Progress

The last few runs have seemed to be getting easier. This morning I actually caught myself thinking ahead to my next long run and looking forward to it. This is progress!
~Aimee

Recommitting

Today I made a decision to get back in the game. It's time for me to start running on a regular basis and adding in some speed work. I have been dreading this and I'm not sure why. But when the humidity and wind came around the past few weeks it made for such a great excuse to run slow and cut the distance in half. I need to get my base down so I can start training for Chicago. Right now my runs can be quite a struggle, which makes them no fun!
I am going to try really hard to not get burned out before the race this time. I just hate that I work so hard and get my times down, just to bonk at the race. I believe I can do better. I really enjoy being athletic and doing well. I know that I just need to put the work in to get to where I need to be. Here goes nothing...
~Aimee

Run and Rain

Missouri weather sure knows how to make it as difficult as possible to run. If the wind is not blowing 25 mph with gust of 35 mph, below freezing, 80 degrees at 5am, or 110% humidity, then it is raining. Which, is all it has done for the past 2 weeks around here. Today I ventured out between two of the downpours only to find the trail covered in water. So I expected to find puddles over the Greenway trail but not the entire creek! I guess I underestimated the amount of rain we have received. Guess I should pay a little more attention to all that Flood Warning stuff. With the planned route un-runnable, I stuck to the sidewalks and just kinda ran around town running through water here and there. Even though the temp was high 60/low 70 it had to feel like 80 with all the humidity. Easily the sweatiest run of the year and poor Marlie, no water stops for him. But we both made it and in a few days the water will recede and running will be back to normal. In a few weeks I am sure I will long for the days when we actually received a little rain to cool us down.

I have included a random picture of Me, Aimee, Mom, and Dad after the San Antonio Marathon in November 2008 that I came across today while looking through some computer files.

Ran this morning...

Holy hot and humid!!! the first sign of a Missouri summer :)

Running Friends

Dustin and I have been in Springfield for ~6 years together and haven't quite found a couple that would ENJOY meeting us for an 8 mile run early Saturday morning. Thinking about the fact that we might be moving soon, we figured that we were just an odd couple and that we would just keep the running/adventure stuff to ourselves (minus our continuous encouragement for everyone we know to run the Washam 5k lol -thanks for suffering to hang with us friends!). Recently we have met TWO, that's right two, couples that are fun, normal, christian, and love to be active. In fact, we met them while they were training for the St. Louis Go! half marathon. Now we join them (at least one to three of them) on Tuesday mornings to run 5 miles together with Team World Vision (stay tuned to a blog about this).
Who knows if we will stay in Springfield and get to know them a little better or if we will have to move. Maybe we could meet at races. At least we will see them at the Chicago marathon in October.
This is a shout out to you, Teresa and Justin, Rachel and Chris! And Rachel, congrats on the new road bike - you're gonna tear up those triathlons!

Frisco 50 Pics

Thanks for the pictures, Rod!