An Atheist Named Christian

We succeeded! We survived our first 5K! Marc got a horrible night of sleep before the race, and we were up earlier on Sunday than I usually get up for work. It was cold and rainy. The day had the makings to be completely awful. But it wasn't. We got out to Sherwood and checked in by 7:45. The race didn't start until 8:30, so we sat in the car (and I changed from shorts to pants) until it was time to get out and stretch. All the runners gathered on the track, and then we were off! The course went through a neighborhood and then back along a nice path behind some houses.

A few observations:
- It was cool having neighbors sitting outside cheering us on and playing music.
- The high school band and cheerleaders provided encouragement, too.
- It's really hard to drink water from a dixie cup while you're running.
- The 50 degree cool weather ended up being a blessing. I don't know how comfortable I would have been if it had been 10 or 20 degrees warmer.

Anyway, I made it the whole way without walking a single step. That was my goal. Marc held back from his usual faster pace to stay with me. We crossed the finish line together a few seconds under 34 minutes.

So you might be wondering about the odd title on this post. Last Thursday we got massages, and the lady doing Marc's was talking about her son, named Christian, and how it was funny that he was an atheist. That got me thinking about contradictions, and while I was running yesterday morning, another one struck me.

I've always been impressed by the power of nature--I love things like thunderstorms, the surge of the ocean, and erupting volcanoes. I don't like the human suffering that often accompanies natural phenomena like hurricanes and earthquakes, but I love the reminder that no matter how smart or technologically advanced we are, there's always an element of luck to our very existence. I like how nature puts us in our place.

During my run, I was thinking about how much power we have over our bodies. Last August, I could barely run for 30 seconds. The thought of me running for 30 minutes was completely laughable. Since then, I've proven that even I, the self-proclaimed non-runner, can run distances. There's so much power in our minds to help us accomplish things. That power on a small scale seems completely opposite the power that nature can exert over us, but I love recognizing how both play a part in my life.