Running with Faith

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of deer, he enables me to go on the heights.  Habakkuk 3:19

That verse has so much meaning to me.  I know it was not written about or to a runner specifically but for anyone just going through life.  God is our ultimate strength in any situation, and with him, anything is possible.  As I run my first Ultra-marathon tomorrow morning since last October, that verse will be one of the many I repeat to myself as I try to make it through the race.  As an ends, running really does mean much, but it can be used as a means to get so much more out of life.  Not only can one obtain an increased level of health from running, but also in some extraordinary cases, one can use their talents in running to change the world one step at a time.

One of the most famous American marathoner runners, Ryan Hall, is a strong Christian that utilizes his amazing talents to help raise money to fight worldwide poverty (http://thestepsfoundation.org/).  Another less publicized runner, Sam Felsenfeld, is currently running 60 marathons in 2010 to raise both awareness and money for the fight against autism, through the Train 4 Autism foundation (http://www.operationjack.org/).  These types of ends for running both fascinate me and inspire me.  I hope that one day if I were in either man’s position, that I would have the strength to do half as much as they are doing.

After learning about Sam Felsenfeld’s quest to run 60 marathons in 2010, I immediately knew that it was something special.  I have run 2 road marathons and know how difficult a task just one is and cannot even fathom how difficult 60 in one year would be.  After my most recent one in Atlanta last November, it took me until just this April to feel my body was anywhere near ready to begin training for another race. 

Now that I am back in training mode, I want to utilize my running and my personal quest to qualify for the Boston marathon to help Sam in his quest to raise awareness for autism.  In my cases, this will require significant training and improvement in my running to achieve the qualifying standard of 3:10, which is a 7:15 pace for the 26.2 miles. 

In conversations with Sam, we discussed having him come pace me for my next road marathon, the St. Jude Memphis Marathon.  This marathon would bring Sam’s total for the year to an astounding 61.  I have a really good feeling about this race, with my wife Lacey having used it to qualify for Boston, and now having the opportunity to have a man with such impressive running credentials offer to pace me.  It is difficult to be confident about something as daunting as a marathon but I am confident that I can do it.  Jesus said that with faith, one could move mountains, so as I continue to grow in my faith I know that a 3:10 marathon is always within reach if I am willing to go for it.  In doing so, I hope to inspire others to do what they dream of doing. 

So, join me as I support Sam with my running passion and support any way that you can.  Any donation amount to my donation page (http://operationjack.kintera.org/lancehaney) is greatly appreciated and even just words of encouragement mean a lot.

Catching Up!

Yes, this one may need subtitles. I have had good intentions to write many blogs over the past few weeks, but never got around to it :) So, here is what has been going on in our little Haney house...

Easter
For Easter, we went to Corner and stayed with my parents. It was a nice weekend. Maximus LOVES playing in the country and getting spoiled by Gran.  This year, Easter fell on a very special day.  It was the same date, that 15 years ago, my wonderful Granddad passed away.  The anniversary of his death has never been on Easter before, and I found that to be very special this year. My Granddad was not just a mediocre, average granddad, but he was, by far, the BEST granddad there has ever been. I have missed him terribly for the past 15 years, but I know he has a front row seat at everything I have done since then and I can't wait to see him again one day.  Easter is an amazing holiday, I pray everyday we are reminded of the significance and meaning it gives to our lives.

Happy Birthday, Lance!

Lance's 28th birthday was April 11th, so the weekend following Easter, we loaded up and headed to north Georgia to visit Lance's family. Another nice trip. We took Maximus along to Taylorsville for the first time, and he did very well, except for the attempt Lance made at introducing him to his cat, Popcorn. That was not very pleasant. Lance had a nice birthday, it was the first birthday I have celebrated with him and we can't wait for MANY more :) He also racked up. Lance got a new pair of flip flops, dress shoes, and three shirts, plus a "husband" birthday card! .....in two years he will be 30 :)  Once we got back to Auburn, Sunday afternoon I made Lance a special birthday dinner, which will lead us to the next topic.  For dessert, I made my first ever attempt at vegan baking. I have made plenty of vegan dishes, but was very excited to bake! This is not the prettiest picture (and, No, the marshmallows are not vegan, but they are Lance's favorite!) but, if had tasted it, you wouldn't care how ugly it looked, the BEST thing I have ever tasted.

Vegans :)
That's right, Lance and I have finally made the full conversion to vegans.  It took a while, but I think our process is a very successful one. We never really had vegan as our ultimate goal, we eventually just stumbled upon it. We started out just vegetarian, then we went all-natural (we ate nothing processed, hydrogenated, or with high fructose corn syrup) which was a very extensive label reading processed if we bought something pre-made, this led to us making a lot of things from scratch to eliminate all the preservatives.  Then, we decided to rid our diets of dairy. We figured the only thing we should do now is proclaim a vegan diet, so we did. I love vegan cooking, some of it can be very involved- it's so much fun. I had a few recipes down, but they have gotten very repetitive in our weekly dinner menu, so I ordered my first vegan cookbook and am anxiously awaiting the delivery of veganomicon.  I have never heard a bad review of this book, so if only UPS could get it here a little faster, I would be thrilled :) Lance and I have found quite a few favorite staples in our diet.  We LOVE Almond Breeze almond milk,  we buy the refrigerated one, but they also sell a shelf stable :) It is amazing, we get unsweetened vanilla.  Another favorite discovery of mine (not so much for Lance) is carob chips- Oh my!- they taste just like robin eggs Easter candy. Carob is the replacement for chocolate, you can get carob chips or powder, and I am sold, I love it! I am addicted to these  Luna bars. They are amazing, I also can settle for caramel nut brownie, since you can find them for cheaper in a box of 6, but cookies n cream and white chocolate macadamia are my FAVORITE.  Lance likes to explore gluten free options and loves his tapioca bread. We traded out our Kroger bagels for Thomas, just check the ingredient list and see the high fructose corn syrup- yuck! We love Morningstar chik'n grillers , and vegan Bocas.  I am very proud of myself, I now make my own polenta :) I love whole grain oats and frozen raspberries each morning for breakfast, I made this switch from instant oatmeal :) Lance still has his egg beaters and occasional fish, he's a laid back vegan.  I actually got lobster for his birthday, it was precooked so I just had to let it thaw and boil it for a few minutes to warm it up. It was a WHOLE lobster, I used to like seafood, but this really grossed me out. I lost my appetite, I just knew at some point it was going to start crawling away!

School
On to our final subject, school. I GRADUATE IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!! I am so excited. What the future holds, who knows! Hopefully a job, that would be nice. Lance is presenting his PhD proposal next Wednesday, the  21st. I am very thrilled, I get to attend and make goodies to take for his committee :) I am using some of my new Fiesta serveware :)

So, there is your Haney update :) We are just loving our married life. It's so special spending every day with your best friend.