The Peachtree Road Race has come and gone.  I finished it in one hour, twenty-eight minutes, and twenty-four seconds.  The super athlete road racers needn't worry about my overtaking them, but then, that's not what this journey is about.  I lost fifty-five pounds, showed up to walk and run every free evening--and many Saturday mornings--whether I felt like it or not.  Except for the one time the lightning cracked so loudly seemingly out of nowhere, by the end of every run, I was glad I had done so.

Now the beacon of the Peachtree Road Race 2012 is backlighting, now what?

 Now I maintain.  Now I run the 5K Vinings Downhill, feel now familiar pre-start butterflies, remind myself to pace accordingly, savor the sounds of my fellow runners' chitchat, admire the sculpted calves of runners ahead of me, knowing that my own calves' sculpting has started to peek out.  I wrote in January, "I am a runner now."  I am still a runner.  I keep running and finding new beacons.  I keep running because it is prayer that really works for me.  I keep running to be healthy and whole and to distract from heartbreak.  I run for the running because the truth of putting one foot in front of the next filters into the non-running times and heals and sculpts my soul right along with my calves.