One of my favorite stories from the Bible is the account of Elijah running through the desert for a whole day before collapsing under a juniper tree and asking God to please let him die. God didn’t let him die, but instead sent an angel to care for and nourish Elijah so he could continue on his journey to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God. (To read more about why he was on the run, and what he experienced when he got to Mt. Horeb, check out 1 Kings 18-19).

My husband admires Elijah mostly for his great faith, but he also admires his running skills and likes to refer to Elijah as the original ultramarathoner. This past weekend, my husband joined the ranks of Elijah and other ultramarathoners who have run for a full day.

Yep, my own true love spent a little more than 21 hours running in the woods to complete a 100-mile race. It was dark when he started out and dark when he finished, but there was a whole day’s worth of light in between.

My true love on one of his laps of the 100-mile race

One of the things you’ll quickly learn about my husband is how important running is to him. It was his first true love, a love he found before he gave his life to Christ and an integral part of his life by the time he met me. Even when we first met, I had no idea how much running would weave itself into our marriage.

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