country music 1/2 2010

so this picture may be old...i couldn't upload the pic my mom took of me after the race. it was awful anyway, i'm covered with sweat and my face looks extremely swollen! haha. well this past weekend my mom and i traveled to nashvegas for the country music half marathon. this was my 5th 1/2 marathon and 3rd time to be in nashville for it. i absolutely love nashville...not only are there ALOT of things to do and places to go as a young person, but it is a beautiful city with countrysides surrounding all of it. perfect.

this year's race was a little interesting for several reasons. first of all, the weather predictions were not that great for the whole weekend. i was praying all day friday that the weather wouldn't cancel the race. well---since our hotel room was right beside the starting line, we were woken up by the volunteers testing the PA system at the crack of dawn. the race started at 6:45 due to the weather getting bad later that morning...and let me tell you, i have not had experience with more beautiful weather than i did that day. the temperature was perfect, the sky was a perfect bluish gray with some clouds, the sun was peeking through, and the wind was blowing the beautiful green leaves of the trees. it was AWESOME. my playlist consisted of ALL kinds of music. of course. nothing less is expected of my mixes...i am known for my randomness. i listened to the script- breakeven, chris brown- forever, meredith andrews- can anybody hear me?, phil wickham- safe, coldplay- loves in japan, etc. i listened to a plethora of music. as i was running, i had alot of time of meditating and praying. it was really cool---along the way i got random chill bumps and encouragement from the different worship songs i listened to. as i was running and came to a hard part in the run, i saw the coolest thing that put my life into perspective automatically. a man was in a wheelchair doing the half marathon---with no one pushing him. people were running by him encouraging him though which was SO cool. and he was nothing but smiles. it was incredible- to see that this guy who can't walk and is using his arms to do a HALF MARATHON is smiling and probably so thankful he was even there. and there i was complaining that i was really thirsty or my left ankle was getting soar. and it put into perspective the things i gripe and complain about...when there are far greater, worse things i could go through in the race the Lord has put before me.

and off the deep subject, i think i saw toby mac....i had my phone with me the whole race and took a pic with my cameraphone. AHHHH. i think it was him! haha.

anyway, until next time........