Happily Ever After

I have very slowly been working my way through Beth Moore's Bible study on Esther. It has been such a good Bible study for this time in my life. Today I came across this quote from Beth..

"How blessed we are to be women. By nature we like to do things together. Work and play. Laugh and grieve. Eat and pray. Live and die. A large measure of enjoying womanhood is enjoying a heart connection with other women."

I couldn't believe what a perfect explantion this was of what we had all just experienced. The whole expierence of training, planning, healing, and running has bonded us together.

The race is over and life has returned to normal. Normal except for the fact that I am still a little obnoxious. Yesterday I discovered that there is video of each runner at key points in the race. I have now watched myself run through Cinderella's castle about 100 times. I've made my family watch it 75 of those times. They may be slightly weary of this princess!

It's time to wrap up this little blog of mine and I'm really kind of sad. It has been so much fun to write and planning what to say has gotten me through more than a few miles! I can't thank you enough for taking time to read it. Your encouragement to me through this blog was an unexpected benefit and I am grateful for each of you! You have to come with me next time! I am going to wrap it up with a few thoughts and observations of the whole expierance. Here's one last list:

First..a shout out to my husband, Shane. I came home to a perfectly clean house! How awesome is that. Not a dish in the sink. I love that man!

Never Say Never! I realize this is the name of Justin Beiber's movie. I'm sorry. It is also my knew favorite saying. When my children say "I'll never get this math problem!" I say "I just ran a 1/2 marathon. Never Say Never!" Cue the eye rolling!

It's possible I wore my medal while I was home alone today. It's possible I'm wearing it now.

We had a waiter at the Coral Reef who was unnaturally obssessed with the chocolate mousse dessert. He practically harrassed me when I ordered the Creme Brule. If you go to the Coral Reef in Epcot and have a waiter named Tony save yourself the trouble and order the mousse. He might even feed you a bite. Just ask Chyna.

The good thing about good friends is they love you even if you're freaking out at 3:30 in the morning because the first set of buses just left and now they are gonna start without you! Never mind the 5,000 people in line behind you. They just smile and keep being your friend and even sit with you when the next bus comes.

I just accomplished something I never in a million years thought I could do, yet I still have a fear of calling people I don't know on the phone. Maybe that should be my next blog!

I put this on my car today:

I went for a walk today and I kept thinking that I wish my legs felt good enough run. I'm ready to run again. This still surprises me and again marks a shift in my life that I want to continue, so instead of goodbye I will say to be continued, but I do hope you ....

live happily ever after!

Round and around and around we go!

I am about to head out to do 3 miles on this beautiful afternoon. We were supposed to do 5 together yesterday morning but it kind of fell apart at the last minute. Regina is still nursing her hurt knee/hip, Chyna sprained her foot on the last long run and is laying low and me.... well it was Disciple Now at our church this weekend. We had ten 7th and 8th grade boys at our house. They had to be fed by 8:00 a.m. Have you ever seen those shows where the animals descend on the fresh kill. That's what those boys looked like when I sat those homemade sweet rolls on the counter. What a good group of kids and a precious church we have!

I'm heading to Strawberry Park to do one of my last runs. Three today and maybe 2 on Tuesday and I think I'm done before the race. I've mentioned this park a few times and for whatever reason I just really like running there. I've done all kinds of different runs during the past few months. Out and back. Winding through the neighborhood. Around the cul-de-sac a hundred times. But lately I have had a preference for going in circles at the park. I know where I am in the mile. I can mark progress easily. I told Shane I was beginning to like just running in circles and he said that was good since our course is just one long circle. I prefer a mile-long circle but you know..whatever.

Anyway, I thought I would let you what the course looks like.

We start at Epcot and run to the Magic Kingdom. Between miles 5 and 6 we do what made me sign up for the race in the first place. We run through Cinderella's castle. This is what makes me run when it's 23 degrees outside. It comes at a good time for me in the race and I can not wait! I'm hoping maybe it will be like on rides when they take your picture and then you go and pay too much money for a picture of yourself looking goofy. We also run through Tomorrow Land (Space Mountain!) and Frontier Land (Big Thunder Mountain!) We then head back to Epcot past several resorts and enter Epcot and finish near the big golf ball at Epcot.

It is going to be a great race. The weather is shaping up to look great and one week from today I'm eating with Cinderella with good friends with a princess medal around my neck!

Life is good!