Run!

Several weeks ago, Austin and I decided that we really wanted to get in shape. We began getting up early to work out before school and we've also been running in the evenings when the temperatures cool down. I am enjoying the results I am seeing in my body but more than that I have enjoyed spending this time with my son. Our evening runs have become one of my favorite parts of the day. We encourage each other to keep going when we want to quit and we have pushed ourselves to go farther and farther each time. We started with about a half of a mile and tonight we ran 3.5 miles. We feel so accomplished! Austin makes me feel old when I watch him run. He bounces along like he has springs in his legs and just when I am about to keel over, he will break into a sprint. I spend a lot of time laughing at him because he will do things like race dogs along a fence line while barking back at them. I beg him not to do these things because laughing while running cuts my power in half but the kid is merciless and keeps it up.

Unfortunately, tonight our run ended with a terrifying event. We were worn out and struggling up our last hill when all of a sudden a beat up brown van flew up to the curb right behind us. We heard it coming and as I turned to see what was going on I saw that the passenger door had flung open and a man was jumping out before the van had even fully stopped. My heart jumped into my throat as I heard Austin yell back to me, "Run Mom! Run!" and deep in my soul, I knew he was right. I was literally sick as we ran for our lives, believing we would be thrown in that van and whisked away. Luckily, we happened to be not too far from the back side of our house. From the sidewalk we had to climb up a weedy, stickery hill and then climb over the back fence. I was so exhausted and frantic I could barely make it over. I was so, so relieved when we were finally safe! When we told Aaron what had happened, he tried to calm our fears by suggesting other possible reasons the van had pulled over. Austin and I are both very familiar with "promptings" and I have no doubt that we were prompted to run for our lives with every ounce of strength we could muster.

Now that my fear has subsided I am so angry that Austin and I will not be able to run, be silly and enjoy our time the way we have been. Now if we run, we will looking for threatening brown vans and wondering what could happen next time if we don't happen to be close to home. Aaron offered to follow us in the car for now on and I'm sure we will be taking him up on that. I know that our runs won't be the same, being shadowed by our own personal security guard, but I am determined to not give up something I love because of the evil lurking in the world. I will not let evil win.