Month: June 2019

One of my favourite running routes takes me past the site of a new motorway service station being built where I live.  It is overlooking a place called Skelton lake around which there is a footpath and new footbridge leading back towards where I live.  Each time I pass I take a photograph from a particular spot from which I can make a timelapse video when it is finished.

I know some people have moaned that they are ruining this “beauty spot” by building such a horrible “monstrosity” but I see things slightly differently.  The area is not an unspoiled natural wilderness because it is part of a former vast opencast mining complex.  The area has a distinct metallic post industrial feel to it and being isolated, is a favourite stomping ground to petrolheads with their quad bikes and rusty stolen wrecks (some of which have ended up abandoned).  The development of the area will mean investment and landscaping; it will help the lake and surrounding woodland to be managed properly as a nature reserve by the RSBP.  The vision of the motorway services is that it will be, in addition to a stopping point, a destination in its own right with opportunities to walk round and explore the beautiful lake.   The end to isolation will hopefully make the spot less attractive to those with the more undesirable pursuits.

This made me think about how our world and landscapes evolve over time and get regenerated by new generations.  The two other pictures are took juxtapose the old and the new and renovated causing beauty in their old right, showing new opportunities evolve out of decay.

Meanwhile I ended up running 12 miles today & still feeling strong!

“See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)

Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church.  To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.

Usually my Saturday mornings begin with a trip down to the local park, as is the case with many runners today. However, I had to forgo my beloved parkrun today because I needed to be away by 8:30 to attend the annual Assembly of the Yorkshire Baptist Association, a gathering of church people from across Yorkshire. I therefore went out for an early morning 10K, taking in my local parkrun route on the way, having the whole park to myself.

I attended the Assembly in my capacity as a part of the leadership team of my local church. We go to be informed, encouraged and motivated. Today though, I was pleasantly surprised by a running story told by the key-note speaker (Ken Benjamin). He told the story of a woman who had run a marathon by accident, thinking she was starting a 10K and this story stuck with me so much, that I looked it up on the Internet as soon as I got home this afternoon.

It happened in 1990 and the runner was a 42 year-old woman called Georgene Johnson, who had entered a 10K event which was to be run alongside the Revco- Cleveland Marathon. Previously, the maximum distance she had run was 8 miles. Now the Marathon started 15 minutes earlier than the 10K but Georgene, arriving early, ended up on the Marathon start line without realising it.

Fairly early on, by the route taken she could tell something was wrong and after asking fellow runners she was horrified to learn she was in the wrong race! After failing to find any means to get back to the start, she simply carried on and finding she could carry on, decided to keep going. Eventually, she completed the 26.2 miles in a staggering time of only 4 hours 2 minutes!

She is reported to have said, after she had realised there was no way out: “This isn’t the race I trained for. This isn’t the race I entered, but for better or worse, this is the race I’m in.”

The moral of the story is that we can’t always choose the circumstances that God puts us in, but we are called to do whatever we can in those circumstances and by embracing them we can do great things. I think this is both an inspiring running story and also has a great life lesson with a much wider context.

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church.  To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.

When I tell people what time I get up in the morning when I am going for an early morning run, I get some very strange looks!  Some people think I am stark-raving mad, and others simply ask WHY?

When you see some of the photos I took this morning, maybe you will understand.  I see some amazing sites that makes the whole thing worth while.  Be it the mirror calm waters of the canal with the mist hovering majestically above, or the deer I encountered a few days ago (and lots of rabbits).  I was so enjoying myself this morning that I took a bit of a detour along the lakeside of St Aidans and extended my 10K to 8 miles.

In other news some medals arrived yesterday.  One of the things that keeps me motivated is the Awesome Virtual Running Events challenges.  Each month you run (either on your own or shared within a group) 100 miles and for your efforts you get one of the best medals in the business.  Last month there was even a bonus medal.  The challenge even comes with an amazingly supportive facebook group and I can honestly say you would be hard pushed to find another group which is so motivational.  One of the things I am trying this year is to enter every month, i.e. do at least 100 every month of 2019 (something I have never done before).  With my 10K-a-day challenge in June I might reach 200 this month.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”  Genesis 1:1-2 NIV

Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church.  To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.