Skip to main content

Lately

After months of anticipation, I finally called off my Peru trip with Climbing for Christ due to the spike in airfare. While disappointed, it seemed like the right thing to do. That was two Mondays ago. Wednesday of the same week, I was contacted by an eMI Project leader regarding a new project in Haiti, to masterplan and design some first phase buildings for a ministry which includes medical, education, feeding programs, crisis care, evangelism, and discipleship. Since I have been preparing to go on a mission trip and flights to Haiti is much more affordable, everything is in place for me to accept the timely invitation. Interestingly enough, this project also needs fundraising materials to be put together. Since leaving the SIL, the campus newspaper at Mac, I have been aching to take my camera and pick up my notepad and pen to write some stories. Perhaps this is my chance to do so. Brad, the leader of this project, just notified my today that my ticket to Haiti in June is purchased and confirmed. This will be my third time in two years. I really should pick up my French textbook again.

On a completely different note, I am ready to run my first trail race and my first race after my Achilles injury back in Janrary which put me out for two whole months. Rather than reporting how good it is to be back at running, what I want to say is how much of a blessing the past two to three months have been.  I got the chance to think about why I run, put my piorities back in order, and the hiatus forced me back to the pool, which turned out to be a blast. Swimming with SwimMac, a US Masters Swimming group,  has been so much fun, despite the fact that I am swimming half the speed of all the former college swimmers. As a lap swimmer, I never realize how technical this sport is. Now I do. My input personality has been put to good use lately.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WV Trilogy - Part 2

(If you haven't read Part 1, it's here .) (Sat) Oct 13 -  Sunrise at Spruce Knob 6 a.m. start in the dark. My legs surprised me by being happier than yesterday. My heart is in better place as well. The first 6.7 mile goes up to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia. Part of this section was on fire road and I welcomed the faster miles. Steady progress was made in the first 20 miles or so until the long, long descent into Aid Station 3. As I have decided yesterday, I'd start the race, go from aid station to aid station, and re-evaluate my condition at each. I left Aid station 2 feeling good but then the long descent once again put doubts in my mind. Running reduced to little steps on jello-legs. Compression socks helped to contain the injury and pain, but the strength to support the pounding was still lacking. Soon, my knees started to hurt as well. At aid station 3, they told me I had 2:45 to make it to the next aid station before the cut-off. At the pace I...
7 comments
more >>

New Year's resolution

Nine days into 2012 and a day before entering into a new age group is an opportune time to nail down some New Year's resolutions. 2011 was a good year, one that filled with transitions and norming --  be it moving from California to Charlotte, from being a student back to an architect, or starting fresh in a new territory to establishing roots and relationships. My new running and swimming communities had made the transition easy and welcoming, and partly because of that, much of my attention in the past year was on either sports, like running my first 50k and participating in my first swim meet. Having just graduated from seminary was probably the other half of the reason why I had been keeping a distance from structured studies / reading in 2011. With that said, my 2012 focus will be on balanced growth. While I still have a long list of goals in swimming and running, I need to make sure I allocate enough time and attention to spiritual and intellectual grow...
2 comments
more >>

Georgia Jewel Weekend

My last-minute decision to run the Georgia Jewel 35-miler last weekend turns out to be a good one. A group of friends had made plans and arrangements to go, running all distances: 35, 50, and 100! Everything was in place, I couldn't pass up the fun to run with old friends and meet new ones, and see Sully running a difficult 100! A storm was passing through on Saturday and it was torrential downpour from the start at 5 a.m.! The first 10 miles through the "rock garden" was difficult for me. It was hard to see through the heavy rain and fog in the dark with my glasses and crappy headlamp (Lesson learned: I'm investing in a better headlamp - it's worth it). Sky lightened up after the first 10 miles and we also got to run on smoother single-tracks. I was able to pick up my pace a bit and caught up with a few that passed me during the Rock Garden. Unlike the point-to-point 50-miler, the 35-miler was an out-and-back. During the return trip, some sections of the tra...
3 comments
more >>