Twenty six point two

Johnny went to a conference in California. He stayed with Bennetts in Livermore and while he was there, he decided to run a marathon. I was in Montana, waiting for him to fly into West to be with us. He told me he had something exciting to share with me. When he described the marathon, I couldn't have asked for a better surprise. Johnny likes to be comfortable. I like to suffer. It makes me feel good to do hard things and I'm trying to get over that personality flaw, especially when it comes to creating my own suffering. Yikes. Life lessons are good to learn. Physical comfort is a big deal to Johnny. The temperature needs to be just right. I'm trying to think of other examples, but that is the main one. I make fun of him because he hates to be too hot or too cold and I am not as sensitive that way. I'm even pretty impatient with him sometimes, expecting him to just deal with it. Also, Johnny was born without an arch on his feet, so anytime we are doing something foot intensive, we do it quickly. When he's wakeboarding, you pull the boat around to him fast while he's in the water waiting because the boot starts to hurt his foot. When his mom asked him to run a 5K with her in highschool, he said he would rather chew glass, but he would do it. So when Johnny was willing to do something that was both hot and cold and painful and uncomfortable, I was ecstatic. Not for his suffering, but for his willingness to do the hard things regardless of the pain. So. Totally. Awesome.
He clocked a route around a park. He started running towards the end of the afternoon. He pushed so hard in the first loop that he had to walk the remaining 8 loops. It got dark. They locked the park so he had to run around it. It took 10 hours. He wore holes in his Walmart shoes that he purchased that day because he hadn't packed any other shoes. I truly couldn't be more pleased. I love this man so much. We are choosing the difficult path right now in our profession. Yet we are able to do hard things. We feel inspired to be doing what we are doing. We love being with each other and with our children. We have so much JOY in our lives. We see God's hand guiding and supporting and reproving and improving us. 26.2 represents so much to me and I'm so proud of Johnny for thinking to do it and doing it.