weekend adventure

Yesterday easily ranked in the top 10 adventures of my life.
I got dropped off in a town about a half hour away to run what I thought would be just a normal 11k race. After stuffing a 10 euro bill for the bus ride home in my shoe and hiding my phone in a tree, I started what turned out to be anything but a normal race. After running along the beach, straight into the ocean, climbing up rocks to get out of the water, crawling in sand under strands of barbed wire, running across tires, climbing up over a wall, jumping over concrete hurdles, climbing through tubs of ice water, diving through 30foot tubes, climbing over a giant mound of hay, running up and down gravel hills in that looked like a motorcross track, running a long hill straight up a mountain, then running up more hills, and then another hill, and then since that wasn't steep enough, running up a trail straight up through the woods, then running through what looked like an abandoned prison on top of a mountain, which included running through underground tunnels that were pitch black while hearing what sounded like gunshots coming from the smoke bombs that were being set off all around us, climbing a spider web of bungee cords, running across a plastic sheet covered in slippery soap, a watery trench, a and series of up and down hills with ropes anchored at the top since they were so steep, then finally running down a long downhill with a view of the ocean and the whole town, jumping 2 fences to get in and out of a cow field, then more steep rocky down hill, then running back into the town and back through the hay, tubes, and ice, and back over the wall, I finally crossed the finish line. I had the time of my life. But maybe I should read race descriptions before I sign up for them...

Also though, racing this weekend was an unexpected reminder of so many things that God has taught me in the many hours of my life that have been spent running. It was an awesome to have some time to spend thinking about some of these things....while dodging smoke bombs. Yay for surprises.