Running in the Rain

I slogged up the New Street hill about 5:45 last night. A gentleman making his evening transfer from car to home smiled and said, "Wasn't Saturday's ten miler enough?"
Actually it did seem like enough when I forced myself out the door, knowing that I needed to run my crazed emotions into submission. Then as I headed up Points, I realized I wasn't even winded. I smiled as I remembered how just a few months ago I thought I'd never reach the top of New Street without having to walk part way. Yet here I was, still running -- up Points, up Prospect and on to the blessedly flat track. One more mile and I could start intervals. Just as I finished the warm-up, a good steady rain fell.
Remember what worked on Saturday, I opted once again to work on form and not really look at the time. I WAS tired after all, and I HAD just finished a ten-miler followed by a recovery run on Monday. And so I ignored the clock and coached myself...lift your legs, McCracken. Get those heels up. Pump your arms. Bend a little. Line up shoulders and hips. Launch from the balls of your feet. Keep the shoulders relaxed. Concentrate.
The rain came a bit harder. I LOVE running in a steady rain -- not a gully washer, necessarily, but I love running in ion loaded, freshly laundered air.
First 800 - 4:28. About 15 seconds faster than goal pace. I jogged a lap, reset my chronograph and started another interval, watching my form and not the clock. 4:24. Another lap at a jog pace. A quick stop to down some water and then the last interval. Another 4:24.
As I cooled down I thought about lessons learned Saturday and today. My best scores have come, success has come, not when I watched the clock, but when I watched the details under my control -- monitoring where I placed my feet; remembering to keep pumping the arms; and maintaining a hard, but steady breathing rate.
I thought about my life and the frustrations weighing me down as I began the run. "The Lord WILL restore the years the locusts has eaten," the Bible says. I think that's in Job. I've been claiming that promise for years now, sometimes with great faith; but more often in pure desperation. But honestly the Lord is restoring. Just this year alone, I graduated with a B.S. and summa cum laude, no less; I am maintaining (with the help of my friends) my apartment; I am holding a steady full-time job, and I RAN ten miles. Yes, there are times when life seems pure drudgery and times when it seems there is no gain from minding the daily details. Some days, in fact, it seems the effort is purely wasted and the locusts eat the crops no matter how carefully the seeds were planted and nutured. And yet...God WILL restore. God DOES restore.

God IS good. Sometimes we see it; the rest of the time we live by faith.