A New Hope... and Marathons...

So I had the pleasure of attending a church today that I truly enjoyed.  It's called New Hope, and the thought occurred to me while I was enjoying the worship, that the name is somewhat, well... fitting I guess for me?  Hope is something that I've had in the past... and I feel kind of like I've lost touch with hope... but being at this church really gave me a 'new' hope... at least for a wayward son... which I've really been conscious of lately... the message was about insecurities, but what I really received from the pastor's words were how much God loves me, us, all of His children, but I guess it really spoke to me specifically, because he reminded me of the story of how a shepherd with 100 sheep would leave 99 of them to go seek out one that has strayed... It really spoke to me.  Am I a sheep that has strayed?  Probably... am I conscious of the fact on a pretty regular basis?  Definitely... am I glad that God used a series of unique events to guide my path to this church?  Absolutely.  There are lots of things that I appreciated about this church, but the fact that they don't own any buildings was probably the most striking... and they have a membership of over 10,000!!  They meet in a high-school auditorium for 4 or 5 services on the weekends as well as 4 or 5 other locations around Oahu... (the island I live on)- but even though they don't have a regular building that they 'own',  they have the process down of taking over the entire courtyard and auditorium of Farrington High School here in Honolulu.  I didn't really even realize it was a High School until my friend told me... I thought it was an actual church campus- anyway- all-in-all I really enjoyed it... although, Uncle Sam beckons, and unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it for the next two weekends... that thought also hit me as I was enjoying the service... oh well- hopefully the church will still be there when I'm back from my off-island travels... 

In other news... as I was running through Waikiki this morning... this thought occurred to me:  "Is a Marathon a unit of measure of distance or is it now defined as a race?"  I, of course, know the story behind Marathon... well, I thought I did, before I did some research just now... but regardless, according to the community over at Wikipedia- the official distance of a Marathon has been changed 6 or 7 times since the first official marathon was run at the 1896 Olympic games at Athens Greece.  Originally, it was around 40 kilometers or roughly 25 miles, which is the actual distance from the Marathon Plain to Athens... but, well, read this:

Distance

Year	Distance (kilometres)	Distance (miles)
1896	40	24.85
1900	40.26	25.02
1904	40	24.85
1906	41.86	26.01
1908	42.195	26.22
1912	40.2	24.98
1920	42.75	26.56
1924 onward	42.195	26.22

The length of a marathon was not fixed at first, since the only important factor was that all athletes competed on the same course. The marathon races in the first few Olympic Games were not of a set length, but were approximately 40 km,^[10] roughly the distance from Marathon to Athens by the longer, flatter route. The exact length of the Olympic marathon varied depending on the route established for each venue.

The marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London was set to measure about 25 miles (40 km) and to start on ‘The Long Walk’ – a magnificent avenue leading up to Windsor Castle in the grounds of Windsor Great Park. The Princess of Wales wanted her children to watch the start of the race, so the start of the race was moved to the east lawn of Windsor Castle, increasing its length to 26 miles (42 km).^[10] The race was to finish at the Great White City Stadium in Shepherd's Bush in London; however, Queen Alexandra insisted on having the best view of the finish; so, in the words of the official Olympic report, "385 yards were run on the cinder track to the finish, below the Royal Box".^[10] The length then became 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards or 26 ⁷⁄₃₂ miles).

For the next Olympics in 1912, the length was changed to 40.2 km (24.98 miles) and changed again to 42.75 km (26.56 miles) for the 1920 Olympics until it was fixed at the 1908 distance for the 1924 Olympics. In fact, of the first seven Olympic Games, there were six different marathon distances between 40 km and 42.75 km (40 km being used twice).

Following the 1908 Olympics in London, an annual event called the Polytechnic Marathon had been instituted over the 1908 distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km), and it was largely due to the prestige of the Polytechnic Marathon that 42.195 km was adopted as the official marathon distance in 1921 by theInternational Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) - Rule 240 of their Competition Rules.[2]. The difference between 42.195 km and 26 miles 385 yards is 1.2 centimetres. The difference between the standard distance and the rounded figure frequently employed (as in the table), 26.22 miles, is a little over two metres.

Interesting eh?  For some reason I was thinking about miles and stadia and cubits and other ancient measures of distance this morning while running, and I thought, if a stadia can be roughly the length of a stadium as well as a 'unit' of measurement, couldn't the same logic apply to a Marathon?  Not only is it a distance, it could also be a 'unit' of measurement... who knows- the strangest things pass through my mind sometimes while I'm running...

Oh- got my guitar fixed- just started playing 'The Blowers Daughter' this last week.  An incredible song, I found out is about a guy falling in love with his clarinet teachers daughter... strange eh?  A good song none-the-less... can't take my eyes off of you... can't take my mind off of you...  Good night... do I really have to go back to work tomorrow?  Well, at least I get to travel next weekend.

Peace.