For my 1st marathon in nearly two years, I chose Little Rock.  This year’s theme was medieval.

The question: What’s your quest?

Anticipation of the hilly course served as inspiration:

Pray the Seven Mountains.

With 14 aid stations, my plan was to devote the miles between each pair of them to a different area of cultural influence.

At the start, people were milling about, and I thought one girl was taking the Lord’s name in vain when I heard her shout, “Jesus!”

I looked up to discover, she was just reading!

I came into this race under-trained, and as it turns out, it didn’t matter.

Reader’s Digest Race Report: The first 10K was great.  Then it started raining….and the first 10K was great!

Additional training would have raised expectations more than performance and not being concerned with a time goal turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it allowed me to focus on prayer instead of the clock.  As I ran, I prayed for each of the Seven Mountains:

• The Church
• Family
• Education
• Government
• Media
• Entertainment
• Finance

I was fortunate to be supported by family and friends who kept in touch with prayers and encouragement, especially helpful when the rain started and when it got tough down the stretch.  I was proud of myself and surprised that I actually ran most of the race.  I took walk breaks only as needed–deeming one necessary to down an oatmeal creme pie handed to me by a spectator at the bottom of a very large hill!

Going in, I knew better than to set a time goal and instead made my goal to finish with a smile.

Mission accomplished!

Post-race, I was reflecting on 5+ hours spent in prayer and sensed God’s whisper:

Your faith moved mountains today.

And realized: They’re all just “little rocks” to Him.  ?