A Blog by Josh Agerton » Perseverance

Leslie, The Marathon Runner

Josh Agerton — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:56:11 +0000

On coming off of Leslie’s marathon yesterday I’ve got two things to say:

26.2 miles is a loooooong way to run.
My wife has got some serious guts.

I’m just so proud of Leslie and it was an amazing to watch her prepare over these last 6 months and then accomplish her goal. She ran strong until her IT band began to give her knee problems at around mile 21. She had to walk/run the final 5 miles and take a break at mile 24 because the pain was making her so nauseous. But somehow she pulled herself together and persevered to the end, finishing strong. Her final time was 4 hours, 46 minutes, 06 seconds.

Did I mention how proud I am of her? An amazing daughter of the King, incredible wife, mother of 3, daughter, sister, and now a MARATHON RUNNER. Leslie, you are a Champion!

Staring Down 26.2 Miles

Josh Agerton — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:04:00 +0000

This is it…the big weekend where Leslie will run her first Marathon. She just came in the door this morning from finishing her last training run of 2 miles…been tapering down in these last few weeks. Then this afternoon we head over to Albany, GA where she will run the Snicker’s Bar Marathon (maybe I can find my way into some free snacks while she’s running). We will be leaving Benjamin, Liza and Grace here in Auburn with a whole team of trusted friends until we get home on Saturday evening (Ali, Emily-sister, Liz, Erin…please pray for them all). We hope to get to Albany by mid-afternoon, get Leslie checked in for the race, have a nice carb loading dinner somewhere and turn in early at the hotel. Then we’ll be up around 5am to get her fed, warmed up, stretched and at the starting line by 7am.

Leslie will be running along side her training partner/coach/friend, Beth Kisor. Together they have run 640 miles since last September preparing for this one day. Talk about a long obedience in the same direction…these two have been hard at it. Persevering through aches, pains, pouring rain, crazy wind, mean dogs, and non-yielding cars. Just surviving the training and showing up for the race is the biggest part of it all.

I’ll be tweittering through the whole deal so you all can track her progress with me. Please do pray for her and for our little ones while we are away.

Leslie’s Perseverance

Josh Agerton — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:02:17 +0000

I don’t think we fully understand perseverance until we are pressed with adversity or a great challenge. And then in those times without trial, adversity or challenge, we begin to loose that deeper understanding of perseverance.

Our whole family is learning about perseverance as we watch Leslie train for her Snickers Bar Marathon in Albany, GA…just 6 weeks away. Our whole family is in it with her. Several mornings a week she is walking in the door at 6:30am (with me and the kids on the couch watching Playhouse Disney) already having run 6 or 8 miles. Four mornings a week she is out the door at about 5:15 with her running friend Beth Kisor. Then there are the long runs on the weekend…she’s gone up to 18 so far. Last week she did the Auburn Half Marathon and finished in 1:59:37…just under her 2 hour goal (picture above is at around mile 9).

So perseverance…she’s doing it, sore knee and all.

I’m not bragging or anything but this girl is bad to the bone…a loving and VERY patient wife, amazing mom, incredible friend, mack-daddy speech pathologist, and as you can see…a heck of an athelete. Love you Les…I’m so proud of you!