Inspired by Sisters

posted by Wendy

I ran 5K on Saturday.
(That sounds a lot more impressive than "3 miles").

I realize this is now a "short" run for many of you, but the entire time I was inspired by thoughts of my sisters & brother excercizing along with me. I am enjoying the momentum of this ride and the bonding it has created!

Inspired by Family

I feel a renewed energy with this family exercising craze! I feel so motivated that this morning I ran in the dark (with a flashlight) while it was raining. The entire time I thought of the motto "put on your shoes" and of Mark's recent wisdom from running in Seattle, "Once you are wet, you are wet! At some point it doesn't matter if the water is coming from the inside or the outside."

 A frightening, drenched version of "Mother" woke the 3 younger kids up for school today. Then I joined Madi & Janelle for an aerobic session sponsored by Denise Austin. We are ALL trying to be a bit healthier.

I was further inspired by Cheyenne's entry and find myself feeling a bond with all of you as we exercise miles apart but for the same purpose of becoming healthier.

Susan Harris once said to me, "Health is like a bank account. Every day you exercise it is like making a deposit into your account. Every deposit means you'll have a longer, healthier life!"

"Woot Woot" for DEPOSITS!

Three Sisters

Oh it was soo good to have Steph out for the holidays. My jogging has been sporadic at best since the dreaded Monster Dash on Halloween. It was so GREAT to have Steph out making me run every day. It was even more fun to add Wendy to the mix! She's the amazing Hercules runner who routinely jogs the steep hills on Valley View. I swear that girl only jogs UP. And as for me, the weakest of the bunch, it was just great to try and keep up with them as we jogged over the holidays, including a great run on Christmas day!

Here's an AFTER photo when Mark jogged with/past us...

Good times, despite the looks on our faces!

I am grateful to have two sisters who I could put on my shoes with!  Sure wish we could do it all the time!

Monster Dash!

Posted by Stacy

Okay, I totally admit I got a little too excited about a 5K I found that was being held right here in Ashland! So excited, I convinced Wendy and Sheralyn to run with me.  That was a smart move.  Signing up BEFORE previewing the route, that was a stupid move.

The Monster Dash 5K Fun Run was, well, anything but fun.  (Next year I will offer to re-design their posters.  I will use Halloween words like; "Murderous", "Diabolical", and "Frightening" to describe the event.  and will totally take out the words "Fun Run".)  The first two miles of the course threaded up Lithia Park through the steep hills of Ashland for 2 miles.  After that it was a steep downhill most of the way back, you had no choice to run fast if you didn't want to end up on your FACE!

Thank goodness Wendy and Sheralyn signed up to do it with me.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have shown up for the race if they were not meeting me there rain or shine.  This morning I got up and the weather was terrible.  I would have quit then had I been going solo.  Then I picked up our race packets a few hours before the race and decided to drive the route.  I was nearly in tears, filled with total intrepidation.  STEEP, so steep I was muttering swear words all the way back home to get ready for it.  But I knew they'd be meeting me there, no way I could back out now, thank goodness I had planned to build-in some peer pressure to see me through!

Here we are just before the race...

...and this one speaks for itself...

Oh man!  We did it!  I was sooooooo glad these two amazing girls ran with me, or, I should say, "in front of me".   They both kicked my butt.  I totally admit that just three minutes into the race I thought about quitting cause it was nothing but steep.  But they kept me going!  I'm so glad they were there!

Here's our times:

Sheralyn   30 minutes

Wendy     31 minutes

Stacy        37 minutes

I don't care if I was the last of the three, I'm just glad I finished.  And, I realized that my last 5K back in Utah with Steph-also my first, I finished it in the same amount of time...and that one was fairly level.

Now for the interesting part of the race...Halloween, costumes encouraged kinda race, and you know here in Ashland that's gonna go wrong, really wrong.  Here's a small sample of the lovely folks we had to run with (and sometime pick up the pace to get away from!):

A lovely front/back of this dude who defies explanation:

This guy was dressed like our local "Lady Godiva" a lovely lady in town who likes to ride around on her bike naked.

And these guys here:

This guy and I ran together for about 1/4 of a mile, I felt like I was running with a member of the Grateful Dead...wasn't sure if it was a costume or not!

The best part of all, it ended up being a BEAUTIFUL fall day which was so lovely!

And the streets downtown were closed down to only one lane of traffic so we got to run right down the middle of the street.  I love this beautiful town!

Thanks to Wendy and Sheralyn, I showed up and ran!  ...and didn't quit when I felt like puking!  Whew!