A Family That Runs Together

In February of this year the oldest girls ran a 5K with us at Heardmont Park in Birmingham. I remember that JT actually ran the whole race and we walked quite a bit of it. I think our times were close to 40 minutes (JT's was more like 37). After finishing my first 5K (in a while) in December in 46 minutes, I was pleased with that! This is what we looked like afterwards (looks like JT is the only one who actually broke a sweat)!

With all of the mission trips this spring and summer, we have been unable to run another 5K together until now. It's fun to prepare for a race together and to know that we will all finish. So, this weekend we laced up our running shoes for the Kenya Relief 5K at Veteran's Park on Valleydale Road. And, we finished!

Our finish times were definitely better but not what we have been running lately or what we had hoped to run. JT finished in a little over 32 and I finished in a little over 33. The girls finished in 37.

We discovered a few things: (1) We did not like the course at Veteran's at all. It is more of a trail run with some points of sinking gravel. We are not used to that and it felt like we were in quicksand at times. Plus, there's a cliff at the end that wears a person out! (2) If there is a surprise start and you are NOT ready (e.g. your nike app is NOT ready to go), you might spend the first 1/4 of a mile trying to fix the situation and then be mentally off for the rest of the race! (3) If you help and encourage others to prepare but forget to do the preparations yourself, you will not be content with your finish.

With all of that on that the table, there were some HUGE blessings: (1) We ran with friends and family which is ALWAYS a plus. Why not build community while you exercise? Thanks to David, Courtney, Jeremy and Josh for making it bearable. (2) Madison was the only girl in her age group so she won. She got a medal, and we were all pretty excited about that! (3) Breakfast with just the older girls afterwards was amazingly special...we needed that time together!

We hope to run a 5K in September as well, and hopefully, our times will reflect our training! We will keep running for His glory and our good.