Richmond Va

This post is a bit long and emotional so feel free to skim :)
So it sounds a bit crazy I know, but last Saturday I ran another marathon.
Let me explain: The night before my last marathon David gave me a great blessing promising me that I would be able to run the entire marathon and that I would have a really spiritual experience and be able to work through some of the emotions that I have been having. For those of you who don't know, David didn't get an offer for employment from his summer internship, so we have been looking for a job since August. It is a long, hard process and I have really been struggling with faith.
Well during the marathon I sort of gave up. I walked quite a bit and didn't have faith in the promised blessings I had been given. When I finished I felt that the lord was disappointed in me. I also felt like it was the same problem I had been having for months of not having faith in God. So I decided that I needed to run another marathon to prove to God that I would trust him. So I trained and 4 weeks after my last one I ran another one.
The hardest part was that I had to go through it all alone. We were going to make a weekend trip of it since Richmond is 5 hours away, but David realized a few days before the marathon that he had a big school function that he was in charge of on Friday so he couldn't go. That also meant that the girls couldn't go since I couldn't watch them. My amazingly sweet and kind friend Jenny watched them all day for me and then David had them until I got back.
I really don't like doing things alone. I'm horrible with directions and get scared pretty easily so I was pretty terrified of making this trip alone. It turned out to be a good experience though. I took a few books on tape, prayed a lot and didn't have any trouble with directions. I got to the hotel fine, slept great and got the start line with plenty of time to spare. I pushed myself really hard. My goal was to not stop through the entire race to prove to God that I would trust in him. It was dang hard! Around mile 13 I got horrible blisters all along my arches and had to run the rest with them. I really felt like giving up, but I persevered. God strengthened me and I had a pretty incredible experience. Around mile 18 I decided that I was going to call David at mile 20 for support and right after I crossed the 20 mile mark my phone rang. It was David! He said that he had a feeling that he should call me. The lord was really with me. It felt so great. I did end up walking some after mile 20, but I put everything I had into it. Ironically I only finished about 5 minutes faster than my last marathon, but this time I gave it my all. When I finally crossed the finish line I started crying and the woman giving me the medal asked if I was okay. It was just such an emotional experience. I felt so strongly that God accepted my offering. Even though I didn't run the whole way I did my best and it was enough. It was hard not having anyone there to greet me at the end, but God was there and that was the point.
Since I went alone I don't have any pictures to show, but I did take a picture of my blistered feet :)