Great Great Bentley result

I finished today in 2:11:37;  that’s about 6 minutes faster than in 2008. I had a great race. I surprised myself by running 10 of the 13 miles in under 10 minutes (first five at 9:42). It was a cold and overcast day, with intermittent drizzle, but there was no cold and biting wind this time.

I felt very much the benefit of experience – in what I was wearing, in what I ate and generally how to tackle the event. I think the most telling thing was feeling that the mile markers were in about the right place – in previous races it’s taken an inordinate length of time to cover a mile. Today, without checking the time, I found myself thinking ‘next mile marker will be just round this corner’ and lo! there it would be.

The field was larger – 826 finishers – so my slower running wasn’t quite so far at the back as I had feared. I was 751st. So I also met two other goals: No being overtaken by walkers, and placing higher than 27th from last…

Great Bentley Half – two years on

February 7 is this year’s Great Bentley Half Marathon, which I attempted two years ago. Since then I have run more and run further, and entered a few more races. I have built on the lessons I learned in that first half marathon, including the need to eat more than I think I do and to not let nervousness overtake me. And, that it is better to finish nearly last than it is to not start at all.

I’m looking forward to running tomorrow. I’m really keen to find out how different it feels now that 13.2 miles is less of a daunting prospect. In 2008, my longest run was 10 miles and I had only completed that once. Now I run six without really thinking about it, and ten just needs a little more planning.

I’m never going to be a fast runner – if I manage 10min miles tomorrow I will be pleased. But I don’t think that matters when the only person I am racing is me.

Ideal reading list…

I’ve just re-read another Christian book. (The Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness) The actual advice was useful.  This book is a mild case by comparison, but there are so many books that take material success as their starting point. The sort that say ‘As I added up my investments and realised my net worth meant I could live in comfort for the rest of my life I felt God calling me to give up my secure job and step out in faith.’

The point is that I was reminded about the list of book titles we’d like to see, as created by me and my ex home group leader Mark. These perhaps reflect a more realistic view of life as a confused Christian – clinging on to faith with our fingertips whilst trying not to lose a sense of humour.

Adam and Eve, and other failed believers
Believe, conceive, achieve and other trite exhortations: The cynics’ concise guide
Build your own confessional box
Christian headgear:  field guide to the modern mitre
Christianity : Tough, Confusing and Occasionally Incomprehensible
Design Your own deity
Evangelism for Agoraphobics
Evangelism: Is it really better to give than receive?
Fish! How to spot a Christians car
Full length on the pavement, a fallen outlook
Grow your own Curate
Happy Clappy…How to cope when others exhibit too much joy
How to cope when you trip on your own bootlaces
How to avoid “giving the peace”
I – spy: How to stare politely when odd behaviour is encountered in Church
Inappropriate humour without guilt
Jaded or just plain tired? A Christian perspective
Joy and hand waving for cynics
Keep on keeping on: A study in perseverance
Keeping awake in the sermon
Killing: A Christian history from Richard the Lion heart to George W Bush
Lazarus did it and you can too!
Looking through a glass darkly – illuminated
Make your own stained glass window
Mountain Climbing for the Confused
Never rains but it pours: A celebration of the precipitation of life
Nobody’s perfect: Bearable self assessment
No reply? When God’s ears need syringing
Opening beer cans in church: How to do it silently
Overboard? What to do in life’s storms
Platitudes and how to avoid them
Praying from the recovery Position
Quarks and other odd things God made for some reason
Ranting and its place in the modern church
Real Ale – Why Christians should all drink it
Secular friends? Conversion made easy!
Surviving the climb, avoiding the fall
Shouting in Church: How to do it without upsetting clergy
Tea and coffee pot trauma: A guide to serving hot beverages correctly in the modern church
Upwards and onwards for the jaded climber
Victory books and how to avoid them
“Why me, God?” and other pointless questions
Wrestling with contradictions for beginners
X-ray Christianity – it’s what’s inside that matters!
Yawning in church – what to do when you’re caught
Yokes and other light farming implements
Zerubbabel: Who was he anyway?
Zimmer frames for God! The elderly and the Church

Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving in the US today (hurrah, quiet day in the office!) and although I don’t really get the American-ness of it all, I can understand the sentiment of ‘let’s think what we are thankful for.’ So off the top of my head – what am I thankful for today?
A warm and cosy roof over my head; enough food so I don’t go to bed hungry; running water and 24/7 electricity
A job that I love
A close, loving and supportive family
Old friends and new friends
A year of great opportunities including a trip to the US
People that understand me and my sense of humour
Being more or less solvent
Being pretty fit and healthy
Being able to see the funny side
Great technology that keeps me connected and entertained
That I am confident in being this current version of Me.

Thanks, God.

Digimission

I’m not sure I am qualified to talk about the Digimission project and digital mission, since ‘real’ mission is a concept I neither fully understand nor am engaged with. However, if we want to use all the communication tools we’re blessed with, we need to understand them and I’ve been in the midst of a lot of discussion about new media and Web 2.0 lately. So partial qualification there. And my part-time research – looking at ‘old’ new media, church websites, means I’m relatively knowledgeable about what is happening there.

This research suggests there is still a huge gap between what churches as individual organisations are doing with web 1.0 – a static website – and where the rest of society is. You might have the most vibrant congregation and the most blessed successful church going, but if you don’t show up on Google, someone from a few streets away looking for a local church might never know you’re there. But this ‘get them to come to us’ mentality is not how I understand the concept of mission. It’s the going out there.

So how do you do that digitally?

 First I think you have to do it well. One has to engage with the technology. If Dr John Sentamu can tweet, so can you. These technologies are not just the preserve of teenagers. In fact, the average user of Facebook or Twitter user is, in the US at least, in their thirties. (Figures from Pew Internet & American Life project).

And literate. So forget the corny down-with-the-kids text spellings. One has to understand the way digital communication happens. It’s mobile. That means small screens, short sentences, designed to be quick and easy to digest. (Yes, I know – almost the complete opposite of ’serious’ faith).

It’s fast. There’s no point in spending hours on content that’s out of date within minutes.

Who are the leaders? We all know Stephen Fry tweets. Who else is worth following? Who else writes good blogs that will give you good ideas, inspiration, help you negotiation pitfalls? (I don’t have answers here).

Perhaps we should engage more with the rest of the blogosphere. Let’s add our reasoned comments to blogs that extol racism or extremism. Let’s do that as ordinary citizens, rather than sermonising in the comments box. Let’s exploit the connectedness we have as individuals through digital media and not allow get sidetracked by the kind of theological wrangles that affect the church.

For my next challenge…

I’ve just signed up for the Great Bentley half marathon in February. It’ll be two years since I ran that, my first proper long race. I came 27th from last – there’s photographic evidence elsewhere on this blog.

I have a different set of challenges this time. 13.1 miles doesn’t sound the terrifying ordeal it once did when I had yet to run ten. But this time I will be training on my own, through the darkest bits of winter, whilst juggling more commitments at home and work. I have more experience of races and I know how cold and windy it can be!

Glory of God – what does that mean, exactly?

Just back from a lunchtime session with other Christians at work. We’re a fledgling group trying workplace fellowship out for size and getting to know each other. Today we were looking at 1 Corinthians 10:31 and pondering on what exactly we mean by the Glory of God. Will let you know if we come up with an answer…

Grim weather

The weather forecast promised wet and windy weather today and they were spot on. This morning I stayed in bed, watching the rain drip from the balcony, the pansies being blown about and the leaves falling from the trees. 1 November; two months left of 2009 and I am left wondering where the time has gone. What have I achieved this year?What plans have I laid and failed to follow… and which have been the profitable side alleys I’ve been down?

I don’t mind the changing of the seasons; I like living in a country with definite seasonal periods. It’s an Ecclesiastes 3 kind of day – the way the falling leaves remind me of the ‘time for everything’ – spiritual as well as practical. Today I feel a bit out of sorts, a bit down in the dumps and feeling sorry for myself. But tomorrow will be different. And I take heart from that, and thank God for the blessings I do have – even if that is a struggle some days.

A marathon a month

Since my New Years’ Resolutions started in September, I have been making a real effort to get out for a run at lunchtime. So far I’ve managed two a week. My 20-minute run (once round Smithfield and back) is about 2 miles. My next effort is to ramp this up to three a week, giving me 6 miles just in my lunchbreak. If I manage that for a whole month, that’s almost a marathon: just in bite sized pieces.

Dear Church…

I’ve been reading a few parish profiles lately. It’s made me more aware than ever that churches just don’t know what to do with people like me. Most of these parishes proudly feature their work with families, their men’s breakfasts, the outreach to the elderly. None mention any kind of support for adult single people.  By rights of course to fit into the church I should be married with a couple of kids so I can fit neatly into the Mums’ groups; but do all mothers only ever discuss children? Where do adult Christian working women get together to chat and pray about the challenges of being a 24/7 Christian? Not the existing groups, as they’re all held during the day.

Many meetings seem to be held at times that are fantastic if you work locally. But even the parishes that admit to having large commuter populations still have sessions starting at 7pm or 7.30: are they accessible to someone leaving their office at 6pm?

Churches are rightly concerned with their youth work. And the elderly. But many churches claim to be a ‘church family’ when what they really are is a church of families. From these sidelines it seems that if you order your church organisation around these family units, those that don’t fit fall through the cracks. Parishes seem to be able to recognise some kinds of people that don’t ‘fit’ – but us adult single folk are just left to get on with it.