4 mile race recap and a little extra goodness

I forgot to give a recap of my 4 miler that took place a couple of weekends ago on the 16th of July. I was REALLY worried about the run. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to do it. This heat is putting a damper on my running routine. I am sure I am beginning to sound like a broken record since that seems to be all that I am talking about these days on the blog. Anyway. I was very worried about this race. I found myself thinking about it every night before I went to sleep the whole week prior. I was mentally running the race from start to finish with my eyes closed, thinking about the places that would be most challenging and seeing myself push thru. One night as I was running the race in my head, the Lord gave me a really cool image. I was running the race and came to a place a little further than 1/2 way, that I would have to stop and walk every time I practiced the route. Every. single. time. I would stop in this one spot. So I am running along and all of a sudden, a HUGE bolder out of nowhere just lands right in front of me. I thought... well isn't this just awesome. And then I thought to myself, this rock will not stop me from finishing. So I put my arms under the rock, lifted it over my head and threw it backwards as if it were just a pebble. I really felt like the Lord told me that this race was going to be a breakthrough for me in my running. I was a little more at peace with this race after that image, but still wasn't completely confident in my ability. Race morning comes a long and my sweet friend Drenna decided to run along with me.And you know what? The weather was around 66 degrees! Praise Jesus and Hallelujah! Another thing I was rather preoccupied with was coming in last! I knew this race wasn't very large and when I asked the total number of runners, I was told 800... well that dude LIED to me. There were only 458 runners! Drenna and I positioned ourselves in the back of the pack. I knew that I needed to really be careful with my pace this day so that I wouldn't get completely exhausted in the first mile, that also happened to be uphill. Awesome, right? I finally found my groove right before mile 2, shortly after seeing my friend Cori driving on the road. I thought, I am doing this, and this is going to be good! And I did just that. I did it. And the spot that I always stopped at and where the bolder met me in my dream, I ran right thru. No stopping for me! I rounded the corner right after the mile 3 sign and said, Amanda you are so close. Just keep going. So I ran hard up one heck of a hill and thought about dying at the top next to the nice police man, but then "Marvelous Light" came on my iPod and it gave me an extra boost to complete the race. My friend Anne Marie who is an amazing runner, came back to meet me and ran in with me. I thought I was going to be running for an hour, but I finished at 48:40. YES!

This race it seemed that I was very aware of how my body was feeling. My ankles hurt, my legs hurt and my legs just felt heavy. But I didn't stop! I did a lot of self coaching along the way (thanks Eric Hoffberg) and tried to mentally cheer myself along! It was also quite lovely to see these faces at the finish line..

And of course, no race would be complete without going to breakfast at Original House of Pancakes to celebrate! It was such a lovely cool day! thank you sweet Jesus for knowing my heart so well!

In other news... I went to the dermatologist last week. I have this freckle on my lower lip and while I was home for the 4th, my dad recommended that I get that thing checked out. I like the sun and the sun likes me but doesn't like my skin. So I went and the freckle on my lip is just that, a freckle. I also had her check a spot on my arm, she sliced that one right out and I almost forgot to mention this little place on my nose, right next to my nose ring. I knew it was there, but honestly didn't think it was a mole or anything to be concerned of. My friend Mikala said I should get that one looked at just to be on the safe side. I still almost forgot even in Dr.'s office. So she took that one too...

That's with the bandaid...

without the bandaid...

Don't worry, she didn't turn my nose black, that's just silver nitrate to stop the bleeding. I got my pathology report back and my arm mole was fine, but for my little nose mole, that wasn't the case. Turns out that little sucker was a Basal Cell Carcinoma. Huge bummer. I have to have another procedure done at a surgery center where they will do a procedure called MOH's surgery. You should google it... after I did, I was a bit frightened and rather worried for my nose hole! I will keep you posted on what takes place.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Tonight we are celebrating my sweet friend Emily and her upcoming wedding! Should be a great night full of great stories and lots of laughter!