"Gabe's Gang" @ the Easter Seals "Walk with Me" 5k

Getting out of the van in morning it was still a bit chilly.... but it warmed up fast!Gabe was ready to go and was very consistent in telling us so!! (haha!)Gabe's Gang!!

Ed, Nicole, Jeremy, Dan (you can only see the top of his hat!) Shannon, Shawn, Bernie, and Adam, and of course the team captains Kari & Gabe!

Dan took 1st place in his age category (Adam took second) and Jeremy got 3rd!!!

It was a great day and an inspiring event, we beat our fundraising goal- check out our Team Page!

After the race there was food, music, and a little fair at the end and.... Gabe got a tattoo!!

He didn't even last 5 minutes in the van when we headed home!! It was a fun and tiring day!!

Gabe, knocked out on the way home, sporting his Elmo "tattoo"

We're running the Rock-n-Roll Half!!

I'm super excited. Running 10 miles was a challenge, and with the heat even more so. I'm putting my all into training for this and I'm excited to run the ING Rock-n-Roll half marathon in September here in Philadelphia. It's funny how I never thought I would run 10 miles, and now I'm registered for 13.1!! Jeremy is registered for this one too~ I'm excited to do it together. He hurt his foot during the training for Broad St which really set him back, plus it was difficult to train while he was in Michigan for work-then we didn't have anyone to watch Gabriel on race day so he bowed out and let me run it.

This one we have a bunch of friends registered for it too, so hopefully we'll get to run it in a big group to make it even more fun. There are bands playing at every mile marker and it's just an overall Rock-n-Roll atmosphere~ I'm super excited!!

Well, back to training, I'm hoping to really increase my endurance over this training program and hopefully the weather will cooperate for this race! I'll update every so often on how our training goes, and of course there will be tons of pic's from race day!!

IBC Broad St 10 miler.... I did it!!

Well, I trained for it, and I DID IT!!

It's a famous race out here, very popular with first timers. It's straight and pretty much flat and for that reason people come from all over to run the Independence Blue Cross Broad St 10 miler. It was something I thought would be challenging but I had no idea what it was really going to be like because I've never ran 10 miles before. (even in training I never ran more than 6 miles at a time) But I never could have anticipated how hard the weather would make it.

It was in the high eighties by the time the race started. (in the low to mid 90's by the time I finished) I was in the last corral (I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me, so I chose a 15 min. mile time to keep me towards the very back- just in case) But this actually made it so I had to stand there and wait in the baking sun while all the other corrals started the race. For 30 minutes- ugh! People were falling down and passing out along the way- it was a trip!! There were a couple times where I was thinking what the H*LL did I get myself into?!?

Anyway, I told everyone my goal was to finish... but personally I really wanted to beat that ridiculous 15 minute per mile time that I told them I would need to finish. Considering the heat I'm surprised that I did- but I did!! Don't get me wrong- I wasn't fast by any means and I did walk parts of the race, especially the water stations and through the fire hydrants that sprayed us with water to cool off.

But I finished in 2:20, basically 14 minute miles.

Not great - but I met both my goals... I finished and I got less than the 15 minute miles.

Watch out Broad St- I'll do much better next year!!!