At the end of last summer I started training for a 10K as I have always wanted to give it a try...it seemed like something that would be a stretch for me, but after training and running my first race....I haven't been able to give them up since. So, I have been trying to get as many races in this year as I can. Charlie enjoys going on runs with me too when he can, but often we have different schedules so we have to train on our own. But, every once in a great while he will be lucky enough to have a specific weekend off and we're able to run a race together. Charlie ran my first 10K race with me in Rock Valley, IA (After a little convincing) He hadn't trained and he had only ran 6 miles one time prior to the race just to make sure he could still do it...lol. It had been awhile since either of us had run that far...probably since Cross Country training in high school). Anyways he was such a trooper! He did AMAZING (beat me)! It's just a little frustrating when some people can do that good with what seems like little to no effort at all, and there you are panting at the finish line after you have trained for months. Oh well I guess some are just naturals and others like myself just have to work at it. I definitely wouldn't have gotten as good of a time as I did without him though. He kept pushing me and encouraging me the whole way. I think that was probably the most enjoyable race that I have ran so far (besides the intense heat-yuck)!
We are both excited as this coming weekend we will be taking part in the Rise Fest Race (http://www.riseministries.com/risefest/) in connection with the Rise Festival in Orange City, IA along with our mom, all of my sisters and both of our brother-in-laws. If you have never been to the Rise Festival I encourage you to come and check it out. It's a great day full of live Christian Bands and Groups sharing their ministry of music and the words that God places on their/our hearts. My sisters and I will be singing at the festival at 1:00 p.m. and we'd love to see many of your out there!
I hope to take some pictures at the race and festival this weekend to be able to share with all of you, but for now I thought I'd share some of the pics. from our last race (The Sioux Center Summer Celebration)!
Those in our family that ran
Just the two of us :)
With my mom and younger sisters Jasmyn & Jamaica
Charlie...feelin' the love
I love that my 9 year old has started joining us in races-she's so cute
Sister Jazz & I (this was her first race after her ACL surgery...she did amazing)
Charlie running hard
All by my lonesome lol ;)
Jazz offered to run with little sister Jamaica (what a sister)
Jamaica almost to the finish line
Mom looking so strong
(I hope I'm still able to run as good as she does when I'm 50)
Almost to the finish line...
Jazzie placed in her age category
So did mom
After the race
We made it!
A special thanks to my dad too for being our support crew.
He has bad knees so he was unable to run, but he made several stops along the whole route while riding his cycle and cheering us on and taking several of these pictures for us!
