Marathon, not a sprint

This morning I rolled out of bed with a nudge from my husband, somehow changed clothes without fully waking up, and with Gu clipped to my shorts, went for a run in the rain. How is that for a long sentence?
When I first began running, I called my mom-- "If it starts storming, will you pick me up?" and I secretly hoped that it would storm.
It didn't storm.
You see, I was struck with an ailment this week that kept me from running my semi-long middle-of-the-week runs, so I thought, hey--I could just run the seven miler before the meeting this morning. The problem is that I have never run further than 4 miles by myself. So before I got to the pivotal moment of turning on the road to seven miles, or the four mile route I tried to talk myself out of running this stupid long distance so early in the morning.
But I had an epiphany. If I can't push myself to run seven miles by myself, what would I do if Abby decided not to run the marathon with me and there was no one left who ran at my pace? I had to run the seven by myself to prove to myself that I could do it. This epiphany led me to a better one. No one wants to keep on this path when they're tired. But as the world is decaying and the Lord is getting ready to take me home or to come here Himself, it is only going to get harder to stand on that solid foundation. We will be tired, worn out, and discouraged, at times. We will feel like we are running in a desert with ONLY the Lord to sustain us--no saints to keep us from stopping and sitting down--giving up.
We have to keep running.
Just keep running
Just keep running
Just keep running
This life with the Lord is a marathon, not a sprint.