We did it!

Well, we did it! The half-marathon was yesterday and it was amazing. Everyone of us completed it. The weather, in my opinion, was perfect. Just a little drizzly at the start and nothing but clouds the rest of the time. Perfect temperature and when we were completely done, it rained. Real rain. As usual, God's timing.

I was surprised at how invigorated I got once we were there. As many of you know, the training was for the most part, boring. With the exception of a few Fridays and Saturdays when I was fortunate enough to "group walk". But once we got to the real deal, I was downright excited! I even found myself jogging much of it. Not very long stretches, mind you. But many little stretches! In fact, once my aches and pains subside (and there are many!) I plan to pick up jogging. Who knows what is coming...maybe I'll run (jog) the whole thing next year! Or maybe I'll start with a 10K or something...who knew!

So to the meat of the matter....at this point we have raised $1691 for the well! Can you believe it??! The last time Iposted here, we were at $160! That's 35% of the goal which is of course $4800. We are going to leave the site open until Friday of this next week (May 16) for anyone who would like to make a last minute donation. You can do so by going to lifetoday.org/goto/teamlivingwater.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your support. Prayers AND finances. It has been an amazing experience. Enjoy the pictures!

Team Living Water Proper

Lori K., Danielle C., Kris B, Me, Cindy S.

Needs no explaining

This was the turnaround
point...8-1/2 miles down!

Me and my biggest fan!

Drum roll please

In case you're interested in how the fund raising is coming along, my wonderful friends and family have so far donated $160 towards the cause!

Thank you!

To quote a friend, BOOYA!

We did it! Eight miles down. I am not even feeling bad. My calves are a tad tender and the bottom of my feet hurt a little, but I think that's just from a need of some padded socks. No problem.

It wasn't hard and spending time with a good friend just makes the time fly by! Really. Would have been nice had there been a sanican along the way. Nuf said. No laughing.

The reason for this endeavor as you might remember is to help provide living water for those who have none. The organization we are doing this donation through is Life Outreach. Have you ever had a thank you phone call before? I don't mean from a friend or family member. I made a donation to them recently and they actually called to say thank you. That is in additon to the thank you acknowledgement that came in the mail. Amazing to me. They even asked if "while they had me on the phone if I had any prayer requests". In this day of phone solicitation, that was quite nice indeed.

Kris and I are going to try and get an official fund raising web page up and running. It's actually possible to do through Life Outreach where they have one of those donation meters...you know, like a thermometer to track how much we've raised. As much as I love these people, the page isn't incredibly user friendly...or maybe we're not the sharpest crayons in the box. I don't know. The point is that its possible we won't be successful with that. If you'd like to help us in our cause, you can make a check out to Life Outreach and then get it to me. I'm going to hang on to them all for one big mailing to those fine folks right after the half-marathon.

Goal? $4800 equals one well. Living water? Priceless.

Thank you for your support. May you be blessed. Remember Jesus said in Matthew 10:42 "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward".

Onward fellow disciples.

Hello?

Wow! It's been over a month since I've updated! You might think I've given up the trail, but I have not! Not that there haven't been moments when I've wanted to because there surely have. And to be completely honest, nearly every single time I head out for a stroll (the strolls are getting faster, by the way!) I have to make myself do it. What is it about that? I actually do enjoy it for the most part once I'm out there. Stubborn. Old habits die hard. bleh.

February dealt some cards that had to be played. I got sick. No walking for about 5 days. Then just as I was recovering, I had to go to Cheney. Brittany had been really sick and I just couldn't resist. I had to go take care of her. Which was a blessing on so many levels. Having an adult daughter (or two!) tends to leave this mother feeling a little un-needed. Unnecessary. So, while I HATED seeing her so sick, we were forced back into a familiar mother/daughter setting. Love that. Twas a little boring though. She slept. I sat in a hotel room. And watched Animal Planet :) However, since I myself was recovering from the flu, the hotel treadmill was a great way to segue back into the walking routine. Amazing, how if you are willing to see, God really does use everything for our good. By the time I got back home, I was able to pick up the trail again. Albeit a week behind in the training schedule, but back nevertheless! That hotel treadmill really was a blessing because before I went to Cheney, I had attempted a walk one morning and it was just too hard on my chest with the cold air going in. Blessings, indeed.

Today is supposed to be a 3-mile walk according to my "revised" schedule, but since that means I'm actually a week behind, I think I'm going to step it up, skip that and do 5 miles. The sky is showing a bit of blue, so I'm hopeful that means the weather is going to cooperate! Thank you God! Kris and I plan on a long walk on Friday, so maybe we can make it 8, I can skip Saturday, 3 on Sunday and then back on schedule. Which, gulp, means 9-1/2 miles the following Saturday. Yikes! That sounds hard! Ok. Living Water. Keep the goal in mind. Which, remember, is providing a well for people who are dying because of no clean water! That goal just happens to include completing a 1/2 marathon on May 10th. We can do this thing!

Well, most of this probably falls into the boring, too much info category. I'll try and stay more current from here on out. Be blessed and if you're walking, walk on! I have been incredibly blessed by the support I have received from you all....thank you.

Onward, Christian soldier! It's a new month, therefore, a new day!

Presenting...

Enough Said?

Amazing Grace

God is amazing. As if you didn't know that. It just amazes me how if we will just stay out of the way, He really will provide everything we need. And often times, even many things we want! The problem lies in whether or not our "want to" lines up with His will.


You may know that one of my very dear friends gave me a gift certificate towards an Ipod for Christmas. Totally over the top of what friends are supposed to do for Christmas, by the way. And just a tad humbling. I have a hard time accepting big stuff like that. But anyway, what a blessing. I have been hanging on to this gift certificate storing away money like a squirrell to be able to get the rest of it. I was on Apple's website the other day just kind of seeing what was out there to see how close I was getting. Well, they just happened to have refurbished (by Apple themselves) Nanos, 4 gb (holds 1000 songs!) for a mere $99.00. The regular price is $199.00! A need? Probably not, but definitely a want that will make the walks a little bit easier! Thank you God. It should be here tomorrow. And it's blue. Very representative of Living Water if you ask me!


Part of the training schedule are two days a week of cross training. I may have mentioned at some point that I have never really followed through on an exercise program before, so I don't really know what that means. One day I kind of did some random exercises for about 20 minutes, but it just doesn't feel very productive. The next weekend at church, one of our friends was looking for a place to store his Bowflex machine. Amazing? I think so. Need? Probably not. Definitely a want. Thank you God. Now to figure out how to use it!


Last week was official Week Two. 100% complete. Thank you God!


Yesterday was Day one of Week Three. Cold. But no rain. Thank you God!

Amazing Grace indeed.

We're off and running!

Well, last week was officially "week 1" and I thought I was going to accomplish 100% following the training schedule.....and then my youngest daughter got sick. Hmm. I wonder if the training schedule allows for bumps in the road like that?


I've been a bit entertained in thought. The purpose of my doing this half-marathon is to raise money for water. And nearly every time I walk, it's raining. Or as soon as I finish it starts raining. A little irony? Godincidence? I guess if nothing else it keeps me focused on the "prize" so to speak.


I also have set for myself a new potential goal. And that would be to run a full marathon by the time I'm 50. Very weird to see THAT number in print! I've shared it a few times with people in the last several days, but I've never typed it. I gotta say it looks a little different than it sounds. 50. Yikes.


I am enjoying this little journey. I've had some nice walks and some nice conversations with some nice people. I am really blessed to have the people in my life that I have. Even people who aren't walking with me in the half-marathon but that are willing to just walk with me to help keep me going. Richard. Jenny. Thank you! Your support means a lot.


I learned something too. I thought I needed/wanted a pedometer. I'm not sure why, but I did. Don't really need to count my steps. It's more minutes and miles. But I asked for one for Christmas and got one. It didn't work. So I took it back and got another type. This one didn't stay working so I took it back and got a stop watch! And then I promptly forgot it today when I went on my walk! This clearly takes change in mind set. I only in the last couple of years started remembering to bring my cell phone everywhere! Next? IPOD!!


Bring it on!

What was I thinking? Let's do this thing!!

So, I guess the Christmas season wasn't the best time to think I could actually get going on this! It has been three weeks since I have done anything (well except eat lots of junk). I admit defeat and am now ready to get REstarted! Technically I'm still ahead of schedule to be on track but by less than one week. Phew. At least I didn't miss it!

Christmas is truly the best season of all. Well, Easter is what really covers us, but it's tough to even imagine that God, in all His mercy, decided to come to earth, wrapped as a human simply for the reason of saving us. Too hard to get my head around, really.

On a much less significant note, because of Christmas, I am a little more prepared to go out and train for this half marathon. I have a new pedomenter, am on my way to owning an Ipod and even have my first donation to the cause!

I'm heading out this first day of 2008 at 3:00 to get back on track. If you're thinking of joining us, you will want to get started. I'm told that even though it's only (only?) a 13.1 mile walk, it will require mucho stamina. Since I've never followed through on an exercise program in my life, it's time to get started.

Will you be joining us?