Whistling, Running, and Dune

Miles Run:99.19

Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:185.18
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:126
Summit Team:9.55
Aspirin Tablets:42

8.65 mile run on Monday. Strained my lateral colateral ligament on my right knee. Running sux, yadda, yadda yadda.

Ok the running stuff is out of the way, cool.

So I am here at the Ballard Campus of Mars Hill Church listening to the eloquence of the systems-minded master Tim Beltz. Very cool guy. He is a salty retired Coast Guard Officer who knows a lot about how to build a church's administrative capabilities to allow a church to love people and steward resources well. I need to learn these aspects to reach my long-term goals.

I had the chance to attend the church's staff training on Tuesday and was greatly encouraged by seeing the passion and steadfastness of my leaders. Pastor Mark Driscoll spoke from his gut and gave all the staff a widened vision of what we all are doing. He even gave health recommendations geared to help avoid burn out in this busy season of Easter prep, and assist all to steward their time well.

Yesterday, I got to enjoy some time with my amazing friend Pavel. He is an awesome leader at the University of Washington Campus of Mars. I had the chance to see how his Campus Cleanup team works. As the leader of the Ballard Campus Cleanup, I have made plenty of mistakes and learned a thing or two about how to lead people to worship in a way that serves people instead of using them and focuses on worship. Also as a systems minded guy, I enjoy looking at organizational structures. For some bizzare reason, I see into them, can see how they can be improved, and the simplest way to execute the necessary changes.

....................

Dangit!

I guess the running stuff is not completely done for this post. It's just after midnight and I wanted to finish this confession before sleep carries my mind away.

I just ran 9.72 miles...my God. It has been about 65 days since I started any exercise geared toward my eventual semi-random grid search for the local maxima of Washington State. Prior to January 7th 2011, I had run the mandatory mile run in 6th grade in under 8 minutes (I believe my exact time according to my mustached gym teacher was 7:12 but that seems fast considering I was the shortest child in my 1,100 student middle school). In fact, an embarrassing set of stories revolves around my height, next time you see me ask about it.

Aside from that one run, I had never run any distance for any reason before the age of 24 years, 6 months. I am now 24 years and 8 months old. What a difference 2 months makes. Shoot, if I found some caffeine pills, chugged 4 full-sized energy drinks, ate a bag of French Truffles, and was being chased by half zombie invading Fremen from planet Arrakis, I might be able to run a half marathon tomorrow. Holy cow. I mean I still hate running, but I'm kinda sorta making progress. It's like that time when I was a little over 3-and-a-half years old, and I saw a man walking down the side walk whistling. I was blown away. You can make music without an instrument?! I asked my godmother Bernadyne, and she whistled too! I single-mindedly dedicated myself to the task of learning how to whistle. For the next week I experimented, revised, and finally achieved unaided noise from which my godmother had no escape. By the end of the month, I could whistle any tune I heard and did so often. I just collected information, synthesized it, executed as best I could, and achieved the desired outcome. I suppose this running thing is no different.

..............

Submitted an application today. Can an introvert like me get a job with the Development Group of a megachurch? IDK.

Ever been so tired you ask yourself, "Hey Josh, what are you feeling?" and you say, "Meh." back? Sleep. 8 hours. ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz