Some random training moments that I do not want to forget...
(Side note: this half marathon has been a family goal since January.
Mom is not running it due to her surprise surgery (see here); she is running the 5K instead)
*Jonas racing Dad and really pushing each other hard
(both of them have had personal record times on almost every single run!)
*Jonas running the last laps with Leslie even after he is done
*Micah's smiling strength
*Owen, Troy, and Micah reaching out and holding hands while running across streets
*Owen, Troy, and Micah finding so much joy in running... playing Mario Kart in their minds and jumping on the arrows on the the track
*Leslie's strength and endurance
*Hearing Reuben say "I run, I run!" and seeing him run in circles around our house
*High fives and chants of encouragement as we pass each other
*Cheerleading is hard work (making mounds of pasta the night before long runs & shoving bananas and power energy bites and water and gatorade down runner's throats during runs)
*Recognizing limits and heeding them: Leslie and Troy have had sprained ankles and random hurts, so they have cut some miles off, but still trained hard. Listening to our bodies is so important and a hard lesson to learn!
*Running first thing in the morning is way better than running with the full Texas sun beating down on you
*Charge phones and iPods the night before so that Evelyn and Reuben have entertainment (handheld games) for a couple of hours and the kids can listen to their running playlists.
*Keep sight of the children while running because scary people and dogs come out of the woodwork and approach them!
(One lady waved them over, and proceeded to scare the daylights out of them with scary stories of our neighborhood, and then told me she was just doing her "Christian duty". She was the scariest person we came across in any of the runs)
*The kids collecting things from their runs: tree leaves, a spoon, a tire... random things on the ground that they use to keep the memories from the stuff they collected.
(Unbeknownst to the parents until this blog post...)
*Finishing feels great!
*********TWO MORE WEEKS TILL THE BIG DAY AT THANKSGIVING POINT!************
Evelyn entertains us all with silly faces
Reuben loves to play on the red phone
Gideon waits and waits
Jonas runs into the sunlight
High fives!
Jonas
Leslie smiles at mile..... 5!
Running buddies
The sun is bright for Owen
Running "frenemies" congratulate each other on an awesome hard, fast, long run
Troy
Micah is speedy
Mom and Leslie, 2nd to last lap!
Leslie finishes!
Jonas ran the last lap (again) with her
