You Go Girls!

We've been talking about this for a while. We talked about who was going to run what. It was our marathon relay weekend.

"Kris will run the longest stretch. I can't run like Kris. Don't expect me to run as fast as her."

Those were some of the things my ladies said as we were preparing for our relay. I soaked it up. I shrugged them off but inside I was thinking, "Darn right, I'm the baddest runner of you all and I'm going to eat this course up."

I'm humble like that when it comes to running and all things related to exercise. I can be fiercely full of pride.

Well, the pride thing didn't really work out for me this time. As it turns out I could barely walk without hunching over this past weekend. Instead of words of admiration from my friends, I was constantly being checked on.

"How you doing Kris? Are you feeling OK? Do you need my arm?"

I'm never praying to be like Mary from the Mary/Martha story again. Mary needs to get off her lazy butt and try to keep up with Martha. Martha is getting it done, eating up six miles without even breathing heavy. I'm trying to understand the whole Mary thing but Martha simply makes more sense to me.

Let's not talk about that.

Let's talk about the person who saved the day for our marathon relay team.

Here she is. The girl who ate up the most difficult six miles of the route in less than an hour. She filled in for her healing, resting, laying around mother and she did awesome!

She did it with her quiet humility and cute smile.

Where did this child come from?

Between five runners we completed 26.2 miles. I got to drive from one point to another. It was a bit of a process figuring out where to park to get to the next drop off and pick up site but we figured it out. We'd sit along the route waiting, straining to see our girl coming into sight.

"I think I see her. Yep. Here she comes. Look at her! She's kicking it. She looks so good."

Our runner would come up to our group smiling, slap the hand of the next runner who would take off listening to us cheering her on.

Lovely. Fabulous.

Don't you wish we could do that every day?

"I know it's hard but I see you. You're making it. You're doing it. Just keep coming. I'll be here when you get here and I'll take it for a while. Go. Go. You can do it. Are you hurt? Here, take my arm. I'll help."

A marathon relay. A group of friends. A brave daughter stepping in for her mother. Mary and Martha. Running. Doing that thing that is a challenge but wrapping it up in encouraging words from friends.

Is this the better way? Would I have missed this lesson if I had done things the Martha way?

What I know for sure - I'm privileged to be a part of this group of women.

You go girls!