She Runs By Faith

(Repost from IG with some deets at the end) On Saturday, I ran the Fargo Marathon for Marathon #19! There is a lesson to learn from every marathon and yesterday’s was: Even when things don’t go according to plan, NEVER GIVE UP‼️ Back when the miles felt smooth :)  I went in with an aggressive “A” goal, overshot my pacing (oye 🙄) and hit a pretty hard wall wayyy too early in the race. After mile 10, I started to fade and knew that my current pacing wasn’t sustainable for the next 16.2 miles. I was passed by many runners at that point and really battled it out in my mind for the rest of the race. Somewhere around the 25th mile of the race, a half marathon runner yelled, “the lead is only 4 minutes ahead, GO GET HER!” I said, “thank you!”, and gave her a thumbs up but was very doubtful that I could catch anyone with how miserable I felt. How not to pace a marathon... I kept trucking at whatever pace I could keep, feeling pretty tense and disappointed in how I executed this ...

It's been too long since my last homeschool update; time runs away from me. Our previous school year ended abruptly and in a hard way, when my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer after Mother's Day. We completed our state testing requirements much earlier in the school year and well-exceed Minnesota's required number of school days, so we stopped the school year a week early and went to grandma & grandpa's farm to spend time together.  That's the beauty of homeschooling. There is room for flexbility, swapping around days/weeks, starting or ending early and even taking school on the road with us.  Life has been a bit different ever since then but we have made so many great memories even during tough times! Having Christmas together as a family at my parents' farm was a miracle in itself.  ---- We soaked in the summer as much as possible - full of farm things, swim lessons, 4-H, fairs, a trip to Mt. Rushmore, family time, baseball - and then started sc...

Where will you be in 10 years? Had you asked me at the 2013 Blue Ox Marathon, my first time at this race , I never would have guessed I would be here now. There are so many amazing blessings in my life that I never could have dreamt up and also trials that I would never have anticipated.  I originally wrote this post like a week ago and it was much longer. Like super long, too much and I don't have the emotional capacity to share anything besides mile stats and race deets at this point. Running is so simple in that way - like numbers are a weird source of comfort. In a nutshell, we keep on keepin' on, trusting God in all things. The structure of marathon training is very enjoyable - predictable, exact, a box to check. It is a time juggle but it's about the only thing in my life that is a box that I can check off! Most everything else is fairly repetitive, ongoing and requires way more emotional energy :) So marathoning is hard but also so simple.  That must be what keeps ...