13.1

"How did I get here?" Angela thought to herself? "When did I sign up for this and why?" On mile 2 of 13.1, Angela wondered what could be wrong with her that she ever saw this as a good idea.

Angela and her best friend, Maggie, had decided six months ago to sign up for a half marathon in hopes that they'd be inspired to run more often. To give themselves credit, they had run far more then they had 6 months prior but this was borderline certifiable.

Angela was only on mile two and already she was bored and suffering. As she watched people pass her, she was sure she'd be the last person to finish. "There can't be that many people running this race,” she would think to herself.

The pain in her lungs was intense and she wasn't sure that she could suffer through it for eleven and a half more miles. Shaking out the stiffness in her arms, she pushed forward. Two miles was nothing. She ran that three to four times a week. Heck, ten miles wasn't that big a deal anymore. For the last three Saturdays they had run ten to twelve miles each. Now that it was race day, it seemed impossible.

Taillights

Megan watched him drive away. 10 years of marriage fading away with taillights in the night. Just like that. No warning. No explanation. Jason just left. Leaving his five year old son, a crying heap in her arms. The man she loved had left a long time ago now the man she married was following suit.

She knew Jason was unhappy. She knew he was struggling with so many things; marriage, work, his faith and the loss of his parents two years ago. They had tried therapy, prayer, and constant arguing but nothing seemed to bring him back to her.

When Megan got home that night, she found him loading his car. The ache in her gut began immediately. There were no planned trips especially that would take that much luggage. What gave it away though was that he was loading up the Civic. He never drove that car. They had been trying to sell the car for over a year. It wasn't worth much, but she was sure it could get him where he needed to go.