Andrew Yox named Fittest Employee of the Month for April

I am honored to have this wellness award!† Thank you so much.

Since I was sixteen, on the cross-country team of Hutchinson Central Technical High School in Buffalo, New York, I have run and lifted weights more or less consistently, on a six-day-a-week basis.† I thank the Wellness Committee for this award, even though back problems may cause me soon to reconfigure my exercise commitments.† I am 59.

I run to pray and pray to run.† I usually exercise at 4:30 AM, and there have many times when reason alone could not propel me out the door.† Often running dark country roads before sunlight, I have been pulled over four times by the police.† I have had three encounters with barbed wire, and there were two times when I socked dogs with my aluminum vacuum cleaner funnel, because in my judgment, they were ready to bite.† Only once was I accused of kidnapping.† On a freezing dark morning, a driver saw me wearing a hood, and assumed I was a young woman.† A policeman then came by, and wondered where the woman was.

We pray ?quicken me O God? (Psalm 143:11).† Taking in swooping ?breaths of life? the one non-commoditized necessity?oxygen--left, we have an opportunity away from all other distractions,† to thank God for His grace,† and ask for forgiveness.† Exercise is a wonderful avenue, that given the right conditions, can make us feel really alive (John 10:10), and if there is some suffering along the way, we trust it is for our good (Romans 8:28).

I like Cara Cara Oranges, Baby Gerber Oatmeal (I?m serious), Shiner Black beer, unsalted peanuts, jerky, macintosh apples, dried apricots, and walnuts.