When expectations do not equal reality...

You might remember me saying I'd blog about training for my half marathon.  I do too, but then October happened quickly and it just didn't get done. However I've been thinking a lot about my race and this past year and I wanted to share something.

The day of the race was perfect. 50 degrees and partly cloudy. I was in corral 14 and the race started off great. I tried to keep pace with the race bunny to finish at 2:30. After the first mile it was pretty clear I was not going to make that time. It was fine I thought, I'm just here to finish.  

Selfie at the 10k mark...still feeling good.

At 16k in, I could barely walk. I felt immense pain in my left foot from possibly the worst blister I have ever gotten.

Slower pace means stopping to take pretty pictures

At 3 hours, 11minutes, I hobbled across the finish line. At almost half an hour slower than my first race, I felt disappointed.

I wasn't prepared for that. I was expecting a successful race with my personal best time.

Race #3 in the bag! So happy to have finished.

Of course this isn't just a lesson for people who run long distance races.

Jen Hatmaker writes in her great new book"For the Love",

"We must prepare the child for the path not the path for the child"

My mother-in-law got to meet Jen at a conference.
She knew how much I loved this book
and brought me an autographed copy!

I believe this holds true for us adults as well, "We must equip ourselves for our journeys, because we can't always control what happens in them. That's God's job. If you're a control freak like me this is where we get into trouble. 

I thought if I knew the race route, trained properly, got fitted for the right running shoes, I'd be fine.

I wasn't expecting to get very sick two weeks before my race and missing my last two practice long runs. I had also done two half marathons before this, including one on the same route last year.

While reflecting on my race, it reminded me a lot of my journey through the past year and a half since we moved to Vancouver.

I spent most of last year praying for God to move us out of Canada. I swore I'd vote for any Presidential candidate who promised to move the film incentives back to the states. And I'd be lying if I said sometimes those thoughts don't still cross my mind.

 When we moved here I thought I knew what would happen because I had moved before - seven times, including internationally. 

I prepared for the path of moving-just not myself for moving.

• I wasn't prepared for more job struggles and new health challenges.

• I wasn't prepared for how much harder it is to find friends as an adult working full-time and  for how much I would miss my family and friends on the east coast.

• I wasn't prepared for how different it would be to go from being a stay-at-home wife to a working wife. 

It was hard.

I thought my circumstances would change my attitude, but really it's my attitude that changed my circumstances.

My daily prayer has changed and that has made all the difference.

I stopped praying for God to move us out of Canada (Sorry mom.) 

Instead, I pray for God to give me strength to stay.

"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10

The Wilsons Go Camping

If you went on the great camping trip with the FBC Batesville crowd in 1994, you were there the last time I went camping.

Until August of this year that is.

Chris and I packed up our car and drove about 3.5 hours east to Penticton, British Columbia to our camp site with some good friends of ours.

Our home away from home

The men on the trip called our weekend "gl-amping" you know glamorous camping since we had running water and restroom facilities.

You mean people go camping without that?

 Day One:

We rode bikes to several wineries.  The area is beautiful and we could not have had better weather.

We visited five wineries on the Naramata Bench: Upper Bench, Misconduct, Township 7, Red Rooster, and Bench 1775.

Been a while since I rode a bike, but fortunately... it's like riding a bike. 

This winery had my favourite Merlot.

The view from Red Rooster winery. 

After a long day of bike riding, we ended our day with a dinner of fish and poutine. Poutine, one of the foods unique to Canada, is french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds.  Our friend's parents started the first food truck in Penticton called Jeffer's Fryzz. It's delicious!

Day Two:

This was the more relaxing day of our trip. We retraced our ride to the wineries, in our car this time, and picked up some bottles of our favourites from each winery.

Then we came back to join our friends before heading off to our next adventure.

We rented inner tubes and floated down the channel. We didn't have our cameras to take pictures but here are some pictures from their website.

Until next year....