Spring swing

Busy week and it's only Tuesday!
We are having the big Spring Clean at church this week so I won't have time to post very much this week.

Boys baseball is in full swing,
it has been raining like crazy!
I am so thankful for my 3 boys, they remind me daily of what is really important....all those moments that seem small but create lasting memories!

finding worms after the rain...

I got in 2 good runs in last night,1.5 miles with the No Boundaries training group and another 4 easy miles on my own, avg pace 8:50.

Hope your week is going great! 
Grace and peace,

P.S. If you want one of my Faith, Love, Run bumper stickers, comment or email me your address and I will send them out! 

Over the river and to the hills

I registered for the Country Music Marathon..... April 30th. That gives me about 5 weeks

4 weeks of training + 1 taper week

Hmmmm. Not sure I thought that all the way through.  I've been running pretty consistently, just not really anything marathon training worthy.  I have been getting long-ish runs in on the weekends, but nothing like I did when I trained for Rocket City back in December.  This will be marathon #2 for me.  I'm not expecting a spectacular finish time, but I think it will be good to have the experience of another marathon under my belt.

Last year I ran the Country Music Half HERE, and it was pretty hilly.  Time to start hill training.

This is the elevation chart:

I'm glad I didn't look at that before I registered...

Think I'll hit the hills tonight!

Anyone have a last minute marathon training plan that works for them?

Please share!!!

Finally..here are a couple pics from the Delano 12 hour

6AM - MILE 1 of the Delano 12hr

6PM - Team "Together We Perspire" 72 Miles- Finished

Today I'm thankful to God for a healthy body!

Grace and peace,

P.S. If you want one of my Faith, Love, Run bumper stickers, comment or email me your address and I will send them out!

Race Recap

  

Delano girls! Kelly ran the 50k and Traci was one of my teammates.

Saturday I ran the Delano 12 Hour Run. What an amazing day! There were 4 ways to enter the race, Individual 12hr, Individual 50mile, and Relay Team.  Initially I was going to do the 12hr but I was invited to be part of a 4 person Relay Team and accepted. The team name: Together We Perspire. The course is a one mile loop around Delano Park which is about 10 mins from my house and because it's a smaller course, only 125 entrants were allowed. Going into it had no idea what an exceptional day I would have.  The caliber of runners that turned out to run were amazing.
Jamie Donaldson, 3 time winner of the Badwater Ultramarathon and course record holder, showed up and showed out! She ran 78 miles in 11hrs 54mins! The winner Drew Burnett ran 83 miles and now holds the course record.
Kathy Youngren, a local, set an Alabama state record in the 50mile, 50 miles in 7hrs 7mins.!
It was an honor and and inspiration to see these women up close and personal.

Together We Perspire
The race started at 6am.  I showed up and met my team at 5:45am. I have never run with a team before and was extremely anxious. The 3 weeks leading up to the race hadn't been great run weeks.  I was traveling and had a hard time getting miles in and I was a little nervous about letting my teammates down.  My teammates were Jon, a Fleet Feet Racer, and Ron & Traci, a married couple who are also the head coaches of the No Boundaries program I help with. Traci greeted me with a huge smile and a hug and told me not to worry it's all about fun.
I ended up getting in 24 miles.
Here are the team splits- mine are in red.

1 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:48
2 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:44
3 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:35
4 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:42
5 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:43
6 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:39

7 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:49
8 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:33
9 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:03
10 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:53
11 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:49
12 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:43
13 Together We Perspire 428-3 12:03
14 Together We Perspire 428-3 13:30
15 Together We Perspire 428-3 13:59
16 Together We Perspire 428-1 10:13
17 Together We Perspire 428-1 09:44
18 Together We Perspire 428-1 11:11
19 Together We Perspire 428-1 12:05
20 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:43
21 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:42
22 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:07
23 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:29
24 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 06:32
25 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 05:39
26 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:32
27 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:23
28 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:35
29 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:28
30 Together We Perspire 428-3 12:58
31 Together We Perspire 428-3 14:32
32 Together We Perspire 428-3 14:28
33 Together We Perspire 428-1 11:00
34 Together We Perspire 428-1 12:09
35 Together We Perspire 428-1 13:47
36 Together We Perspire 428-2 08:59
37 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:08
38 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:30
39 Together We Perspire 428-2 10:23
40 Together We Perspire 428-2 12:04
41 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 08:38
42 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 11:18
43 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 09:13
44 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:58
45 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:59
46 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 08:58
47 Together We Perspire 428-3 14:14
48 Together We Perspire 428-3 14:54
49 Together We Perspire 428-1 12:51
50 Together We Perspire 428-1 14:18
51 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:42
52 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:58
53 Together We Perspire 428-2 10:10
54 Together We Perspire 428-2 10:44
55 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:29
56 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:40
57 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 09:02
58 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 08:44
59 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 08:45
60 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 08:59
61 Together We Perspire 428-3 14:10
62 Together We Perspire 428-1 10:57
63 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:53
64 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:48
65 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 07:59
66 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 08:25
67 Together We Perspire Jon Elmore 09:38
68 Together We Perspire 428-3 15:20
69 Together We Perspire 428-3 16:08
70 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:10
71 Together We Perspire 428-2 09:35
72 Together We Perspire 428-2 10:53

As the day went on it got harder and harder to get back out and run.  My day was Run, Rest, Stiffen up, Repeat.....I'm not sure what I was thinking it would be like, but it def wasn't easy.  Obviously my times suffered majorly.
Out of 9 relay teams we came in 7th.  We weren't the fastest, but I believe we may have had the most fun! We had our tent set up right next to the chip mats/finish line and got to see the runners pass every mile.
This is def a race that I am looking forward to participating in next year. 
Not only did I meet some super elite runners, I got a chance to talk to a lot of local runners that I don't normally get a chance to talk to.  
I feel so blessed to live in an area that is so saturated with great runners who are such great people.

I haven't got all the pics yet, but will post more as soon as I do.

Next up is the Oak Barrel Half Marathon in Lynchburg, Tennessee on April 2nd!

What is your next big race?

Grace and peace,

P.S. If you want one of my Faith, Love, Run bumper stickers, comment or email me your address and I will send them out! I only have 13 left!:)

Here's Your Sign..a giveaway!

A few weeks ago, Megan from Buildasign.com contacted me and asked if I would like little bloggy swag...and of course I said yes!
She let me design a few products online and then quickly sent them out.
Here are some of the items that she let me design:

Awesome sign for the kiddos to hold  during races

Buildasign.com signs rock!....kid not included....

Window Cling

Bumper Magnet

Bumper Sticker

These were really so super easy to design! 
Thanks to Megan and Buildasign.com, I have 15 bumper stickers that I am giving away!

So, if you want one of these:

just let me know in the comments.

Check out BuildASign.com if you'd like to create your own bumper sticker or signs or anything else you can think up!

Grace and peace,

p.s. tomorrow my race recap from the Delano 12 hour run last Saturday....you will never guess who I got to rub shoulders with!!!!

Ballet Parking

Our sound guy Jeff was upset at how much vallet parking was..so he came up with "Ballet Parking"...which btw, is free and hilarious!

I am in Oklahoma right now and have really been enjoying the childen's conference. I am really feeling stirred up and have got a lot of really fresh ideas for our children's ministry. We have one more session tonight and then done. Tomorrow we make the 11hr drive home.
I got in 5 miles last night in the hotel gym..at 11:30pm. We have had seminars all day and night, so its been difficult. I'm gonna get 8 miles in tonight and it will likely be 11pm again when that happens.
I didn't get my run in weds as planned and I have a good reason why....
Weds we left for Oklahoma at 6am. Got here at 7pm and checked into the hotel(that had pics of their amazing fitness room online). No fitness room! They said they haven't updated their website! They said they could give me a pass to the gym that was 15mins away....NO TIME! I was seriously disappointed. So I decided I would just wake up extra early the next morning and run outside. No problem. We went to bed at 10pm.
At 11pm the hotel fire alarm goes off! I freaked! I actually thought it was my phone alarm..it was so loud I couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. As I panicked to push every button on my phone to make it shut up, the alarm stopped. So I went back to sleep.(real smart) 15 mind later it happened again. This time I assumed it was the air unit or something. While the noise was peircing, the fire alarm was not flashing at all so I didn't think that was it. Plus I figured if it was a fire surely someone would call me! The noise stopped again ...so I went back to sleep again. 20 mind later it went off again! This time I called the front desk........no answer. I was really starting to freak now. I threw on some pants and popped my head out my door and was SHOCKED! Water was pouring through the ceiling in the hallway and there were firemen every where! What the heck! Apparently, a guy on the floor above me got drunk, trashed his room, and ripped a sprinkler head off the ceiling. It caused massive flooding on the third, second(my floor), and first floors! Craziness! Fortunately my room was the first room next to the flooding that had no water damage. The fire alarm went off 2 more times....plus the hot water was turned off.
I slept maybe 2hrs all night! We switched hotels first thing. Needless to say, I didn't get in an early morning run.
It all works out though. We are at a much nicer hotel with a rockin' fitness center!
Hope you are getting your miles in!

Grace and peace,

April

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Which way to Whoville?

Silly Willy & Tyler the Smiler

This is how LP and MP went to school today. At school they are celebrating Dr. Seuss B-day so today they had to make up their own Dr. Seuss character.  These kids crack me up!

I haven't run since Friday.

Saturday was a rest day for me and I was planning on a long run Sunday. 

And then this happened:

This is a Bradford pear tree. Pretty huh?  Don't be deceived...they are evil! Until they finish blooming..then I like them.We have had unseasonably warm temps lately which has caused all of the daffodils and Bradford pear trees to bloom.

Bradford pear trees in bloom

=

Spending all day Saturday outside was no good for me.  By lunch time I had lost my voice and by supper time I had a full blown upper resp infection. So I nixed my Sunday long run and traded it in for a couple extra hours of sleep.  After church on Sunday I went to the walk in clinic to see about getting some meds.  They gave me a shot of Rocephin and sent me home.  I don't know what is in that stuff, but it worked.  My fever broke that night and I had absolutely no congestion at all when I woke up Monday morning.  Praise God! I'm still slowly recovering my voice, but I feel 100%.  I'm gonna do some pilates and weights today but wait till tomorrow to get in any mileage.

Speaking of tomorrow.   I'm leaving for Oklahoma tomorrow for a childen's ministers conference called SEEDS . It's put on by a really dynamic church called Church on the Move. 

I'm totally excited about it. Though leaving for 3 day when you have 3 kids takes a crazy amount of scheduling! I'm going with our youth pastor's and our creative media team and I'm really hoping to come back with some fresh and dynamic ways to share God's word with the kids in children's church.  It can be tough to catch the attention of kids today when we have to compete with MTV and all the "reality" TV shows. When kids idolize Lindsey Lohan...we have a problem.  So we'll see...should be good!

This means I will be running in the hotel fitness room on a treadmill for the next 4 days....just typing that word makes me cringe.  I love looking at the pics of EMZ on the treadmill, she makes it look graceful and effortless...me not so much.  I have a hard time staying on a treadmill longer than 15mins.  This week I'm wanting to log at least 30 miles which means that that majority of that will be in OK on the treadmill.  Any tips?

Not sure if I will have the chance to post anymore this week.  Hope you all have a wonderful week! I'll catch you next week as I gear up for the Delano 12hr run!

Grace and peace,