she took off. I was left alone with 50,000 other strangers and I thought this is as far as I have ever run and cardiac hill is coming. I needed some inspiration as I began the slow incline. I tuned back into my ipod and Destiny's Child was singing," I'm a survivor, I'm gona make it,I'm not gona give up." God spoke through Beyonce's powerful voice and I kept running through marker 4,5 and 6.
On the last .2 miles the song Kenny and I had chose to have sung at our wedding 27 years ago began to play on my ipod. God reminded me that my husband was such a huge inspiration to me and that we needed each other to see our dreams come true. So, when I crossed that finish line this is the thought that I had. God,family and Beyonce' got me here. "Let us run the race that is set before us,looking unto Jesus(and whoever he uses). " God cares about us so much and wants to see us succeed and He truly has a sense of humor. Running with Him means you will always finish the race and finish better that you could ever ask or imagine. Ponder that as i pray for all of you to begin something new that God is calling you to do. In him, de