Derby Mini

One of the best ways Josh shows his love for me is to slap on those running shoes and pound the pavement by my side.

This may not seem like a big deal to most, but it is a HUGE deal for us.

My hunny grew up playing sports. The connection between exercise and competition is ingrained into his soul.

In running there is no ball, no goal, no time limit, no referee, no winning, and no competition. The idea of a four mile run just for the heck of it is a ridiculous notion.

What's the point?!

Don't despair friends, I was (and am) full of answers.

Running is the pure act of doing something good for YOU. There is no ball flying through the air that might hit you in the head and knock you senseless. No tiny little net gaurded by a behemoth goalee hurling insults and snarling as you try to kick the ball past him. No time limit, no referee blowing whistles yelling to the world about how you messed up. There might not technically be winning but that means there is NO LOSING. And seriously, the idea of winning is relative. I definitely feel like a winner after finishing a half marathon even if I didn't beat my PR and placed 13,962 out of 15,000 people. I could not care less about those stats...I just ran 13.2 miles! I am a rockstar!

No competition you say? I beg to differ. This will be my 7th half. I could absolutely compete against my past performances if I wanted to.

But, I don't. I just want to finish strong and have fun.

But this will be Josh's second half and I can already see those wheels turning. Can we beat his last time? Maybe? Hopefully?

Yes! We can do it! It is easy to catch the spirit.

So, we are training for the Derby Half Marathon on April 30th.

It is actually called the Derby Mini-Marathon but I re-named it. Who in their right mind calls 13.2 miles a "mini" distance!? C'mon people.

We have joined up on our long runs with some friends from church. Dana and her son Jobe keep us accountable and make those long runs much more enjoyable. We have run through some pretty awful conditions. Dana once convinced us that we needed to do our 9 mile long run for the week on a sleety rainy Saturday afternoon. Josh was a trooper and didn't complain...much:)

This shot was from our long run last Saturday. The weather was PERFECT, cool, sunny, divine.

Our route took us over some muddy trails ... as you can see.

In my book, mud = major rockstar status!