Lent Day 30

Wow, day 30.  It is amazing to me how much I have progressed in just 30 days.  I have exceeded any goals that I set out to achieve.  I feel very excited about life and how I am transforming.  Whenever someone asks me how I am doing, I always like to tell them a fun, exciting, or interesting thing going on in my life.  Currently, I find it hard not to immediately jump into my Lent experience and if I do, I try not to monopolize the conversation with it.  This is such a great opportunity for witnessing to others what God is doing in my life. 

To get better each day, I must push myself harder each day.  This week I have been struggling to get my exercise in before dark.  Whenever that happens, I don’t go running around the neighborhood where I know the 5K mark.  Instead, I do other exercises and run around the yard.  Tonight was the first time all week that I was able to get back out on the road to run the 5K. 

It was a great run that got off to a bad start.  I really like to run with Monte, but if I leave Molly at home then Christy gets to hear her cry the entire time.  So, they both get to go with me.  I may have mentioned the yellow wire that they cannot go past.  Well, it is an invisible fence and to get them across I have to take off their collars and put them back on when we get to the other side.  Every time, I have carried Monte across because he is scared to cross the line even without his collar on.  Man did I make a mistake tonight.  I didn’t feel like carrying him, and I coaxed him to come to me on the other side with enthusiastic calls.  Dang, that dog is fast!  I took off running after that super fast Chihuahua / Feist.  If a car goes by, not only can that dog can chase it down, but he can pee on the tire while he passes it.  Here I am chasing this stupid dog while dragging Molly.  I am yelling at the top of my lungs “Monte, Get, Back, Here!”  Every time I would get even slightly close, he would take off.  I am sprinting. 

One thing that I have not mentioned in these essays is Monte’s very consistent habits and traits.  First, Monte is the fastest dog I have ever had.  He can outrun any squirrel and he usually gives them a 50 foot head start.  Second, he doesn’t have combined speed and endurance.  He can’t keep up that super fast pace for very long.  Third, he has to go stinky every time we go running, consistently within the first half mile.  Fun fact: he is so fast at everything that he doesn’t stop running while he drops a deuce.  Tyler thinks it’s hilarious.  If he gets the squirts, he will simply keep running but more like a crippled coon.  So, here I am running full speed after Monte the Mexican Speedy Gonzalez Burrito Dropping dog at full speed while dragging a beagle and yelling for him to stop.  Luck would be on my side.  He ran out of speed and had to take a dump.  Not that I wanted to grab him while he was making chocolate snow balls, but I had to seize the opportunity or I would never see him again.

That was the first time I stopped running tonight, although it was only a brief second to put his collar on and catch my breath.  I stopped a total of five times tonight.  The next three times, I would only allow myself to walk for 30 seconds.  The fifth and last time was on the final home stretch.  I was heading back to the house, and I wanted to see if I could beat my own record so we picked up the pace.  Molly was dragging on my right side, and Monte was slightly lagging on my left side when all of a sudden I stopped.  I actually saw my tracks were I skidded.  There was about a 4 foot red rat snake in the middle of the road, and we ran right over it.  Well, more like flew over it.  We couldn’t stop for too long, I had to hurry back to the house.  I did a 5K in exactly 29 minutes with five 30 second breaks.  I have not sweat that much in a long time.  Man this feels great!