The First Run

Okay, this is actually the beginning of week four, and I thought it fitting to change up the routine and push myself more than I had been. It is about 11 pm on Monday night as I type this. I just got done with my first real RUN of the transformation. Well, it actually was a Run/Walk, but you can understand this is my first time, right? Lungs still sting a little, coughed a bit, and my legs and rear feel like tree trunks right now. Will soon be replaced by soreness and shin splints, for sure. But with that out of the way, I gotta say this really feels good right now! J Is this an endorphin rush? Well, I LIKE it. It is refreshing, and I can see that I need to create this on a daily basis to effect my physical transformation, along with some modifications of my meal (fuel) intake (as I NOM NOM NOM munch on this NOM NOM NOM fresh pear).

Here’s what I did, specifically. I knew I wasn’t going to set a record for a mile run today. Not at my weight or level of fitness. I did, however, want to do something that would challenge me and be hard. I knew that going in. So, I did some basic stretching in the driveway, grabbed a cup of ice water (left it in the driveway for when I returned) and headed off into the night. For the first 60-count (didn’t bring a stopwatch, just counted), I walked. Not a calm walk, but a tense walk, with every muscle in my body engaged. Knees were bent, core was solid, chest and arms flexed in almost an isometric state, and pushed myself forward with a rhythmic use of glutes, hammys, quads and calves. Kind of felt like I was wearing an Iron Man costume. I prefer to think of it as a muscular athletic guy in a 140 lb fat suit. At the count of 60, I took off thundering down the road in my best effort to look cool while making sure I didn’t fall on my face. I did this for the next 60-count. At about count 25, my mouth must have looked like the air intake of one of the engines on a 747, and I thought I might just die. I was seriously re-thinking this running thing when I got to count 60. I spent the next 90 count walking, sucking air, wheezing and hoping Jesus would return right at that moment. But eventually, through the wheezing and coughing, I remembered my decision and why, so I took off for another 30 count run. It was as if my body said “What the … don’t you remember what the last run felt like? Are you nuts?” So at the end of 30, more wheezing and recycling air. Then I started another 60-count power walk, then another 30-count run. Somehow, this run became a little easier. I rested only 30 counts this time, then took off on a 60-count run. I didn’t believe it would happen, but that 60-count run was easier than any of the other runs so far (!!!!!!). After another brief rest, I did a 30-count run and arrived back at my driveway. It was probably about ½ mile altogether, which isn’t really bragworthy, with so many of you doing 193 mile sprints recorded faithfully in Daily Mile, but it was my humble start. Yeah yeah, it adds up to only about 7 ½ minutes, but it felt like an afternoon. The best things I can take out of tonight would include feeling great right now – not the accomplishment, but the physical feelings I am experiencing, and then the fact that even in the middle of the run, the latter stretches were easier to do than at the beginning.

Posting a ‘before’ pic of myself might be in the next entry or two. I honestly have some anxiety about it, and kind of feels like one would feel a couple days before knowing you were going to have to stand on stage in only your underwear. But it might be a good idea to let you all know where I stand right now. I am 5’7” tall, and 295 lbs and actually have a wide-shoulder athletic frame underneath all that extra weight. My soon-to-be-posted before pic will also serve as some accountability for myself.

In today’s OwnIt365 reading, David is running from Saul, and Saul is driven by his anger and bitterness towards David. When Saul discovers that the priest Ahimelech had helped David and his men by feeding them the shewbread and giving David the sword of Goliath, he was exceedingly angry and called for Ahimelech. When the priest appears before king Saul, he tried to play dumb and the king will have none of it, then orders Ahimelech and all his father’s house to be killed. The soldiers standing around him would not do it, so this guy Doeg the Edomite does it for him:

1 Samuel 22:18-23

And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.

That last verse stuck out at me, because this is very similar to what Jesus said to us in the New Testament. Abiathar means “excellent father; father of the remnant”. There was an acknowledgement of what he had gone through (v. 22), like Jesus did with the church in Revelation 2-3. He says to abide with him, like Jesus did in John 15. He says he that seeks his life also sought his life, which was also said by Jesus in John 15:18-20. And he ends it by saying “but with me thou shalt be in safeguard”. Wow. Am I the only one who sees that? John 6:37-40 talks about that which God gave to Jesus (us!), and how that he will in no wise cast us out (v37), and then says in verse 39 that it is God’s will that he should lose nothing of what God gave him. David is a ‘type’, of Christ, meaning that he personified many things that teach us about who Christ was. Anyway, I thought that was cool and I wanted to share that with you as well!

Hope you all have an awesome day, and hope these posts have been a blessing to you!

Steve