Resurrection Run 10K with Katelyn!

When I was at the airport on Thursday flying to Provo, I got a text from Katie inviting me to run this race this morning (Saturday)! Good thing I packed running clothes-- and warm ones!! So this morning, before I flew back to Arizona, we got up at 5am to run in Orem and up into Provo Canyon. It was super cold when we got there and we about froze in the 20 minutes we waited for the race to start! It was probably in the low 30's! My lungs felt like they were on fire that first several miles! We started at the Orem Cemetery (symbolic!) and went up into Provo Canyon and looped back around a little different way along the Murdock Trail and up to the finish line. The last mile was a killer-- I already thought the rest of the race was super hilly and then we got to that last mile! This was also very symbolic of rising in the resurrection. I kept telling Katie to go ahead if she wanted, but she wanted to stay with me! It was a really neat race though. There were scriptures on cards and chalk notes on the path of stories from the last week of the Savior's life. Some of them were in the perfect spot, as it was a particularly difficult place in the race, or something like that. My favorite was the scripture where it talks about how Mary ran to tell the others that the Savior was alive! We were running, and that just resonated with me! Another was when "... He cried out in agony on the cross..." --I'm paraphrasing, but it was at a particularly hard spot, and I thought, "I can do this." Other places, I just felt broken and thought about how Jesus was bruised and broken for me and that I can only overcome my brokenness through Him and because of Him! That last mile was straight up and around a big hill and at the bottom it said We all will rise again. It started with we, then as you ran a little more it said all, and so forth. Then, it had names of people that runners had dedicated their race to that have passed on, along the road there as well. I was completely spent when we crossed the finish line hand in hand! (Even the finish line was uphill!) It was a small race and organized by one of Katelyn's friends, Becca. (She is in one of my pictures below.) She did such a wonderful job on it. There were even snacks-- protein bars, Creamies, clementines, string cheese, fruit snacks, chocolate milk and water at the finish line! There was even a paper banner to write your feelings about what the Resurrection means to you... Katelyn and I wrote very similar things!  I wrote, "I can do all things with Christ who strengthens me", and she wrote, "We can overcome all things through Christ".  Becca did a great job! I am so impressed that she did this! She wants to do it every year, and I'm sure it will get bigger and bigger. There were probably about 100 runners, so it was small but I'm sure it will grow. Most of the runners were college students. Sweet Brooke drove us to the race this morning and slept in the car while she waited for us to get back. She has a shift tonight, so she needed to sleep. I appreciated so much that she did that even though, I'm sure she didn't really want to! I'm so glad I did it, even though it was probably the hardest run I've ever had! I would've trained on some hills if I'd known I was gonna run this today! Katelyn always keeps me guessing, but I'm so glad she invited me to do it with her and that she WANTED me to do it with her!!!  This was a very memorable way to celebrate Easter!!! (I showered and changed at Katelyn's apt. and we all got breakfast together at McDonalds.  Then Brooke took me to the airport.)