Thankfulness for God's promises

Every November, I do a post that relates to gratitude.  This year, I'm writing about thankfulness for God's promises, along with an idea to try in your prayer life.  (This is inspired by my friend and mentor Kim, who's been the inspiration for half of my posts this year :).  

Normally, I approach prayer something like this:  I pray through a list of requests about things that are going on in my life, or things that are going on for my family and friends, or things that are going on in the world.  If I'm having a good day, I will throw in a few thank yous, praises, and confessions, but that's a whole separate part of the prayer.  The idea to try is this:  combine thankfulness for God's promises WITH your list of prayer requests.

What does this look like?  Let's say I'm feeling anxious.  I would say, "Thank you, Lord, that you give us peace that passes understanding, and I pray for that peace in this anxiety provoking situation."

Other examples of promises where you can combine thankfulness with requests:

• God is near to the broken hearted (Psalm 34:18) - I pray this one for people who have recently suffered loss of a loved one or are struggling in a relationship.
• God daily bears our burdens (Psalm 68:19) - I pray this one particularly for those with a disability or chronic pain / illness, or who are caretakers for someone with a disability or chronic illness.
• God is working all for our good (Romans 8:28) - I pray this for friends who are feeling discouraged or stuck, or are in a hard situation.  
• God strengthens us (Isaiah 40:31) and gives us rest (Matthew 11:28-30) - I pray this for friends who are feeling exhausted by work, responsibilities, or life circumstances.
• God gives us peace (John 14:27) - I pray this for those who struggle with anxiety and depression.
• God gives us wisdom (James 1:5) - I pray this for friends who are looking for guidance or trying to figure things out.  
• God loves us (this is throughout the Bible, but i love this one:  Zephaniah 3:17) - I pray this for those who are feeling unloved or who don't know God's love.  
• God is with us (Psalm 23) - I pray this for those who are feeling lonely, or like they are facing something too big for them alone.  (Also a perfect one to think about heading into Advent season!)

And I pray these for myself, because I need to hear these promises too.

What was the result?

I have to admit that I was skeptical whether a change in prayer format would make any difference.  Probably like many of you who have made it this far into the post, I regularly read and think about these promises, and it didn't seem like it would make that much difference to switch the order of things around.  

However, I gave it a try for a week, and this is what happened:  A more faith-filled, joyful prayer life!  Why?  First, it ensured that I was regularly meditating on the promises of God, rather than just getting to it when I have plenty of time and motivation.  Starting with a reminder of all the good that God is working all the time is so encouraging.  And to go with the theme of Thanksgiving month -- it causes gratitude for all the goodness we're already basking in, all the time, and usually without even noticing.  Second, it makes you think (and sometimes think hard) about how the promises of God link up with the difficulties of life - and once you've made that connection, it stays, and it continues to encourage.  

I've gone back to praying in my previous style - just saying requests rather than turning them into a gratitude - but even having done my prayers like this for a short time has really changed my thought process.  I'm much more often remembering the promises that link up to those requests at the close of my prayer time, and this is an encouragement and a faith boost.  I would encourage all of you to give it a try!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's a Mystery to It

"Pillars of Creation", from James Webb telescope

I've been thinking about wisdom this month, thanks to a challenge from a mentor - reading Proverbs and thinking about what makes a wise person.  I believe that the biggest key to wisdom is to fear God.  But a second, related, hugely important piece is to realize how much you don't know and to come to terms with the huge volume of things you don't understand.  This post is my thoughts on being comfortable with mystery.

1.  Mystery is hard - I like to know things deeply.  If there's something I really care about, I'm going to be Googling, listening to podcasts, and reading books about it.  I'm going to do my best to know that subject inside and out.  If I hit a brick wall in trying to understand a medical condition, or a question about faith, or just whatever it is I'm wanting to learn about, it makes me feel *frustrated*.  Knowing the answers, understanding how things work, feels like power and control and reassurance.  Not knowing feels like weakness and ineptitude.  It's humbling - not like in the way famous people say they are humbled to receive this award - but like in the way where you are taken down several notches.    

2.  Mystery is reality - there are things we will never understand.  Millions of them, if we really start to think about it.  Our human brains are limited.  Just like our eyes don't have the ability to perceive the full spectrum of color, and our ears can't detect the full range of sound, our brains don't have the facts, the frameworks, or the processing ability to know it all.  This has been known for the entire history of humanity, but I think because we live in this information age with the Internet giving us access to exponentially more information than ever before, it might be easier for us to deny our limits.  But there are so many mysteries in the hows and whys of life, so many questions that Google can't answer, and it's a good thing to be reminded of this truth.    

Pluto!, from James Webb telescope

3.  Mystery is exciting - Like many, I've been oohing and aahing over each new picture that is released from the James Webb telescope.  We get to see vantage points into space that are (way!) deeper and clearer than ever before - and one of my favorite things about it is, they're so stunningly beautiful!  I've thought about how vast the universe is, and how it all started, and how it all works, but I don't think I ever thought to wonder whether it gets more beautiful the more you see of it.  What a thing, to live in such a beautiful place!  And we're still barely, barely scratching the surface in what we can see.  Isn't it so exciting to think how much universe is out there, and what it might look like, and how we might not yet have seen the beginning of the depths of the beauty?  And isn't it exciting to think that this might be true for all sorts of other things as well - such as the human body, or faith, or eternity.  

4.  Mystery can lead to curiosity, wonder, and gratitude - Life would be pretty boring if everything was known, or if everything even *could* be known.  Instead, there are all these questions that we can bounce around in our heads, that we can try to discover answers to, that lead to more questions and imaginings.  We can be reminded how small we are, how we're just a dot in the time and space continuum and that our knowledge reflects that.  And we can feel awe and gratitude towards the one who DOES know it all, and who keeps it all spinning.  

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This post describes how I think about mysteries in factual and philosophical knowledge, but I want to acknowledge that many of the hardest "hows" and "whys" in life are emotional and relational.  Those are still very hard and very real, but might not fit as well into the excitement / wonder / gratitude boxes.  I do think there is hope in these kind of questions too, in thinking about how we don't understand the whole story - that our hardships now are very real and very painful, but they might be working towards something beautiful in the timeline of eternity that we can't see or know now.  This is an enormous topic that deserves book length treatment and not just a footnote to a blog, but I wanted to recognize that these are a big part of the mysteries that float through all of our minds.

Homeschooling

The latest update in the Ching household is that we are now homeschooling all three kids!  I was going to wait on writing about this for awhile, but I generally write about whatever is taking center stage in my brain, and right now, it's the world of homeschool.  I've been watching others homeschool with interest for a long time, but didn't think it was the right choice for us because public school was going well for our kids, because I had misconceptions about what homeschooling consists of, and because I had misconceptions about how it would go for our family.  But with our oldest two at or approaching middle school age, this seemed like the right time to try It.  I've gotten a much closer look at the world of homeschooling in this last month, and I thought it would be worth writing about what's the draw for me, and things I'm learning as we enter this new world.

Bat walk

What's appealing about homeschool?  We are 6 weeks into our journey, so these ideas are aspirational.  One of the reasons I wanted to wait to write about it was because I know I'm still a green thumb (and I don't want to do a repeat of when I wrote about how easy it is to have three kids, then had to  eat my words a year later) - but this is a great time to set the vision for what I hope it can be, and then refer back on the weeks when it's harder.

• Homeschooling is a good chance to have lots of quality family time - to nurture that bond, to control the environment of your kids, and to let the kids grow up with lots of time around both their parents and siblings.
• It allows you to emphasize what's most important to you both in terms of time spent on certain subjects and how they are taught.
• You can tailor the education more to the needs and interests of each of the individual kids.  
• We can shorten up the school day substantially and allow more time for free play, nature, and art, and have more freedom in the schedule in general.  

Looking for pond creatures

My misunderstandings about homeschool:

• "You need traditional school to be socialized" - I used to wonder how homeschooled kids got socialized, and whether we would all be lonely if we tried it.  Every homeschool family does things differently, so I can't speak for all, but for those who are looking to socialize, there are gatherings available every day of the week.  There are co-ops.  There are park meet-ups and field trips organized on homeschool Facebook pages.  And there are social groups forming all the time - - we are now part of a nature group and an art group.  Many homeschoolers, especially with kids in the 6-12 age group, choose this path in part because they think play should be a bigger part of childhood, so they are very actively incorporating play with other kids as part of their schedule.  (And this is just addressing the 9-3, specific to homeschool part of socialization; like the rest of modern middle class America, there's also all the activities that take place in the afternoon and evening - sports and scouts and church groups and music groups and etc etc etc)
• "You won't have enough time to do the rest of life, or to do anything fun." - I thought we would be pretty shackled to home from the hours of 9-3 Monday through Friday, making our way through workbooks.  This was a multi-part misconception:
• School at home is much shorter - more like 3-4 hours than the 7ish (counting drop off / pick up) of traditional school.  You can do it in just the morning or just the afternoon.  You can do it on a Saturday if you want to use a weekday for something else.  You can go year round and just do 4 days a week.  You can really work it around the rest of life, whatever that looks like for you.  
• When doing actual school hours, you are not just shackled to the table in your house.  The world is your classroom!  Especially for science, social studies, and art / music / humanities, there are so many field trips you can do to make learning hands on.  And even with the subjects that ARE mostly workbook based (I'm looking at you, math), you can throw the workbooks in the car along with a cooler of food and take them with you on an off season lake day.
• "You can't teach well without professional training" - This one I would describe as more of a tradeoff than a complete misconception.  I have no doubt that, given a class size of three and complete freedom of curriculum and content, a professionally trained teacher would do a better job than me, and I think it remains to be seen how my kids do without a professional teacher.  (Teachers, I think you are amazing!  And I am super grateful for the excellent education my two oldest received from you for elementary school!)  But the positive parts of the tradeoff - the tiny class size and the corresponding ability to target precisely to my kids' academic levels, interests, and learning styles; and then getting total freedom to choose the curriculum, and to adjust throughout the year if something isn't working - not to mention, no standardized testing, and no pressure to teach to tests - those are the hugely positive parts of the tradeoff.

Checking out the original Nevada Supreme Court

My misunderstandings about how homeschool would work for our family:

• I thought homeschooling was going to be very hard on me - It is a lot of work!  Just like with distance learning, I'm appreciating teachers in a whole new way.  But once you choose curriculums and get the hang of how to use them, they have done most of the prep work for you.  Once you set the schedule, you just need to follow it.  Once the kids learn the routine, they more or less follow it.  I'm getting used to distributing my time and energy differently, but overall, homeschooling is way more manageable and enjoyable than I thought it might be.
• I was worried about creating a clear separation of home v. school - I used to think that it was important to have school be at school, and have home be the separate soft landing.  There is a great book called "Brave Learner" that helped me shift my mindset on this - one of the beautiful things about homeschool is that you don't separate this all out.  During reading time, the student can sprawl out on their own bed.  If it's a hard day in math, they can get a hug from mom or pet their dog.  If they have a burst of energy, they can take a spontaneous trampoline break; if they're hungry, they can walk 3 steps to the kitchen and grab a snack.  For us, it's been an advantage rather than a disadvantage that there's not a clear separation.  
• I thought we needed to have an IEP - I will probably write a whole separate blog post about this one, once we have a year under our belt, but I want to say two things about this one:  first, this is going to depend hugely on the particular circumstances of the student, and for many students with a disability, it will be a clear choice to stay in public schools with the supports of the IEP.  But for others, homeschooling might allow for exactly the environment and accommodations that your student needs.  It's going well so for us on this front so far, but again, it's too early to write much more.  

Those are my early thoughts about homeschool!  Stay tuned to see how it goes as the year goes on :)

In Support of the Local Church

Today, I'm writing a post about some of the good things about belonging to a local church body.  I've noticed that it's easier to find articles about the negatives than about the positives of church.  I know one reason for this is that there are some who have had deeply painful experiences, and I don't mean to negate or minimize anyone's hurt - I'm sorry if this is you, and if you'd ever like to talk about a story like this, please let me know.  

But I think a second reason we hear negatives over positives is because the positive experiences are more quiet, less splashy - but they build something beautiful over time.  So, I'm going to list out some of the really positive things we've experienced in the local church (at both our current church body, Dayspring, and churches we've been a part of in the past).  I hope this rings true to those of you who are part of a church, and maybe can also be an encouragement to anyone who's been thinking about getting involved in a local church.  

Here we go:

• People pray for you - we all hit hard times in life, wonderful times in life, and uncertain times in life.  It is so, so great to have a group with whom to share the ups and downs, to ask for prayers and to share praises.  Ever since group text became a thing, one of my favorite and best uses of group text is sharing prayer requests and praises with people from my church.
• People know you and check in with you - This follows partly from sharing prayer requests, and partly from seeing each other every Sunday and often at mid-week groups as well.  People know if you have trips coming up, or if there was a job change, or if something's going on with your kids, and they ask about it.  People notice if you're gone and check in about that.  Loneliness is a huge problem in our society right now, and having a group who knows what's going on with you and sees you every week goes a long way towards helping this.  
• People help you in tangible ways - They bring you meals.  They give you rides.  They visit you in the hospital.  The church facilitates you helping people in these same ways.  We've been the recipient of many meals, and it's amazing how cared for this act of service makes you feel.
• People inspire you - We live in a pretty me-focused culture, so it really inspires me to see people who are using their time and talent to help others.  This might look like working with orphans in Ukraine, or arriving at church at 7:30 am every week to set up chairs, or using your home to host all the events, or a thousand other things that help people in the church, the community, and the world.
• Friendships with purpose - People naturally gravitate towards those they have something in common with - same age group, same interests.  But these friendships go deeper when you are united by the same belief system.  I might spend the most time with others who have school aged kids, or who like to paddleboard, or who think that a book club is a great use of Friday night -- but these interactions are deepened when we have the shared link of faith.  
• Multi-generational friendships - This is a surprise benefit that I love so much - you get to know people who AREN'T just like you, and specifically, who aren't the same age as you.  Some of my favorite people and best mentors and encouragers are a generation up.  They show me a life that I can strive towards if I continue in the faith, and they can give wisdom and perspective when I'm in the weeds of my own life stage.  You also get a chance to get to know people who are a generation below, with all the energy and possibility and idealism that youth / young adulthood brings.  
• People encourage you, support you, and help you grow - You are often embarking on shared projects together.  This might be memorizing verses, praying and studying the Bible together, doing service projects together, discussing books together, or playing music together.  These are all great ways to keep learning and keep growing, and when you do it with a group, you get more and better and deeper growth through the group working together.  

These are things I  really appreciate about my church.  As always, please add your ideas to my list!

Review of "Illusion of Control"

 Kenny recently published a new book!  It's called "Illusion of Control".  This book is a post-apocalyptic retelling of the biblical story of Samuel, Saul, and David.  The blurb on the back summarizes it well:  "In the postapocalyptic city of Gog, Wu was a great king, until he lost his faith, and then his mind, and then his kingdom.  In Gog, your worst enemy may turn out to be your best friend, and the most dangerous thing you can do is fall in love.  Illusion of Control is an urgent parable about why we live together and how societies fall."  

This is a great read!  Here are my favorite things about it:

• Reno setting, and rich descriptions in general - This book is set in Reno.  Those of you who are familiar with Reno will enjoy descriptions of specific places around town and the haunting (but also sometimes beautiful) images of what our region might look like in a post-apocalyptic future.  Kenny creates very evocative descriptions, so you can really see places and imagine scenes playing out in your head.  
• Classic story set in futuristic times - This is kind of like if you've ever seen a Shakespeare retelling set in modern times.  The bones of a really good story are all in there, but because it's set in a dramatically different time and place, you notice new and different things, and you can also appreciate the original story in a whole new light.  
• The technology aspect - Kenny takes advantage of the futuristic setting to bring in nanotechnology, and uses it to make some unexpected plot twists and to bring up some really interesting questions about the intersection of technology and faith.  You could do a whole book club about this aspect alone, but I don't want to get too deeply into it and cause spoilers.  Other than to say that I think Yuel's quote on p. 528 nicely summarizes how the technology stuff fits with some of the religious questions it raises.
• Well crafted, action packed plot - The plot weaves together really nicely from beginning to end, with a complex structure that builds as it goes.  There is lots of action and a fair amount of violence, which is true to the story it's based on (and this made me appreciate what it would've been like to be alive during the days when there was either battle or the threat of battle around every corner).  I will say that violence is not my favorite, but here I found it to be like Breaking Bad - it builds the story arc and helps drive the character's moral development; it serves a purpose.
• Character development - This was my very favorite thing!  Kenny really develops the characters.  When you are a kid and learn these stories, they can seem pretty one dimensional.  Saul = bad guy.  David = good guy.  Etc.  Here, you get to imagine more of a back story.  Saul as the guy who grows up in a very troubled, poverty stricken home.  Who's at least sometimes trying to do the right thing, as life hammers him down.  Who ultimately succumbs and breaks down based more on weakness than the stereotypical evil-through-and-through movie villain.  David as the guy who's very brave and heroic, but also brash and impulsive and headstrong.  All of the characters are built out more, and feel like real people.  The Samuel and Jonathan characters are great.  The three leaders of the enemy people are all very compelling, particularly the woman who invents the technology.  I really enjoyed getting to know these characters. 
• Cliff hangers at the end leave you wanting more!  My sources tell me that a sequel is on the way.

So, in conclusion, you should check out Kenny's new book!  You can get a paperback copy or a (free!) ebook at this link.  And you can check out more of Kenny's creative work here.

Thankful for Our Village At Sarah Winnemucca

 

First day of elementary school

Last day of elementary school!

Josh officially ended his time in elementary school today.  Because he started in preschool, he has been attending elementary school for NINE years - most of his life, and more than most of us stay at any one work place these days!  I was so scared to send my tiny, vulnerable, three year old to this enormous school building - his backpack weighing almost more than him as we passed by the upper grade kids who looked like giants.  That first day, I just didn't know how in the world it was going to work at all.  I am thrilled to say that this first, and biggest, chunk of school has gone great:  we have seen him grow so much in every way - physically, emotionally, academically, socially - and it's largely thanks to the village of adults at the school.  So this post is an ode to all of Josh's elementary teachers and teams, with all the reasons I think you're great!

First, we've been so blessed to have great general education teachers every year who come up with creative ideas that make the kids want to go to school and want to learn.  These teachers have done everything from guided art drawings to a passports around the world project to read alouds with great books that the kids can't wait to hear what comes next in the story to making the classroom a town with its own economy and everyone has jobs.  I've loved Josh's teachers so much each year that I always request to get them for Zoey too (and they've been great in teaching her too! - I could write a whole separate post about what a help and encouragement they've been in developing her love of reading and writing - but for today, I'm focusing on Josh's experience).

Second, we've had an IEP team and administrators who have given him a robust IEP that supports all his needs without making it a fight.  I've talked to tons of families both in and out of our school district and know exactly how rare this is.  All the support has been a huge blessing to him, and the without a fight has been terrific for me :).

Third, the school staff really got to know him.  Everyone knew the kinds of topics and books that projects that would be of most interest.  As an example of this:  there were a couple years where Josh was really into bridges, and the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse in particular.  This bridge collapse from the 1940s was caught on video and is sometimes used to teach college engineering students about aeroelastic flutter - Josh enjoyed watching it and could tell you all about the physics behind it.  Anyway, the school used to do science days, where students would go to different classrooms throughout the day and learn about different science related topics - one of the presentations on offer that year was his favorite, the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse video.  Josh came home so excited, and I'm not sure exactly which teacher or staff made this happen, but what a wonderful thing.

Fourth, they believed in him and they operated from a growth mindset.  They started where he was at, but also saw where he could go, and consequently, we saw great growth.  It would be easy to go through the motions and provide services without any heart, not really believing in the student's ability to make progress.  We never had this - we always had team members that cared, that believed growth was possible, and we consistently saw progress.

Fifth, the school really prioritized treating everyone with kindness, and consequently we had really good experiences through the years with both staff and students valuing and including my kid.  The former principle deserves huge credit for setting this tone, along with all the teachers and staff for living it out day after day.

I can easily imagine a different school experience where any of these things weren't true - where we had to deal with bullying, or fight for our kid to get the same kind of education as others, or where school was just a miserable thing.  I am extremely grateful to all the teachers who put in the extra care and extra effort (even in challenging covid years!) to make these elementary years so great.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.  There really aren't words to adequately convey how much this means to me.

I hope you all have an awesome summer!  Maybe we'll cross paths in the Sierra Nevadas!  I wish you all the best.

Running Post, 2022 Edition

One guarantee about race photos:  they *will* be goofy.  Finish line happiness right here.

 I ran The Biggest Little Half Martahon last weekend, so that means it's time for another running post!  I know running is not everyone's cup of tea, but if it's any consolation, at least it's not politics :).  This post will have some thoughts on the unique contours of running during covid, and training as an over 40 runner.

Running During Covid:  Don't It Always Seem to Go, that You Don't Know What You Got til It's Gone

This was my first race of any kind for 3 years.  I had planned to run this same half marathon in the spring of 2020, and had worked my way a good way up the training ladder (meaning, doing longer and longer training runs on the weekend), and then covid rolled in and shut everything down.  All races were cancelled throughout America for the rest of 2020 and into the early part of 2021.  

Despite the pause in racing, running was a terrific outlet during covid.  It was really a great boredom and anxiety reliever, especially during the spring and summer of 2020.  Those early weeks, I would go out on the trail by our house almost every night - thankfully, it was never very busy, and it was easy enough to keep a gaiter around my neck in case I happened to run into people.  Running was about the only thing I did outside of the house, and it provided endorphins from exercise, Vitamin D from sunshine, some peace and quiet for this introvert, and a chance to enjoy beautiful nature.  Those evening runs through the canyon were great, even on days when the running part itself was hard.

By late spring / early summer of 2021, races started to appear back on the scene, but there were still problems:  some of the small businesses that put on races weren't able to stay in business after a year of no races, so there were fewer races happening; the numbers of participants and volunteers were (understandably) still very low, and meanwhile cities (understandably) had all kinds of extra rules about masking and social distancing and other covid protocols, so races often got cancelled at the last minute; and you didn't know exactly if and when your own family was going to get hit by covid and then you lose 6-8 weeks of training and your entire fitness base.  I started to train for a few races in the fall of 2021, but for all these reasons, didn't end up running a race.  

Race day outfit!

So it was really, really, really exciting this spring to see races returning in all their glory, with full participation and no restrictions.  The whole ritual of race weekend is fun: picking up the packets; carbo loading the night before, then laying out your outfit; lining up at the starting line with a throng of people, then taking off together at the starting gun; running past the supportive people blasting music or

holding up funny signs; grabbing a water from the aid station and trying to drink it without choking; struggling through those last few miles and swearing you'll never do this again; running the last block as hard as you can and feeling glorious as you cross the finish line; collapsing somewhere nearby until your legs feel capable of moving again; congratulating fellow finishers and just being around hundreds of other people who find this strange, beautiful, torturous race a good time.  Cheers to the Biggest Little Half, and cheers to the return of half marathons!

Running After Age 40

This was my 5th half marathon.  I did the first two in my 20s, and I think that version of me would be shocked to know that I was still running half marathons decades later.  I first tried it out because I wanted to see if I could do it and I wanted to have the experience with my mom (who is an awesome runner with a PR that I am still chasing, and who gave me the running bug!).  I did follow a training plan, but I don't remember giving a single thought to things like what should I eat (other than, it made me super hungry and there were lots of Dairy Queen blizzards), how much should I sleep, or how should I stretch and recover.

Like eating toothpaste style nutrition supplements in the middle of the run!

That's the big difference, running in your 40s - you give lots of thought to all these things.  If I eat fast food or drink alcohol the day before a long run, it's not going to go well.  If I don't get 8-9 hours of sleep, same thing.  (This might've been true in the days before kids, too, but it's not as hard to do before kids :).  As far as recovery:  I stretch my hamstrings now about ten times a day, we have 4 ice packs in our freezer, we have a Theragun ready to go for sore muscles, and turmeric is one of the regular daily vitamins.

The other thing that's different about running at age 41 is that I realize each training cycle where I'm healthy enough to run is a gift, not a given.  God willing, I have decades left of life, but not necessarily decades of endurance running - you don't know when the injury or health issue will hit that brings this chapter to a close.  So it makes me increasingly grateful each year that my body is able to support this effort, and it makes me want to give a full effort on race day.  

Having said that -- this is also a really fun, inspired year to be a middle aged runner.  New female American records for both marathon and half marathon were set this last year --  the half marathon record is now held by Sarah Hall, mother of 4, who achieved the record  at age 38; the full marathon record is now held Keira D'Amato, mother of 2, who achieved the record this year at age 37.   These women give me hope and inspiration that if they can run their strongest at this age / life stage, then many of us non-elite runners at a similar age / stage should also be able to give it a strong go.  So I'm not saying that my running years are necessarily close to over, or even that I'm ruling out a PR in the future.  Just that I'm increasingly thankful for the gift of a healthy body as the years tick by.   (Note:  in the week between when I started this post and got around to finishing, a new record was set in the women's half - but the point still stands.)

If any of you reading this are runners, tell me:  what's your favorite distance to race?  What's your favorite part of the race?