Marsha Middleton completed her first ever half-marathon in Kansas City on October 15th.  As the CEO of Alliance for Life Missouri, Marsha works to unite pro-life efforts in the state of Missouri and to support Pregnancy Centers through awareness, training and more.  Marathons for Moms was excited to receive the following reflection from Marsha:

I will share with you how I even came to the place of attempting to do this marathon. Tim, I don’t know if you remember we had a conversation early on back in June as I was trying to figure out how this entire Marathon for Moms process would work as I was planning on recruiting runners. You suggested that I go on and sign up as a runner so I could see exactly how it would work so I could explain to runners as I recruited.  So that is what I did, however as I was walking through the process, I felt the Lord nudging me that I was to actually do this. I argued with Him a bit, but that urging was so strong… that I had to be first. Lead by example. So I committed to do it with the idea of walking or breaking it down and doing several 5ks. I think you and I even talked about that aspect at one time. But I just kept getting the message that I needed to begin training to do a half marathon; I needed to do one event, not several. So in late June I began the training process to run a half marathon and raising the money.

While the half marathon was harder than I expected and I had some knee issues midway that created a very painful end, I have learned many lessons about myself and from a spiritual perspective that I would not trade. I finished which was my ultimate goal. I will be working all year to deal with these physical issues so that I can do it again with hopefully less pain. But more importantly to run because life matters and encourage others to join me.

Thanks for introducing me to Marathon for Moms and suggesting I sign up as a runner. I know you didn’t know what you really were inspiring me toward, but the Lord used that to move me to actually “do it” instead of hoping others would for me.

We are working toward building this thing across Missouri for 2012 to raise funds statewide. I am expecting great things from God as we attempt great things for God!

His for Life …running because life matters!

Marsha Middleton

The following inspirational email is from Marathons for Moms participant Rachael Bede of Columbus, Ohio. Rachael, a mother of 5, completed the Presque Isle half-marathon in July and raised $1163.90 for Pregnancy Decision Health Centers.

Thank you, Rachael, for sharing your incredible story and for your perseverance in the race for life!

Dear Friends,

Because of your donations (and possibly prayer support for those who can’t donate), I met the halfway goal for Marathons for Moms by May 5th and I won a drawing for a new pair of running shoes – Woo Hoo!!!! It was such a cool experience. I have generally picked up whatever is on sale at Kohls. My latest pair had not only doubled the amount of mileage that is recommended for running shoes, but shooo-wee they emanated quite an odor due to all the rain and mud I had been sloshing through. So I got to visit a really great running store, where they analyzed my gait and arch-type and all kinds of things I’d never considered before, and I came away with some beauties.

So I was very much enjoying my training, and felt great about a couple of 10-milers I had run when- WHAMO- on Memorial Day I was made very much aware of a new little Bede growing inside of me and had to stop training altogether due to being rather sick.

On Sun, July 17th after a fun weekend with my brother and his family who live in Erie, I showed up at 7am for the Presque Isle half-marathon, not sure I was going to be able to walk for 4 hours. So I started off running- after a few miles I set a goal of not stopping until I hit 7 miles, which would be halfway there. After that it was a lot of alternating walking and shuffle-jogging until I finally jogged the last mile in. It was a beautiful run – we could see peaceful views of Lake Erie with boats and lovely beaches and marshes along the way. At the end, though, was the loveliest view of all- Philip and my little ones cheering me on.

But back to the reason for it all, through this process I have been cognizant of – and taking to prayer – the women and babies who visit PDHC, and I praise God that they have somewhere to turn so that they can make life-giving decisions. Here I had a direct correlation to the women facing a troubled pregnancy. I, of course, carried my little one with me on my journey. It was kind of humiliating- I was passed by a woman with a large hump on her back, another woman with the words, “Please, God, let there be someone behind me to read this t-shirt” on the back of her shirt, and an 11-year-old boy chatting with his mom as they ran. I felt a tiny bit of the fear and the doubt, “can I do this?” that some of these ladies feel who are unexpectedly pregnant. I also prayed as I ran for the special needs of those of you who donated money to the cause.

Thanks so much for the shoes, for the support, and for the love!

Sincerely,
Rachael