Hardest Marathon Ever

My 41st life time marathon:  Waco Miracle Match Marathon

I got to Waco on Saturday afternoon. I walked around the starting area some. Waco seemed a sleepy town even though it is home to Baylor University. It is an old town, sporting the ornate courthouse.

Here is a map of the course.

You start off with a little bit of wandering around the Baylor campus. They have a brand new foot ball stadium which even has a harbor. Baylor is a Christian school, assuming Presbyterian since they have a John Knox Center. Many of the buildings appear like churches with Texas stars on them. Add in many ROTCs manning aid stations and intersections and I was able to describe the four most important principles of American Life. In this order: Texas, Football, Army, Christianity.

Ok, it was early. I started an hour before the main start. About 30 of us were there. One man who looked about 80 sidled up to me to chat. He was a little shorter and had a face like a rock and a hump on his back. He called himself Tortoise. I think he beat me.

At about 5.3 miles, we came up from the river to near the starting area. A band was playing. The regular race had started. There was an aid station that nobody had really used. I took a cup of gatorade. After drinking it, I slammed the empty cup on the ground and then raised my arms high. First one! Some guy watching me figured it out and started laughing.

We then spent about 4 miles going up Austin avenue. Some nice old houses here. We continued to wander up through neighborhoods. Did I mention up? Where did these hills come from? Its Texas and Waco had looked flat driving in.

About 12 or 13 miles, I was thinking how wonderful marathons are and how I just need to do them. Then, this particular marathon went to hell. Then real hills started, I thought. No, the real hills were these awful steep mothers between miles 21 to 25. Who puts 60% road grades at the end of a marathon? And then line the course with quotations about suffering every 20 feet!

Here is a picture of Lake Waco about mile 15.

Here is a selfie at Waco Golf Course about mile 14, the first serious down hill followed by the first serious up hill. But these were pissers compared to the bloody hills at miles 21,22,23, and 24.

I finished in 5:58. Here is the really great embroidered jacket I got for finishing. I'm never taking it off.

Are Prayers Answered?

My point at this moment: reality looks like the energy of the prayer.

I guess that is a metaphysic-y answer.

ACIM lesson: today the peace of God envelops me; and I forget all things except His Love.

I did my morning meditation as usual today. All is quiet in my mind. I finish off packing for my overnight trip to run a marathon. I look at the Houston Transtar map to see what traffic is like. It is appalling. TexDOT has seen fit to completely close several freeways for construction. All of them seem to be in the north west area; where I need to go to go to Waco.

Consternation! I look at that map and at google maps and finally decide on a route.

I go to the AA meeting which is on the 11th step. I sit there and listen to people talk. I think about my own life long struggle to know God. I think about my current practice of reading Q's gospel out loud to myself every night and then practicing silent meditation. I think about my recent reading of the beginning of the Big Book and its instance that we are hopeless apart from divine help and this is for everything about our lives. As if prayer is all there is!

I whip out (from my back pocket) my piece of paper with the lesson for today. I think about getting out of Houston. I think about the peace of God as my reality. I felt peace as my reality. I remembered yesterday's realization that "this IS my life." I came to understand that no matter what traffic was like, it is my higher power's life.

I get in the car and start driving. It turns out, I hardly met a spec of traffic. Unknowingly, I had picked mainly toll roads, and gone a little bit long around; but I went pretty much 80 mph all the way to Waco.

During the trip, I also looked at my piece of paper and imagined feeling the peace.

Arriving in Waco, I quickly saw the convention center where packet pickup is. There was a Marriott across the street that looked like a handy place to park. As I got out of the car, I had an idea. I went in to the Marriott and told them I was booked at another Marriott 8 miles away but that this Marriott was exactly where I wanted to be. Did they have a room? Could they cancel my other reservation without penalty and book me in there? They did, as well as give me the same rate.

OMG! I am ensconced in a hotel across the street from the start line.

I wanted to experience "enveloped by the peace of God today." I didn't ask God for anything material. I wanted to experience the peace of God and this peaceful reality is what I perceived. It seems completely plausible that me and my higher power created a reality, or that peace was always there but I perceived it today, or what I perceived was my dream of peace.

Reality could be an illusion and it could be malleable. Or perception is in the mind of the perceiver, but what is perceived doesn't actually exist. Only peace exists, the rest of what I perceived is my dream.

No bull: