She Runs By Faith

Way back in the exciting Spring months of 2019 — you know, back when we had just conquered another long winter and the feeling of hope had returned — I set aggressive goals for the races to come. 2018 ended disappointingly on the running front after a severe hip flexor strain; so I was ready to get back at it and put the training lessons I learned in the previous year to work. I had three marathons in my sights and three goals to go with them. Goal #1: Run sub-3:15 at Fargo Marathon in May Finished in 3:16:32  on a wet, rainy and cold day; which wasn't quite on goal but I felt it was a complete success! Lots of happy checkmarks on that goal page in my Believe Journal. That was 5 minutes cut off my ancient PR from 2011. Finally! Goal #2: Run back-to-back (2 week) marathons  I ran the Grand Forks Marathon and Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon two weeks apart back in 2016 and wanted to do that again for some weird reason. I had one week to recovery and one week to basically re-

What ended up being my worst ever taper week turned into the best outcome. That was Grand Forks Marathon 2019 in a nutshell for me. Parenthood is a blessed daily lesson in humility, it really is, and the past couple weeks were just another one of those lessons! Our youngest boy (23-month-old, can I just say he's 2 already?!) had a gunky cough and runny nose the past couple weeks. Then it passed on to 6-year-old. My husband and our 4-year-old both seemed to avoid getting this sick bug so I figured "Ah ha! My superior immune system helped me miss it too!" Think again there, Amy, think again. To sum up race week,  Monday felt "off" as we met for homeschool co-op; more tired than usual. Tuesday  = felt  bleh and then Wednesday I was pretty much useless. My neck was stiff, lymph nodes swollen, sinuses stuffed and I had a miserable headache. No cough, just a runny nose and PAIN. This felt like a sinus infection coming on so I drank water, some apple juice, so