Running for RETA

There are lots of reasons to go running. I could name a lot of spiritual lessons that you can learn from running, but that is not the point of this post. However, it does relate.

When I first started to think about running you would not believe some of the feedback I received from fellow believers. All I can say is that I received some very negative feedback. I don't think that was their intent, most of it was concern that I was running for the right reason. Now, I am reminded that us as Christians are sometimes harder on own own brothers and sisters than on others. It can be very discouraging. While it is mostly well meant, either the delivery is bad or it is taken the wrong way. This is probably the number one discouragement to new Christians. We think we are not allowed to have an opinion that disagrees with others or the church.

When I first started repenting and was seeking to be baptized my mother was not sure if I was ready. She was concerned if I was really giving Christ my all and giving up anything that might distract me or take me away from my relationship with Him. I did get baptized. I won't say I haven't made mistakes since then because that would be a lie. What I do know is that when I sought Christ I was afraid for my souls eternal destination. I also knew that the church I attended was Biblically sound and that there were a bunch of God fearing and Jesus loving members. I am grateful to still be part of such a heritage. At the time, I knew the statement of faith of the church. I also knew I wasn't sure I could agree with all of it but I had visited and researched other denominations and none measured up to the one I grew up with.

So, when asked I said I supported the statement of faith, and I did. I didn't want anything about the church to change and I figured the things I wasn't sure about was just part of my spiritual ignorance. I relied upon the scripture that obedience was better than sacrifice. I knew some of the history of our faith and how it was forged so that gave me hope that it was more of me not understanding it all. I was right. As I lived, learned, and studied the Bible more the more I draw closer to God in my spiritual walk the more I agree with my church's statement of faith. The thought is scary to me now, I really should have talked with someone to learn and grow before being baptized. Thankfully, God was faithful. Probably because of the prayers of my parents.

Let me give you an example. When I was first a Christian I was unashamedly pro-choice. Shocker now - I know. It just seemed logical to me that it was the right way. It really boiled down to the fact that I didn't want to be seen as an extremist. This was a way for me to be in the middle of the road and non-confrontational. 

I wasn't hit over the head by a pro-lifer trying to convince me I was wrong. What happened is one day I thought, if this is the "middle-of-the-road" or non-confrontational choice, then what is the really bad choice? Pro-death? When I thought the word "Pro-death" I could instantly hear my conscience tell me that even Pro-Choice could lead to death. It was then I discovered that Pro-Choice was a lie. How can I just leave that type of decision up to the mother? God says he knows us before we are formed in our mothers womb. If that is true (and it is!) than the circumstances around the pregnancy really does not matter. Why let one tragedy lead to another? There really is something about the sanctity of life and all babies, every last one of them, are precious in the eyes of the Father.

So, yes, I have grown as a Christian and as I have drawn closer to God He has refined me and made me more like Him. However, I know there are some Christians out there who think that if you claim to be a Christian and are Pro-Choice you are going to Hell. This is what drives me nuts. Instead of all us trying to draw closer to God we like to point out the fallacies we see in other people. I am reminded of scripture about seeing a spec in someones else's eye but yet having a log in my own eye. We all need room to be refined and grow in our faith. We need to learn to build each other up and help each other with our walk of faith.

Sometimes this whole mentality can carry over to organizations that are faith-based. We have to remember that everyone in the organization is human and may not always carry our spiritual wisdom or understanding (or may be more spiritual wise than us). Does this make them any less of a Christian or Christian organization? No.

As I have grown in my Christian faith, I also feel convicted not only to support our Church's ministries and missionaries, but also ones in our local community. Some people have the pleasure of being able to have access to help the church's ministries because they are local to them. In my denomination I do not have that pleasure where I live. When I look out and wonder why more people in our community are unfamiliar with our denomination. I think it is because we regularly only supporting things that have our denominations name in front of it. While this is a wise as we are supposed to give preferential treatment to our own body of believers first, it really puts us out of touch with the needs of the community. I know there can be and should be room for both.

When I was first engaged way back when my future wife and I discussed adopting. We had said that we would like to someday. The problem is "someday" never comes. It was just an option that we were both open to. We really didn't seem to have any problems having kids until we "tried" for number 3. We didn't try for our first or second.

A year after our first miscarriage, which was many moons after me becoming pro-life, that voice in my head known as my conscience was again talking to me about being pro-life. It was like, here you are all pro-life in word but what have you really done to help? I was trying to defend myself by saying that I sent money to the right-to-life organization. Then it hit me. All that does is try to "stop" abortion. If the people truly can't take care of the baby for one reason or another then they end up in foster care or orphanages.

To make a real long story shorter, we ended up adopting number 3. Even after we had become pregnant after deciding to adopt we still moved forward with our adoption. Good thing too because that ended up in a miscarriage as well. Funny things go through your head when you struggle to have children. You seriously wonder if God is trying to punish you for one reason or another. However, I have learned that it is sometime through the difficult adversities of life that we grow in our relationship and understanding of God the most.

Adopting really opens ones eyes to being pro-life and what all that entails. You find out that the child you adopted can be in every way normal but will still have fears and feelings of being rejected. Their whole mental make-up is different and sometimes, if I am being honest with myself, it can be difficult and overwhelming to deal with on a day to day basis. Sometimes adoptive parents just need a breather or another sane person/couple to talk to.

Still, with all of this I never thought of any of the other aspects or circumstances of being pro-life. Here is what I have learned:

   1. There are people who do choose life, give their child up for adoption, or let their parents or grand parents raise their child. They need support because they sometime wonder if the made the best decision or not. Sometime their children come back and want to know their circumstances. Sometime the circumstances aren't pretty.

  2. Sometime people do no choose life. Do we throw them to the curb? Of course not, they need support as well. Our decision to love and support someone should not be decisive on whether we think they made the right decision or not. They need help too.  

   3. The people who end up in this circumstance in life do not usually come from family histories that are like mine. They do not know what it means to be or how to be a mother or father. They need support. Some of them do not even know how to care for a child because they have never been part of a supportive family. Some of them do not even know the basics of cooking or nutrition.
 
   4. What are we doing to help the people, like our youth, to make better choices in their life so they can reduce the chances of ending up in these situations? Now come on, it's Christmas and all - don't judge too harshly, even Mary and Joseph weren't married yet when Mary was pregnant with Jesus. Can you imagine how that "appeared".

I am sure there are tons of more circumstances even though I have tried to cover them all. Yes, I personally know some people in some of these circumstances. It is very difficult to find support for these people. It was actually after I made a re-acquaintance of someone I had known in my past that lives far far away that I tried to find some counseling for  that really opened my eyes to the needs around our community.

It also led me to a wonderful organization near by called RETA. It stands for Reason Enough To Act. Somehow, God had put the same thoughts on the hearts of others long before I was around and they went out on faith and started their support services. Here is a list of services they offer:

• Abortion Recovery Support – Healing from the effects of abortion
• Earn While You Learn – Parenting education and material assistance
• Grandparent Support – For grandparents of teenage pregnancies
• Men’s Coaching – Encouraging men to be responsible fathers and husbands
• Mother’s Club – Weekly support group for moms. (Preschool childcare provided)
• Pregnancy Help Services – Free and confidential pregnancy tests
• XES: Abstinence Education – A different view. Abstinence education

The best thing about this organization is that they are faith-based. Meaning that all who enter will learn of the saving grace of Jesus. Whether they accept the message of the gospel or not and whether they choose life or not they all still receive services free of charge.

I know, what about support for mothers who have given up their baby for adoption? The sad truth is the percentage of people who choose life is not that high. This is why I am running for RETA!

The people at RETA know that the best tool for people choosing life is for the mother to have an ultrasound. They have a faith filled goal of being trained for and purchasing a mobile ultrasound RV because research has shown mothers who have had an ultrasound are more likely to choose life.

As we sit back after Christmas and thank God for our families and the times we have spent with them I can only hope that we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas. Why did God send Jesus? To have a personal relationship with us. Relationships are what really matter. With Christ, with church, with family, with friends, and with our neighbors.

I can vouch for the mission and people at RETA. I volunteer there, I donate there. I see first hand the good work they do. They are kindred spirit to me and I always leave wishing I could do more to help.  So I have decided to run for RETA. On May 10th, Lord willing, I will run a 25k race at the Fifth Third River Bank Run in Grand Rapids, MI. I am hoping to raise $100 for every kilometer I run for a total of $2,500. (Come on people, I am still at $0 raised so far.)

I know there are many places to donate money to this time of year, but if you still have room to donate or are looking for someplace to donate to I am asking you to prayerfully consider making a donation to RETA. You can do it on my online raceraiser fundraising page here, or make a check out to RETA and mail it to 300 W High Street, Elkhart, IN 46516. If your in a hurry for year end tax-deductible donations you can also make a donation online through PayPal (click the donate button).

 Thank you!
      Otto

Can I at least wear a speedo?

So, I get this facebook post the other day asking be me be a partner streaker next year. I knew what the person meant, but it sure made a funny sounding post if you're not a runner. A streaker is someone who runs the whole year to see how long of a running streak they can accomplish. At least 1 mile every day is the goal.

I wasn't sure about it. Running outside in the winter is a lot different than running in any of the other seasons. The biggest reason I am hesitant is that I had ran four and a half miles last week and my knee started hurting a few hours after my run. Being a real busy week at work, it was easy for me to skip the rest of the week. I did notice that I had mistakenly put on some old running shoes. Speaking of that, I think both pair are now wore out.

Not wanting to make matters worse I even read up on knee soreness a little bit. Come to find out the top reasons are bad shoes and weak thigh muscles. You see, it is the thigh muscles on the top of your leg that hold your knee cap in place when you are walking or running. What happens is that your back thigh muscles get strong and you start running farther, faster, and harder which is when sore knees usually likes to surface. So we need to exercise our top thigh muscles more.

Let me just say running in snow is a lot harder. I had to concentrate on my form this weekend to make sure I didn't roll my foot in or out and kept it flat. When running in snow on the road it is easy to think of your feet like paddles and that maybe you'd get better traction if you ran on the edge of you foot and pushed off the snow. Unfortunately, that leads to injury. So today I kept my mind on my form, landing and running flat footed. It makes it difficult to "push" forward with snow between you and the road so your pace ends up slowing down a little. However, my knees are fine so far. If I experience some delayed onset muscle pain then I know I am pushing myself too hard and will need to run shorter or even slower.

So the last two days I have ran two runs, each 3.3 miles of which 3 miles was running and the rest was walking. It took me a little over 40 minutes each time.

SAFTEY -> So, running in the winter on the road has me freaked out a little. It is not so easy to leap in the ditch or for a car to avoid me. I have had a couple of close calls in the past. Even though I am withing a few miles of our house most of the time, I doubt any neighbors a mile down the road in any direction even know who I am. So I purchased a Road ID.

Photo of my Road ID

You have two choices. Put basic information on the ID or you can pay a monthly fee and then they put a phone number and a subscriber ID on it. So I put my Name, Year of birth, City and State of residence, home phone, wife cell phone, No Known Allergies, and 13 point freaking 1 (the distance of the longest even I have participated in).  If I would have thought a little bit, I would have added my blood type "BT A+".  All of this information could be useful to paramedics if needed. I know it is difficult to think about, but they are about $20 and it could help save your life. Now... if I can just remember to wear it...

So how has winter running been for you? What do you think about being a streaker in 2014?

To Treadmill or not to Treadmill....

That is the question.

So over the past week I have been debating purchasing a treadmill. 

The idea was that if I had something here at my house I'd be able to run at a more convenient time of day or night. It is really too dark to run outside in the morning or after I get home from work.

I started out by visiting MC Sports and Dicks Sporting Goods websites. I had a Proform treadmill about 10 years ago that I liked and thought they would fit the bill. Let me just say the price has gone up over the past 10 years. I paid $300 then for what is now clearly a $700-800 treadmill. 

Then I happened to find treadmilldoctor.com. Here I found reviews from a repair companies point of view. They even have a buyers guide, so I ran through the guide and answered the questions. It recommended the Sole F80.

Nice looking machine, I know. I kept searching online and review after review had nothing but good thing to say about the company and treadmill. I was sold on it. 

Then Sticker shock hit, $1,500. 

So I poked around treadmill doctors website some more and found a treadmill in the $600 range. Then I read their review of it. Great for people under 200 pounds who will use it for about an hour a week at a max of 6 mph. Any more than that they recommended a gym membership.

So I looked around. Colleges, fitness centers... Nothing was coming up real close to home. Then I remember a year or so back the new Salvation Army Kroc Center opened up. It's just a half mile down the road from work. Really nice equipment, pool, etc and only $35 a month. The fact I'll only need it for 4-5 months means I'll be spending a whopping $140-$175 by the time it's all said and done. 

So for me, this made more financial sense. If there's not something close to home or work then your limited in your options and a treadmill is probably better. Unless your like us and really don't have space for one either.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Otto

Turkey Run

Happy Thanksgiving!

Weather has been colder than normal here in Nothern Indiana this year.

So, this morning when heading out for my run I dressed in layers. 4 layers on top, 2 layers on bottom. 

The top consisted of the following layers:

Base layer being tight tech gear to wick away moisture from the skin.

Next layer was a thicker climawarm long sleeved shirt. 

Next layer was a fleece jacket with a hoodie.

Last layer was a wind breaker.

The wind breaker is a must. Even a gentle breeze in the winter can cut right to your core.

While I was comfortable I did notice that it would have been nice to have a string in the hoodie to tight it to the head so the wind can't just blow it off. My face, especially the nose and cheeks were cold. So something covering the face would be nice.

Another thought is that running in the winter just feels more difficult. Maybe it is carrying all the extra layers. I only ran 4 miles today but my body was telling me it ran more like a 10K. 

While running wasn't so bad in the cold, it was the extra time it took to gear up and then ungrearing that seemed bothersome. 

Today's Run:

Time to move...

Hello & Welcome!

First off, if you are a Todd Parr fan, I am sorry because this blog is not about the book series he writes.

Well. After the whole half marathon thing in Indianapolis a few weeks back I just want to say I am hooked on running.

I had debated to stop blogging. It is not like anyone reads it anyway. However, it is fun for me just to review old post and recognize and small bit of progress I have made. So yeah, expect this to be the most boring blog ever.

So why the new address? Well the name HappySchlatterCampers.blogspot.com didn't really reflect what I was running about. So, I decided to branch out on my own. That way people that don't care about my running don't have to be bothered about it.

So what is up next? Well, currently I am training for a 25K in May. Over the next few years I am planning using my training as training for my ultimate goal of running a marathon.

I'll try to keep it short and sweet and post a picture or two now and then.

If you are motivate or demotivated... let me know. I always appreciate feedback.