Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year

No run today but a quick post to say Happy New Year! As 2011 is now here I pray that in this coming year I will spend more time in prayer and learn to better live each day surrendered to God.  I claim Jeremiah 29:11-13 for my 2011 verse - "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart"  This is my hope and prayer for this new year.  What a great promise this holds - God has plans for me, which are hopeful.  He promises to listen to me and to be found when I seek Him... with all my heart (surrendered) 

I'll end the year with a blessing on my family and friends "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit"

PS - 10-K in Gig Harbor tomorrow morning - hoping to be under 8:00 per mile avg pace

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

1,500 mile glide path

Hard to believe but I'm only 6-miles away from logging a total of 1,500 miles for the year.  Don't know what that looks like compared to others but it is more miles than driving from Seattle to San Diego, ok so it took me a year to do it but still - not bad I'm thinking.

Got a nice run in tonight while waiting for the ferry, although the forecast is for snow tonight and Wed, the evening was dry and mildly cold.  Got 3.5 miles (best estimate since my Garmin battery was dead) - pace felt good and the total time was 32-minutes so I'm guessing the miles conservatively.  Anyway, a good run and certainly mind clearing. 

Will register tonight for a New Year's Day 10-k in Gig Harbor - it's a fund raiser for Fire/Police and I thought this would be a great way to start off the new year.  After the run we'll grab brunch and then meander back home or to the indoor soccer fields in Bremerton where the boys will be playing in a fund raising tournament which benefits the Children of the Nations Orphanage - the boys and I have played in this for the last 6+ years, I'll do the 10-K and leave the multi-game soccer tournament to the young bucks.  A good weekend ahead and only 6-miles to go to attain 1,500

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all - celebrate the birth of our Lord & Savior.  We had a great morning with our gift exchange and enjoying a late breakfast.  The highlight gift for the kids was an Xbox Kinect with both a dance game and sports - we all played and I was rated as a "D" to "failure" in the dance game but held my own in bowling and ping-pong.  After that workout I did the real thing and got out for a 5-mile run in the neighborhood.  It was a great morning, temperature in the high 40's and dry.  Lot's of people out walking and we all exchanged holiday greetings.

As I ran I prayed and pondered.  It is really an amazing thing to think that God so loved the world that He gave His only son" and that God's perfect plan for our salvation started with a baby - I realized I have not really pondered that concept, I knew it and have accepted it but when I sit and think about the plan God used it is really amazing and all inclusive - if anyone accepts Jesus Christ as their savior and believes that he died for your sins, rose again on the third day they are forgiven and counted as sinless before God, all through the the plan that began on that first Christmas when Jesus was born.  My last thought on this run today was that God has a plan for each of us and as I meditated on my running verse found in Hebrews 12:1-2 it states that we are to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith" - if Jesus is the author of our faith that implies that He has written our faith story already and that he is providing us opportunities each day to fulfill that story through experiences that will grow our faith.  I pray that I have both the faith and courage to see those opportunities when they arise and step into them.  Merry Christmas and praise God

Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Tradition

Christmas traditions are great and I think we just started a new one. My sons and I ran the Kirkland 12K’s of Christmas yesterday and we had a blast. It is a highly recommended race and the 12K distance, for me, made it a bit more than just a fun run. Although 7-8 miles is a solid training run for me, getting into the race environment dials things up and I can’t seem to help pushing hard to pass the person in front of me, or catch the person on the next hill that just passed me! I was pleased overall with my time of 1:00:50 for the 7.5miles which my Garmin says was an 8:04 mpm. The first half of the course was more hilly than I expected so that was a surprise and drained me a bit, since I came out too fast expecting more of a flat course. The boys did great, and of course beat their old man by a long shot, my oldest son came in around 7:10mpm and my 17-year old son was around 7:30 mpm – well done boys. To make the day complete my wife and daughter came to cheer us on and although the forecast called for rain/snow showers that morning, we had cold but sunny weather. The ladies enjoyed the crowd, the sun, and some very warm cups of coffee and hot chocolate. After the race we headed over to Bellevue and had lunch and then shot over to the U-District to meet my nephew for coffee, we haven’t seen him in over 3-years so it was great to catch up and connect.
Father & sons
 
Resting today but have the remainder of the week off work so I’m looking forward to getting some sleep, enjoying my family, digging into the bible for some quality time in the Word and prayer, and getting some solid workouts in. My miles have slipped the last 3-weeks with long hours at the office and holiday events in the evening – I did feel that during the race, not so good. Hoping to get 35-40 miles in this week and get back on track. My wife got some fun pictures from the race – I’ll post those tonight. God has blessed me with a great family and three kids that are genuinely wonderful people and fun to be with – you know the kinda people I would want to be friends with even if they weren’t my kids – God is so good to me.

Ben going strong

Blake finishes
 














Old dog finishes at 1:00:50

Sunday, December 12, 2010

New week - good start

Well - it ranined like crazy here all weekend.  Saturday was a solid rain all day and on top of a full day of meetings and events, I ended up at the gym at 7:00pm to get some treadmill work.  Got 7-miles done but was not happy to be on the treadmill - a necessary evil in my mind.

Today was absolute downpour all morning (5-inches overnight) and local flooding - even at church this morning.  A side-note, spent the first 20-minutes of the service digging a trench to drain water away from a conduit that was spilling into the building electrical room - that's a first for me!..Got home mid-day and the rain had slowed up so I got on my gear and hit the road.  Got 8.5 miles in with minimal rain and then was off to my daughter's symphony concert.  It was great to be on the on the road and actually moving somewhere with each stride I took versus Saturday on the treadmil.  Goal for the week is to get 35-miles to compensate for the lighter week just passed.  Need to factor in a rest day on Saturday though in planning for the 12-k race on the 19th.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Wet, Windy, Wednesday

It's 7:30 Wed evening and I'm just on the boat heading home - long day and a long week!  Missed the 6:20 so I though all care aside, put on the running gear and headed out in the wet and windy night.  After the day I had it felt great to get the heart rate up and some sweat going - tonight I needed some decompression.  Got 4.3 miles logged in a 33 minute run - felt really good and looking forward to a hot shower, a bowl of soup, and early to bed.

I declare God is good and is a God of power.  I had a committee meeting this morning with the Directors and it had multiple facets that could have become difficult - I was a bit concerned, well prepared but concerned none the less.  I prayed specifically for wisdom, courage, and clarity of thought this morning for myself and specific to the Director's I prayed that God would handle their mindset and emotion and that regardless of the outcome He would give me peace in knowing that I have been chosen and accepted by God through salvation in Jesus.  God answered my prayers and as I left the meeting and headed into my next meeting I was praising God for His faithfulness to me - In the book of John chapter 15 Jesus teaches us that if "we are in Christ (his own) and ask of God, He is faithful to give us what we ask for"  To clarify, God is not a vending machine but the foundation of this is that I am in Christ - I want to be more and more like Him and I want Him to be glorified through my words and deed - not for my glory but for His.  I praise God for His faithfulness and blessings which are new every day!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tuesday rush

Well it’s Tuesday and the week is off to the races – big time. Got runs in on Sunday and a short run yesterday – nothing today. Sunday was really enjoyable as I ran with a new friend from church, a spontaneous phone call to him to see if he was free and it worked out. Met him at the high school and told him it was his call on the route and pace, I’m game for something new and different. A good run that took us out and through the Grand Forest on some trails and back – total miles here was 5.5. It rained a bit but hardly noticed as we hit the road and had some good conversation. As a solo runner usually, it took me a while to get my conversation in the flow of my breathing but did manage to get that down. We took the run at a nice easy pace, which felt good after logging 10-miles on Saturday. Once we parted company I jumped on the track at the High School and rounded out the total miles to 7 for the day – all very enjoyable and I look forward to running with Ruben again.

The “work-front” is going full power with lots going on as we gear towards the end of the year, it seems every day the stress level dials up another notch and other than some time off (which adds its own element of stress – being gone and knowing things have to get done) before Christmas work-life won’t slow down. I’m reminded more and more each day that my goals are eternal, not of this world. Yes, I want to do an excellent job in my vocation, I want to be well regarded, I want to be successful… BUT the things that are eternal all cover over the top of that – I want to have an impact on customers, team members, vendors, etc for my Lord and Savior. As Chip Ingram says, God has me in His “velvet vice” right now – not enjoyable but I do trust and have faith that the work He is doing in my life is for a greater plan and purpose. I need to rely on that knowledge and trust that He has plans to prosper me. Read in John 15 this morning the words of Christ to his disciples – very good words that “re-grounded” me in the purposes of Christ and what a promise that Jesus counts us as friends.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Saturday

It was a busy week with work and evening meetings but still managed to get some runs in, although they were short. Today (Sat) was a beautiful winter day – frost on the roads this morning but sunny and cold as the day went on. I waited until later morning to head out so the frost and ice was gone and then got a great run in – the sun was out, my son came along, and it felt good to be out and know I was not under any time constraints. Got 10-miles done in about 1:20 so the pace was ok and I just enjoyed the time and workout.


I have also been watching closely the wildfire burning in Israel and praying for the people and communities that are being threatened. My wife and I were in Israel in 2007, spending 5-days in Haifa where we were blessed by attending a Shabbat service with a messianic congregation on Mt Carmel – we got to know many people there and saw that God is working in a mighty way through the people in this congregation – please pray for Or Hacarmel (the congregation) for the safety of its members and protection of the buildings and property. Last report I read was that with the international support of air-tankers, helicopters, foam and fire retardant the government was hoping to have the fire under control by tonight – we are praying for exactly that. I am reminded of Gen 12:3 – we need to stand in the gap for Israel and bless them. God told Abraham that He would bless those that blessed him and He would curse those that curse him. Personally I want to be blessed and see God’s chosen people and His promised land blessed and protected.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Running, Family, and Shepherds

Haven’t posted all week and here it is Thursday morning – life has been very busy between God, family, work, and running. As previously posted, got a 13.5 mile run in over the weekend – Monday night I had a board meeting so didn’t have time to run but I did get quick runs in on Tues and Wed in Seattle while waiting for the ferry. Tuesday night got 4.25 miles in and Wed got 4.15 miles – short runs but I was pleased with the pace I kept on both. Tuesday night I ran an avg pace of 8:06/mile and Wed night 7:52/mile. It’s nice to see some progress in pace, especially after a slower long run on the weekend. Also, I’m now about 3-weeks out from the 12-K race the boys and I will be running – my goal is to cover the distance with an average pace under 8-minutes/mile.

Most of my recent posts have been exclusively running – other things going on right now is my oldest son is in the process of enlisting in the Marines. We are very proud of him and the fact that he is choosing to serve. Of course as parents we worry but I am convinced that God will watch over this young man. Jeremiah 29:11 declares that God “knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper, not to harm” and I claim that for my son. My second son is a Senior in High School and he too wants to go into the Marines – which we honor as well. We have asked him to take 6-12 months after graduating to either work, take some college classes or do a short term mission trip. Mostly I am asking him to take some time, seek God’s direction, and then move in that direction. So, big things going on in our house to say the least.

Finally, God has been teaching me many things – I’ve realized my time praying has been lacking, I mean really praying; speaking, waiting and listening for God. I’m reading in the gospel of John right now and recently read in john chapter 10 the “Good Shepherd” – it is a beautiful picture of the love of Christ for us but I was also struck by the sheep. Sheep will follow the voice of the Shepherd they spend time with – they follow that shepherd because they know the voice and the only way to “know a voice” is to hear it repeatedly over time. In short, I want to hear God’s voice and I need to spend the time with him so I’ll hear and know His voice. It is my heart’s desire to live within His will and plans – I’ve proven to myself too many times what a mess of things I can make when I operate in my own knowledge. God’s word promises that He will hear our prayers and He is anxious to answer and be with us. I am encouraged and believe that God has some great and exciting things in store for me – God Reigns!