"Runner" Up

As many of you know, I have just returned from a vacation on PEI. Though a busy week, it was fun-filled, sunny, and jam packed full of fellowship. Without going into too much detail about all of the fun events, I'd like to share one of my highlights. I, Annie MacDuff, spontaneously completed my bucket list item: Run in a Marathon like Race. I'm still shocked.

Friday night my vacation buddy and I sat in our two-person tent and looked at our options of how to spend our Saturday. While reading over the events of the Potato Blossom Festival in O'Leary, my friend Kaly made a joke about the Fun Run at 8 am the next day. Something along the lines of "yeah, I'm sure A LOT of fun can be found in running in the heat for no reason" was sarcastically said. Then I piped up, and pleaded that we go, if not to run at least to watch the silly people run. So our last full day of vacation started at 6 am on Saturday morning. After a quick shower, we were soon on our way to register for the race. We each paid 5 dollars to run, and we each received a free t-shirt for being two of the first ones there. Before the race, I had a few things running through my mind.

I debated whether or not to remove my earrings. I thought they might bother me during the run, and I knew they would make me look silly to the other runners. I ended up leaving them on, and my flowery homemade hair band too, because when I finish a race, I want to know that I stayed true to who I am.

I debated whether or not I should run at all, because I didn't have running gear like the rest of the runners. I learned that when we're called to "go" we don't always have time to go buy sneakers, or go home and get the ones we want, sometimes, if not most times, we have to go with what we've got, and trust that the rest will be provided. I wore my pink converse shoes in the race. 

The big picture lesson that I learned while on vacation was "serving in ALL that I do." This lesson even turned out to be the theme of the sermon the last day I was on PEI. While on the race, I stopped to thank the water girls, I stopped to pick up the water cups people had thrown in the ditch, I got off the road every time a vehicle approached, and I let the super intense older lady finish before me. It turns out that you can learn a lot from the book, "Hurry Up Franklin".

All in all, I learned that I'm called to "run in such a way to win the prize" and that means that I'm called to serve, and to serve in ALL that I do, even if what I do is a fast paced sport that I've never done before.

With a time of 35.16, I finished in the middle of the 20 runners that did the 5k.

I sure did win the lesson, even though I lost the race.

This is me right after the race!