Of course Jill,Aubrey,Joel and I are still trying to come to an understanding. I suppose though such great evil will never be understood.
With Brendas and Stephens thoughts I did contact our local paper the Gresham Outlook yesterday. They had been trying to contact me. They did a very nice article if anyones interested on theoutlookonline.com. I have done interviews in the past where you can tell they have a clear agenda before they even ask you anything. This reporter did a very nice job of listening and for the most part caught and recorded the miracle we experienced.
Mon night I woke up after just about 4 1/2 hours sleep. The mind was going too fast and too many directions to sleep anymore. Usually fyi the body is happy to sleep more than that the night after a marathon.
This last night I actually slept for 6 hours which was great. This morning as I was laying in bed very wide awake I began to pray. A very very very clear understanding came to me. I understand much greater now what happened to me during the race.
I do love in the old testament in the book of Isaiah chapter 40. The whole chapter especially the last 3 verses. Anyway I do always pray for Gods strength because I know I cannot do anything with out it.
So to run 26.2 miles the first half should be at a pace that feels relatively easy(hopefully this is still a fast pace),pacing to have strength to finish strong and fast to the end.
The first 11-12 miles of the marathon I did run with strength beyond my own. It felt like I was out for an easy jog almost yet I was running really very fast. For how easy those first miles felt things should not have changed where suddenly I was greatly struggling to run a minute per mile slower than what I was running for the first 12 miles.
This morning a new understanding was given me. If I would have finished the race even a few minutes faster the events for our families would have been so different. Just a few minutes faster across the finish line and I personally would have been somewhere between the two bombs. I love to watch marathoners finish and a combination of Stephens and my families would have been in the ground zero zone. The kids that had to go to the bathroom would have gone in and out of the mall right by where the second blast went. So as I always pray to run faster, in this event I was blessed with such an awesome first half, being so blessed and rewarded for the great effort I put into running fast. It was an awesome first half. Very quickly though God through his grace and tender mercy suddenly slowed me down. I did not understand this at the time. And àt the time it was happening it was heartbreaking and very physically painful . But by this miracle Stephens family ,my family, and myself were protected.
Yesterday as we were on the greyhound bus coming up from Boston to NYC(we wanted to go somewhere else on heightened alert with a heavy police presence) Jill was checking her Facebook. I am glad she does Facebook so she can keep me up to date since i dont. A friend from BYU Eric, who did beat me last time I ran Boston, spoke of how he wants to run Boston next year as a sign of solidarity. Difficult to describe but it did help to shift my thoughts. Next year we will come to Boston. The good things in the world must not be stopped by a few crazy lunatics.
God does hear and answer prayers. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to understand the answers.
Thanks again for everyones thoughts and prayers.
btw today i wear my livestrong shirt under my Boston jacket.
Mark
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