Go Girls!

LISA:

When Niki and I run Boston in April it will be the 40^th anniversary of the first time women were allowed to officially enter the Boston Marathon.  Up until the early 1970s it was thought (by mostly men!) that women couldn’t physically handle the rigors of the 26.2 mile distance.  Kathrine Switzer proved them wrong when she entered the all-male Boston Marathon in 1967 under the name K.V. Switzer.  When one of the race directors saw her on the course and realized she was a girl, he ran after her, grabbed her and screamed, “Get the hell out of my race and give me that race number!”  Fortunately friends came to her aid, freed her from his grasp and she went on to finish in 4 hours and 20 minutes.  It wasn’t until the fall of 1971 that Boston officially opened the race to women and in 1972 eight women started the race and all eight finished.  Compare that to today… in 2010, 42% of the 22,540 Boston marathon finishers were women!  Oh my, how the attitudes about and opportunities for women in running – and in sports in general - have changed in my lifetime!  Go Girls! 

 

My girls, who are 10 and just starting their “sports years”, are blessed to reap the benefits of the last 40 years.   Pioneers like Kathrine Switzer and the impact of Title IX have provided them opportunities galore.  In just the last year my girls have played on soccer, baseball (against the boys), volleyball and basketball teams.   They truly CAN DO almost anything they want to do.  And I’m glad they’ll never know different.  Go Girls!

Who knows what the future holds for women in sports.  Maybe one day they’ll change the name of the epic Ironman triathlon competition to Ironwoman???  Just a thought!  J But here’s what I do know… if my girls have kids (thus my grandkids) how cool will it be that I can tell those grandbabies that their GRANDMOTHER ran marathons?!?! But then again, by then there will be a whole generation of grandkids whose grandmothers have run marathons… and that’s awesome.  Go Girls!    

Photos: Niki and I are currently coaching our girls’ City Rec basketball team.  Every game we have a different “theme” to help us remember that sports are FUN as well as competitive.  Crazy Socks/Crazy Hair/Crazy Bandanas!  

Perspective

NIKI:

20 miler done!  Hard and hot...this weather is so unpredictable.  For this run we were planning on running 2-10 mile loops.  I really dislike running loops but we rarely do them so I figured it might be a nice change.  On top of running 20 miles and running loops I had been thinking and praying all week about what I might write about for this entry.  I must confess...I'm not a writer!  I actually dislike writing more than running loops!!!  So I've been asking God to give me something to write about with one condition...no more suffering or tragedy...I just wanted Him to give me something meaningful with no strings attached.  HA--I laugh as I write this at how ridiculous I am giving conditions to the Creator of the universe!!!  Well, He came through...of course with me suffering while running the loop...I am such a mess.

At mile 10 we were not quite back to our starting point so we decided instead of continuing forward we would turn around and run the loop backwards.  As we turned around I realized that we had just run down a long hill with the wind at our backs and now we had to run back up it with the wind in our faces.  At that moment the word "perspective" came to my mind (it's funny when you are running that downhills never seem so "down" until you turn around and run them UP nor do tailwinds feel like wind at all until you turn around and have headwinds in your FACE) and immediately these verses from Romans came to mind, 

"33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? 35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN ? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen"  

I was reminded of my limited perspective while struggling up the hill with the wind in my face...this same hill I had just run down.  And I reflected on how this compared to my life, my everyday life, my life to this point and my limited perspective I have in this life.  My life is not at all what I would have planned--widowed at 31 years old with 2 young children!  But I also wouldn't have agreed to turn around if I would have known that I would be running into the wind and uphill!  I had to laugh as I was struggling up that hill.  I had a smile on my face and a song in my heart.  I was smiling because He did what I asked...gave me something to write about.  And singing praises to Him in my heart for doing it His way...His unfathomable way.  So I praise Him for teaching me about perspective, for reminding me that mine is limited and for getting Lisa and I through another long run.

Starting our 20 miler

Still happy at 5 miles

Niki happy, Lisa no so happy at 10

15 down and 5 to go

Done!