I'm Blogging Again

I have taken a little unplanned blogging break.

But I think I'm ready to jump back in!  Just like I thought, time has eased the distress of our Boston trip.  Things seem somewhat back to normal around here.....I still think about what happened in Boston, but not as frequently, and I am sleeping so much better now.

I think that over the next few blog posts I will share some of our pictures from the first part of our Boston trip--the happy part.  But first of all, I want to explain how I even got to run the Boston Marathon in the first place.  If you have any knowledge of the running world, you probably know that the Boston Marathon is the big race.  This year was the 117th Boston Marathon.  Elite runners from around the world compete in this marathon, and about 20,000 qualified runners make up most of the rest of the runners.  A Boston Qualified runner is one who has run an official Boston Qualifying marathon in under a certain time based on his gender and age.  And it is tough to qualify.  Currently for my age group, (40-45) a female runner must run under a 3:45 marathon to qualify.  That's never gonna happen for me!  At age 45 (in 14 months) my qualifying time will be 3:55.  Possibly doable---with lots of work---a goal I have set for myself.  Jimmy has missed his current qualifying time by 4 minutes.  Anyway......

The Boston Marathon also offers about 6000 charity runner spots.  And that is how both Jimmy and I were able to run the Boston Marathon this year.   Through a medical organization that Jimmy is a member of, we became charity donation runners, and our charity was National Run a Mile Days, which promotes fitness in children.   Most of the charity runners I met and saw were running for various medical causes (cancer research, organ donation, liver disease, etc.) We were placed in Wave 3 (the last wave of the marathon) with all of the other charity runners plus some older qualified runners.  Each wave has 9 corrals, and I think we were in corral 6.  Heather and Koach are both Boston Qualifiers!!  And like I said, Jimmy and I both would love to qualify one day.  I am confident that Jimmy will.

Me, Bart Yasso, and Heather

The morning before the marathon, Heather and I joined Koach, some other Mississippi runners, and about twenty runners from all over the U.S. for a 3 mile run with Bart Yasso.  He was so nice!  Jimmy and I had heard him speak while we were in Utah for the St. George Marathon.  His life has been extremely interesting, and his byline is "Never limit where running can take you".  And running has taken him all over the world!  After the run, we all had coffee together at Starbucks.  It was such a pleasant morning.

Olivia has completed her homeschooling!  She is done!  Graduation is tomorrow night!!

This afternoon we have practice and graduation set-up.  It is hard to believe that this day is here.  I am so proud of her!  She has matured into a such a lovely, godly young lady.  She is truly a blessing to her parents, her siblings, and to all who know her.