The apostle Paul admonished us to run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1). This scripture is usually viewed as an encouragement to “keep on keeping on,” to not quit serving God no matter what difficulties come our way.

Not many of us will take up the challenge to literally run a race but Colleen chose to do just that. Jesus said he would be with us until the end, even when that’s the 26th mile marker. You don’t need to be an athlete to enjoy seeing how God is with us and will answer even our smallest prayers.

I became a follower of Jesus when I was about 19 years old and spent many years trying to figure out what having a relationship with Jesus should look and feel like. As I have journeyed with Christ for the past twenty years, I have learned that the personal relationship that I long for is found in my daily coming to Christ and asking Him to enter into all areas of my life whether big or small. I recently had one of those experiences where I needed to rely on God daily to help me achieve a once in a lifetime goal.

In the spring of 2007 I decided to train for and run the Twin Cities marathon with a co-worker. At the time I was a very casual runner and had never run more that 5 miles, and I had only done that once. The thought of running 26.2 miles was overwhelming, so I told myself I was only going to focus on one mile at a time. I chose a training program that fit my schedule and increased the miles at a rate that I felt I could handle. On paper everything looked great, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do this on my own and that I needed God to give me strength and endurance to complete the training. Every day as I laced up my shoes I would pray for God to give me strong legs and lungs to complete the run. Throughout each run I prayed for protection and safety. I would also use my running times to pray for personal issues in my life or issues that were going on in the lives of family and friends. If I was struggling during a run I would pray for God to help me get through the it and He always did. Over the course of six months I logged about 500 miles. On my last long training day I prayed that God would help me take in every aspect of the run as I knew I would never travel that route again. My last run felt great and I knew I was ready for the marathon.
About ten days before the marathon I began paying close attention to the weather forecast so that I would be prepared mentally and physically for the conditions of race day. The earliest predictions were for an extremely cold morning and early afternoon. A couple of days later they changed the forecast to rain all morning and most of the afternoon, a complete soaker. I freaked out! Running 26.2 miles in the rain was not part of my plan and was not how I wanted to run my one and only marathon. Being a bit of a control freak, I began to ask everyone I knew to pray for anything but rain and obsessively prayed myself. I really believed that I was going to pray the rain away. I was a mess for about five days as I anxiously checked the forecast several times a day. The day before the race proved to be a record high for an early October day, and the forecast for Sunday, race day, was hot and humid.

As I stood at the starting line with a temperature of 74 degrees I was reminded of my request for prayer, “Anything but rain!” Well, it wasn’t raining. The thought ran across my mind, “Be careful what you pray for, who would have thought to pray for low humidity in October.” (After the race we found out that the high that day was 83 degrees with 94 percent humidity.) I knew this was going to be a difficult run as I had not trained in humidity and would need to be very conscience of taking in the right amount of fluids and electrolytes. Although the conditions were extremely tough, God was so good. Dianne and I decided right from the beginning that we needed to run smart and slow our pace down to adjust to the heat. The first half of our race was very strong and we were feeling good. Our pace was right on and our split times were right on track. Then came mile 15! From about mile 15 to mile 20, my calves were giving me a lot of problems as they tightened up and the tightness would then travel up my hamstring. I would run as long as I could and then would walk for a little bit. I was afraid of pushing it too much and injuring myself. From mile 13 to the finish there were people dropping like flies all around us, and many of whom were very young, strong and fit runners. As we passed these people lying on the side or even in the middle of the road, Dianne and I would make sure to pray for them. It was very hard to look at them while running by, so I would have to avert my eyes in another direction. There is something psychological about looking at people who are more fit than you lying on the ground while you are still on your feet. From mile 21 to 26, Dianne started having a lot of pain in her left knee, so we did more walking so as not to damage her knee. At one point she voiced that she may not make it, but I told her that I wasn’t crossing the finish line without her. My focus of prayer was now shifted to my friend, who willingly ran this race to help me accomplish my goal. At that point we knew we had come far enough that walking a little more wouldn’t prevent us from finishing within the time limit. We did finish and ran the last .two miles holding hands the whole way. Throughout the entire race my constant prayer was that God would protect me, that He would give me the strength to finish, and that He would give me the wisdom to run within my means on such a hot day. He did all of the above and then some. I can honestly say that He never left me.

The whole experience was very emotional for me as I felt God’s presence in so many ways. He answered several prayers before race day and went before me to prepare the way for me that day. I cried for two days before the race as people would pray with or for me or sent me cards and emails with encouraging words. My daughter made me cry as she prayed for me at lunch the day before. At the starting line they gave a really nice tribute to all the 35W bridge collapse victims, which was then followed up by the national anthem, so I had to cry again. I cried every time I saw my husband, my kids, my neighbors, co-workers and friends along the course. Finally, I cried as Dianne and I held hands down the last .2 and as we crossed the finish line. Now you would think that as dehydrated as I was from the humidity and running that I wouldn’t have fluid to produce tears, but I did. It was truly a blessing to have set such a goal, trained to prepare for it, and finally see it through to completion. To sum up the marathon experience, I would say that there is nothing like the feeling of crossing the finish line, the love and support of family and friends, and especially relying on the hand of God to help you through difficult or seemingly impossible situations.