3.68 miles in 34'50"

i wanted to make my last run before this saturday's meet up a good one. i walked to the school with my wife, left her there and started running. i just kept my feet moving without working too hard. the wind cooled me and i enjoyed just crusing around town waving at all the folks i know - charlie, will, mary, jerry, beccie. this run puts me over 90 miles this month, up from 61 last month and zero the month before that. i feel good about my progress. just a month until the race that got me started on this running kick.

near death experiences

i took it really easy this morning and it nearly killed me. not literally, of course, but inside i was dying for speed. it wasn't even that my legs felt great. they were tired and sore from last night's long run. i just didn't want to go slow. i did it anyway because i want my legs to feel wonderful saturday morning when i run in haviland.

so let me share with you the excitement of the day.

my gatorade tasted nasty. not sure what was up with that. the only thing i can figure is that i accidentally left it out all day yesterday and something grew in the nozzle or something. whatever it was it was not pleasant. i only took three swigs then quit.

semi trucks were one of the other stories of the day. with a brisk wind out of the north, i was pounded by the air they were pushing until i turned around and headed back. one truck in particular growled at me as it approached. it was a huge cattle hauler and it's low roar shouted out, "i'm going to knock you off the road with the blast of air i'm pushing. you silly bicycle rider. i own the road." it pretty much felt like that when his "storm" hit me, but i survived and even maintained my position on the road that rightfully belongs to me too.

finally, i was intrigued by a caterpillar of lights running along the railroad tracks running parallel to 160 just to the south. i first noticed it about nine and a half miles from home just before i turned around. i took note of it again when i caught up with it at the seven miles to go mark going back. it's unusual that i can catch up with something on the tracks and this things was terribly interesting, so i pushed just a little bit to get ahead of it and make sure i could ride the half mile south to the tracks before it got there. i wanted to know what this behemoth was. just for me, it stopped on a siding in argonia and i got a good look at it. i don't know what it's called, but i'm assuming it's some sort of moblie track maintainence machine. pretty impressive up close.

the only other moment of excitement came somewhere along the way back home. a bunch of cars were coming toward me from the west and a bunch of others caught up with me from behind. in the middle of this two-way streem of traffic a pick up driver decides to be friendly and honks at me just as he's passing me. scared the pee waddin out of me.

and that's my morning on the bike. (21.73 miles @ 14.8mph)

6.92 miles in 1:10'03"

my wife came home from preparing for next week's kindergarten lessons and wanted to go running. we walked up toward the school and started our trek up and down the streets of argonia at the corner of allen and elm.

running south on elm, we ran past the city park, turned west for a block then ran back up past the school on high to beech. another block west and we were on main heading south to cherry.

from cherry we zigzagged our way to the furthest point south and west on the north side of town before turning back on our route and heading east to plum and garfield where we turned south and crossed the railroad tracks.

going south, we looped around boys and bryana then turned onto lucky lane which took us to the southern city limits. we went west a block on 20th avenue then turned north on main.

we ran on main until we recrossed the bnsf line and hit mill street. east on mill one block and north on high one block and my wife was done for the evening. we'd covered 3.12 miles in 35'24". that's 11'20" per mile average pace. her second fastest run average ever and we didn't stop once to walk.

i was feeling good, so i kept running and running and running eventually more than doubling the distance and running almost another 35'24". i quit two blocks from home at the corner of garfield and elm having covered 6.92 miles in 1:10'03". i still felt good and could have run further, but decided it was time to call it a night and get some rest. i'm pleased with my distance and nice slow and easy 10'07" per mile average pace. my pace for the 3.80 miles i ran alone was 9'07" per mile.

another easy run tomorrow and i'll be done until saturday morning in haviland with the dailymile crew there.

Obedience is love...

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:1-6, NIV)

At least one of you has to be saying, “I thought you said a couple days ago that a believer can’t sin, but this passage says they can.” I remind you that I did not say they cannot sin. I said a true believer cannot consistently and knowingly continue in sin. Someone who is in fellowship with God cannot habitually walk in darkness. A Spirit-filled person will hate sin and seek to eliminate it from their lives. Their desire will be toward God-pleasing obedience rather than self-pleasing decadence.

That said, let me emphasize the really good news. If a believer sins, she has a defender before God’s throne. Jesus, the one we put our faith in, is our defender. He speaks to the Father on our behalf. And the Father, remembering the blood of his Son shed for sin and crediting his Son’s righteousness to the believer, has mercy.

Isn’t that amazing?! You believe on Jesus. You move from darkness to light. You confess your sin. You walk in the light and have fellowship with God. And because of what Jesus did on the cross, God has mercy on you. He forgives your sin. He cleanses you from all unrighteousness.

My friends, do you know this God who is rich in mercy? If you know him, you will obey his commands. You won’t do it out of a sense of duty. It won’t be a burden. You will joyfully do what’s right and avoid what’s wrong because of your great love for the one who bought you out of slavery. If you live in God and he lives in you, you will walk as Jesus did – in complete dependence upon God for power and in willing submission to God.

The man who says, “I know God,” but does not do what God commands, resists submission. His actions belie his claim. God is not Lord of his life. The truth is not in him. Those who know God obey him.

To receive my once or twice weekly message via email, send a blank email to webmessage-subscribe@associate.com. Past messages are available at freegroups.net/groups/webmessage.

statistically interesting ride

my headlight almost went out five miles from home. other than that my ride was actually pretty boring, so let me energize you with a few stats from this morning's westbound out and back...

four cars passed me. 25% of them honked at me in a friendly, "beep! beep! i see you and don't want to hit you" way. 50% were foreign models. 50% were domestic. 50% of the domestic vehicles were (or should I say was?) SUVs. 50% were big gas guzzling luxury cars. 100% of the cars passed me in the first six miles of my ride. 50% of them passed me between miles three and four. the other 50% passed between miles five and six. 50% were headed west. 50% were headed east. of the westbound cars 50% moved entirely into the eastbound lane to avoid me. the remaining 50% moved slightly onto the opposite side of the road.

one panel truck passed me in argonia a half mile from home. if i'd added him into the mix, i would have had to get out a calculator to do the percentages. 100% of the trucks that passed me were going west. that's all i'm saying. (15.93 miles @ 17.1mph)

I almost put it in...

Today during lunch, I grabbed a leftover chicken tender and began gnawing on it while I pulled out all the ingredients for a PBJ. Chomp! There's the peanut butter. Chew! There's the raspberry jam. Nosh! There's the bread.

By the time I had all the components of a good PBJ on the counter and a knife located to spread the P and J on the bread, I was down to about two bites of pre-processed chicken stuff. I took a bite and proceeded to untwist the twisty tie thing that holds the bread sack closed. While I did this I kept an eye on the last bite of fried goodness.

I pulled out two pieces of bread then spun the bread sack to close it. Next I took the twisty tie and nearly put it in my mouth. What!?!? Remember how I said I was eying the last bite of breaded bird? As I looked at it, I decided to eat the last bite, but it wasn't in my hand. Instead, in my grip was a yellow plastic covered wire. That's what I moved mouthward.

I'm thinking about starting a list of things I've almost put in my mouth, but that probably would get gross really quickly. So I won't.

When I was a kid, I'm told, I actually put a spider in my yapper. My mom saw me do it and bravely pulled the hapless creature out. I guess the arachnid goes on another list. Things that have been in my mouth, but not swallowed.