The Day of All the Running

Saturday brought a lot of running around for our family.

Like, literal RUNNING around!

Holly was running her first 5k ever. She joined the Women Can Run group, and began training a few months ago. Yesterday's 5k was the culmination of that training. The "final exam," so to speak.

Holly had determined that she would run intervals, like in training. 3 min of running and 1 minute of walking. Joshua and I got up and went out to watch her and cheer her on. Aaron was there, too. And he had brought their little dog. I walked down a ways to the corner, and finally spotted her. She was walking fast. I tried to cheer her on and ran/walked along the side until she started running again.

After she crossed the finish line, we made our way onto the track of the stadium to find her. Joshua and I both went in to give her a hug and she said, "don't come any closer...I threw up."

Well, of COURSE she did.

In Jr. High, High School and College, Holly was known as the one who always threw up before a race. She was a swimmer. They would call 3rd and final call of her race and she would be nowhere to be found. She would miraculously show up right before she had to climb onto the starting blocks. Everyone wondered where she had been. I knew...she had been in the bathroom, throwing up.

She comes by it honestly. Jim says that he would get nervous about things when he was little and it would make him throw up. In fact, one place they lived, they were close enough to walk to church. Jim's Dad said every Sunday morning, the boys would head off first...running like maniacs. When he and Jim's Mom headed to church a few minutes later, there would be a little pile of barf along the way, where Jim had yacked before church.

Holly said, "I knew it was coming and I warned my friends. I felt so much better afterwards."

Bless it.

Jim and I are SO PROUD of her for sticking with this and finishing her 5k!

And then Jim and Clark had gone down to his parent's house on Friday night to spend the night. Saturday morning, they were running in the Warrior Dash. This is their 2nd or 3rd year to run in it. And, bless his heart, Clark lost his shoes at the first obstacle course...they got stuck in the mud and muck and he couldn't get them...and then had to run the rest of the race in just his sock feet (I mean, he had clothes on...and socks). But he ran over dirt, rocks, sticks, trails, climbed walls...without his shoes. Talk about a true warrior! Proud of him, too!

And, side note: Jim said that one obstacle was a tunnel/tube thing with water in it and brush and stuff on top. You had to be on your stomach. He said he was belly crawling as fast as he could and he saw a snake.

And that's how Marty would die.

But not Jim, he TRIED TO GRAB IT, but couldn't. When he crawled out he told the spotters, "hey, there's a snake in there...I tried to get it, but I missed."

Oh, yeah.

If I ever needed a reason to NOT do the Warrior Dash, that would be it. That would be one of 50.

Goodness gracious!

Later in the afternoon, Joshua and I headed down to LR to meet up with Jim and Clark...so that the guys could be measured for their tuxes for Logan's wedding. We went out to dinner after, and it was really nice...and then we came home!

I was really thankful to have everyone back home last night. Holly and Aaron from Aaron's parent's house...and Jim and Clark from the Warrior Dash.

Looking forward to Logan coming home this week!

"...He alone is my refuge..." Psalm 91:2