In late January I began training for a June 2012 marathon and now I’ve pretty much decided not to run it. I went through each run well and was injury free. I’m still injury free. So what is the issue?

Well, one day a few weeks ago I randomly looked on my family’s calendar for the date of my marathon and saw that it’s my little sister’s dance recital. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. At that point I decided to just run a marathon close to the date I had planned.

Then I couldn’t find one that “fit my bill.” I wanted a Saturday marathon and I was only willing to travel to PA, OH, NY, or WV. I searched for two weeks and I still couldn’t find one.

As I was praying about the situation I felt as if God was telling me “Allie, your plans aren’t working for a reason.” I thought about it and prayed some more and realized that I was becoming too bonded to training for this marathon. 

I started out training very excited and was reasonably “into it” but soon enough I was spending a lot of time in my training journal and on weather websites trying to plan out my runs for the week. I was thinking about the training more than I was thinking about the most important thing in my life–my faith and relationship with God.

Once I came to that realization I knew it was time to let go of the training plan and the whole idea of the marathon-for now. I’m sure I may one day run a marathon, but since praying about it, I feel like God is telling me that now isn’t my time.

So what are my running plans?

The short answer: I have a half marathon on the 31st of March and I am doing two 5k’s in April.

The long answer: I’m just going to run when I can & when I feel like it and not worry about training plans (to an extent-I don’t want to injure myself) and all of the stresses that come with it. Who knows what I will be racing in this summer or if I will run at all.

 I just know what needs to always, always come first in my life and thoughts- God.

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This was a really hard post to write because I feel humbled. All through January, February, and a bit of March I posted about the marathon that I wanted/planned to run and talked about it but I feel as if I am doing the right thing according to my prayers and God’s guidance.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

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Have you ever had an abrupt change of plans?