My First 5K

I RAN THE 5K!! Okay, I more like jogged...but I DIDN'T WALK!! Time was 43 minutes. I have a lot of room for improvement but I'm super proud of myself and can't wait to do another! I won't write much on the race because I want to write an article on it. But there is a story I'ld like to tell at the end of the pictures....

I was so blessed to be able to run with one super fly guy and two awesome friends....
Such awesome girlfriends. Huge encouragement through the whole race. So blessed!

Just a little proof of Jimmy and Julie sneaking off together....HAHAHHAA

And here we are after the race....ready to go grab us some cokes and hamburgers. Yay us!!

My story...

I have never run more than .2 miles at one time before the start of training for this 5K just 5 short weeks ago. It was hard to run. It hurt my lungs. It hurt my legs. But I did it. I started with a mile. I moved up to 1.5. I kept climbing. It was hard.

Some friends of mine just lost their precious daughter to Batten's Disease. Towards the end of her battle her dad posted a blog update about Emma's race. He said that Emma was at the last .2 of the marathon. He talked about how every marathoner will tell you that the last .2 of the 26.2 is always the hardest; the longest. As it was for Emma. And for the next 12 days we all cried, prayed and cheered Emma on towards the finish line and right into the arms of Jesus.

So, as I ran and trained I thought of the blog update and of sweet Emma. Every time I thought I couldn't take another step I thought, if Emma could then she would take 1000 more steps. And I kept running.

On race day I wore a shirt with the logo for the nonprofit organization called Emma's Hugs that was set up in Emma's honor. I thought of Emma. And I ran for Emma.

And that is just one more way that a sweet little girl who never really spoke, was blind, could not control her muscles...it was just one more way that Emma Dunnam encouraged just one more person!

To read Emma's story you can click on the blog called "Especially Fond of You" on the right hand side of this page.