I'm a Polar Bear

This morning Chris and I woke up at 5:30am (yes, on a Saturday) so I could run in the 5 mile Polar Bear Run in downtown Indy (Indianapolis). Needless to say, it was an early morning. We were kind of concerned about the weather since they had been predicting snow early this morning. After leaving the house about 6:20, Chris gave me my pep talk on the way down. We arrived in downtown Indy about an hour and 15 minutes later with absolutely no snow on the ground. After checking in, warming up, and stretching, I was just fine for being ready for the race at 9am.



Before I knew it, the race had started and I was on my way. My target time was 40 minutes, which meant I needed to run about 8 minute pace for each mile. I was excited when I got to the 1st mile marker at 7:47. That gave me confidence knowing that I could maintain that pace throughout the race. I plodded along for the 2nd mile and hit a 7:54. I got a little concerned when I hit 8:07 for the 3rd mile, but figured it may have been since I was running against the wind. It was great when we turned out of the wind for the end of the race. Then out of no where came a 6:55 for mile 4. (Chris and I think the mile 3 marker was a little off.) At that point, Chris had joined me and ran next to me for a few hundred yards. He was a great encourager and made sure I knew I was doing great and could hit a really good time for the last mile. In that last mile, I kept passing people as I continued to pick up the pace. When I got about 1/3 mile from the end, an older guy told me to finish strong. I told him what Chris had told me earlier that once I got to the finish line I was done and didn't have to run or walk (meaning I could give it everything). That guy said that he would stick with me then (since I had started to pass him). We pretty much stayed side by side until the finish. The quick pace of the last mile really started to get to me as I turned the last corner. I pushed through it anyway, and got a 7:21 for mile 5. For all you math majors out there, that's an overall time of 38:04, but I really ran a 38:15. I think I started my watch incorrectly at the start of the race, as they only had a chip reader at the end and not the beginning.




Overall, it was a great race. It will give me a good seed time for the mini marathon. And I even got 3rd place in my age group! I surprised myself how well I did compared to everyone else running today. So my award for winning 3rd was a $10 gift certificate to the Runner's Forum in Indy (a runner's store). I'm sure I can go there and find something I can use for running (like a new pair of running shoes).



As we came out of the Indiana War Memorial from the awards, it was snowing/sleeting. God graciously held off the nasty weather and allowed us to run on a dry day that really wasn't too cold. When we got back to Lafayette, we found about an inch of snow on the ground. Today wouldn't have been the same without a little snow on the ground. Thankfully I didn't have to run in it.


I have such a great husband because I know I couldn't have done what I did today without him. Here are just some of the things he did for me today:

• Woke up early on a Saturday
• Was my chaffeur
• Warmed up and cooled down with me
• Gave me the encouragement I needed to run a good race
• Helped me convince myself that I could turn out a good time (at least better than I thought I could)
• Ran with me for part of the last mile so I could finish strong
• Told me numerous times that he is proud of me

God is working

This weekend was an exciting time for our church - Lafayette Community Church. Today was our annual commitment Sunday where people affirm their membership with the church. Baby dedications and baptisms also happened today. (Baptisms are not a regular thing at our church since we currently don't have a baptistry of our own as we're renting out an old theatre.) So today they specially brought in a clean trough. We had 13 baptisms today! That's amazing since our current average attendance has only been around 90-100. It was awesome to see so many people dedicating their lives to Christ. That was the most baptisms I had ever seen at one time!

We also had a church meeting last night where we learned that last year the attendance went from 40 at the beginning of the year to 90 at the end. I can't believe the amount of growth that happened in just a few months. In July 2008 we moved from meeting at the Holiday Inn to the Long Center, so that allowed much more room for us to grow. God has already done so much but there is so much more that He can do. At the end of this year, I look forward to looking back at 2009 to see what He has done.

For the past couple weeks, a few couples have been meeting in our home weekly in preparation for a new small group. The small group officially starts this week! I'm glad that we're part of a small group again after leaving a great one in Peoria. It will be a great opportunity for continued growth and a close community of believers.

January Happenings

For Chris' 25th birthday earlier this month, I surprised him by gathering some of our friends for dinner at Bruno's (a local Italian restaurant in W. Lafayette). Some of our church friends and the Parker's (Chris' family friend since he was a kid) were able to join us. It was fun because I was actually able to surprise him. He was thinking for a few days about where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner since we had already been to Cracker Barrel with my parents in Joplin. (In past years we normally end up going to Cracker Barrel for his birthday.) So the day of his dinner (Jan. 10th), right before I walked out the door with the dog, I said that we were leaving at 6:30 that night and he could no longer decide where we were going. I strategically planned it this way so he couldn't interrogate me about what I had just said. When I got back he was questioning why he couldn't pick where we went, but I told him "just because".

So we left at 6:30 and I directed him to Bruno's. When the hostess told us where our table was, he was confused as he saw there wasn't an empty table and that some of our friends were there. He finally caught on that it was a surprise. We enjoyed having dinner with our friends before we invited everyone back to our house for cake and games. It was strange because everyone that came is significantly older than us - at least 10-12 years older with the Parker's being old enough to be our parents. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time and I was glad that everyone could make it to celebrate Chris' birthday.

Over MLK weekend, we headed down to Columbus to celebrate Chris' birthday (again) and Dominik's, which was on the 29th. It also gave us something to do since we had a 3-day weekend for MLK day. We enjoyed spending time with everyone there. I even went to a John David Webster benefit concert at Chris' family's church on Saturday night. It ends up that John was the interim worship leader at their church for a while, so he came back to do a benefit concert for the pregnancy care center. It was fun since I haven't been to any sort of concert in quite some time. While we were there we also lit some candles for Dominik to blow out. Instead of putting them in a cake (which we knew he would spit on), we used a crescent roll! But once the candles were lit, he started crying. So that was the end of that. But Chris' mom made a wonderful german chocolate cake that we enjoyed all weekend.

Running update

Running has been going ok lately. I'm just trying to make it through the winter weather alive. That's a little exaggerated, but I took 2 days off earlier in January because the hi temperatures for the day were sub-zero! It was actually hard to take those days off, but that was just too cold for me. My long runs are up to 8 miles now with a minimum of 30 minute runs the other 5 days of the week. I've discovered that running in slush is the worst - you get slush build-up on the bottom of your shoes and you slip even more than in snow. This has actually been a mild winter so far and we haven't had our usual amount of snow. This has been a good thing, but I am very much looking forward to spring. Here's me after one of my snowy runs.




On Feb. 21st I'll run in the Polar Bear Run in Indy. It will be a 5 mile race. I think this will be very good for me, as races usually show you where you're really at. I'll also submit my time in this race as my seeding time for the Mini. So hopefully I will be able to keep my target pace (8 to 8.5 minutes). I'm hoping for good weather on that day and no snow!