Training week 2!

So this week I got up to 5 miles, and I have $250! (YAY!) My week went (day by day starting with Monday) 3,3,Rest,4,3,5. The last day was by far my easiest day this week. I don't know why my early shorter days were so hard but I was really struggling. I would have to sit there and pray over and over in my mind that God would give me the strength to get through it.
I don't know if I told everyone the story behind my doing this run. I had been thinking about doing a half marathon for a little while and someone mentioned the Disney runs, so I looked into them and saw the Disney Princess run. It looked fun to me but I didn't have anyone to do it with and they didn't allow dogs to come so I decided not to do it. Then in church someone said their friend was doing a mini triathlon so I thought ooo, that might be fun plus its not just running and if I find a local one I bet I can bring the dog. So I looked up local triathlons and the first thing that popped yo was the Disney Princess run... not the Disney runs, the Disney Princess run specifically. I thought that was peculiar since I had just looked at it earlier and again thought about doing it but again I talked myself out of it by arguing that while training, my longest runs would be when I was in school so I wouldn't really have time to do it. Then the very next day my boss said he heard about the Disney Princess runs in Orlando and thought I might be interested in. Well here I finally started to get the message. Someone was putting this run in front of my face way more often than for it to be just a coincidence. So I prayed. I told God that I didn't know why he would want someone to run for him, that seemed a bit random, but that I really felt like he was trying to tell me to do it. So I asked him to give me one more push if it was what he wanted me to do and that I would do it even though I still didn't understand why the God of everything would want me to do something as simple as run. So I waited and sure enough a couple days later I heard about Team Freedom on my radio and I heard about Abolition International (IA) and I just started to cry. I wasn't sure why I was crying but I knew this was God telling me to run. I looked up how much money I had to raise to be a part of team freedom and I was definitely daunted but I knew God would provide it. As I started writing my letter of support I started looking up information on IA and the statistics associated with human trafficking and I started crying again. It broke my heart to hear about all those little babies existing day after day after day in a living hell and then I thought how much pain it must cause God, the one who loves children so deeply, to see this happening in our world to his favorite little ones. And then I knew why God wanted me to run for him.
So that's why I run. And when I have hard days I just pray He always gives me that extra push to finish. So that's my story and that's really why I'm doing this.
Thank you all for the prayers, my knees are pain free and my asthma has not once given me problems so praise the Lord for that. The only pain I have is in my ankle although it usually goes away pretty quickly. Next week I should be up to 7 miles so wish me luck!

Training week 1!

So what I've decided to do is post every week and  with updates about how training is going and how close I am to my fundraising goal. So far were at $0 but I know that number is only going to go up!
So week 1 of training has come to an end. It wasn't too hard this week, all I had to do was pretty much establish I could do 3 miles with out too much struggle. I've been mostly trying to get my time down. I'm at about an 8 minute mile right now which so I'm anticipating running for about 2 hours on the actual day. I'm hoping I can get my time down to 7 minutes but I'm not stressing about that too much.
I'm excited to finally have a running partner though. Bullet is great motivation. He stays right by my side on the way there but then once we turn around he takes off. Practically dragging me back home. Which is good, the run back is always the hardest part and I get tempted to slow down, but Bullet has none of that. I swear this dog is part husky. I'm thinking about entering him in the tractor pull at the state fair.
But other than that its going well. My knees are a little sore but nothing distracting. My ankle hurts a lot though. I'm pretty sure David broke when we first started dating and it healed wrong, lol. (Long story, but basically he pushed me into the corner of a shelf :) ) I'm keeping it iced and hoping that it just doesn't get worse.
Continued prayers are appreciated! Hope everyone's week has been fantastic!

XOXO

My first half marathon!

Hey Everyone!

As some of you may know I’m starting training for my first half marathon! This February I will be taking part in the Disney Princess half marathon in Orlando. I’m running as part of Team Freedom, a state wide team started by one of our radio stations here in Florida. They are running and raising money on behalf of Abolition International (http://abolitioninternational.org/) which is an organization fighting to end domestic and international human trafficking. Once I heard about Team Freedom in the car and I heard why they were running and who they were running for I knew I had to join in the fight.

The average age of girls sold into prostitution in the world is 12. The number of sex slaves now is higher than it has ever been in history, and no country is immune. About 1,000,000 individuals are trafficked across international borders yearly, 80% are women and children and 50% are minors. An estimated 200,000 American children alone have been forced into the commercial sex trade in the United States. Human trafficking is arguably one of the worst evils in existence which is why I am running for the freedom of those enslaved.

I am trying to raise $600 with a deadline of January 10^th. What I’m asking is for each person to donate $10. I have to send one check on that day to Abolition International so donations can be sent to me by that date, cash or check. If you send a check please write Abolition International in the memo line. You can send them to this address:

4634 SW 45^th Ln.

Gainesville, FL 32608           

(They are a 501(c) 3. All donations are tax deductable.)

If you can’t support financially I would greatly appreciate support in prayer, specifically that my knees will hold up and that my asthma (which oddly after almost 5 years of consistent running and no problems is giving me grief all of the sudden) will subside. I’ll post updates on my blog as I go so keep a look out on that.

I can’t go out and rescue each child who is suffering, as much as I wish I could, and I can’t give bags of money to make it stop either but I can run and with your help we can make a difference.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up for the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9

-       Princess Joanna Thomas