Faithful Soles

We did it! We did it! WE DID IT!

Our Bethany Walking Team, "Faithful Soles", completed the Colorado Colfax Marathon today in 5 hours and 33 minutes! BOOYA! We tweeted and texted and called throughout the morning so we could keep up with each other, which actually let us time-stamp our mileage. Bonus!

I ran RAN today! I am NOT a runner. I can pretend to be a runner for about, oh, 2 minutes. Then, I usually move to the side of the road, where I'm bent over, heaving, completely out of breath. Plus, I did NOT properly prepare for this race. I participated in the Colfax Relay 2 years ago, and worked my tail off so that I could try to run (and still couldn't run more than a couple of blocks without the previously mentioned heaving and non-breathing). For the 2010 race, we walked a bunch of times on Sundays, and a few weekdays, but honestly, I was totally slacking this past week.

HOWEVER, I ran RAN today! Seriously, Sarah crossed into the Relay Exchange Zone this morning, tagged me, and I took OFF! I figured I'd die out within minutes, but my feet and legs just kept going. And going. And going. It was AWESOME! Must have been the prayers. Or maybe it was because we were a church-sponsored team. Or because we were running to raise money for our Metro CareRing charity. Talk about the Holy Spirit at work! When I texted Sarah that I was at my first mile, I couldn't believe what my time was!

My teammates were cooking, too! The only sad part about the whole day was that, as a relay team, we would run TOWARD each other and then run AWAY from each other! It was too bad we couldn't actually spend time TOGETHER! :) Although, we did have a chance to hang out earlier in the weekend.

I'm such a visual person. I just HAD to know exactly where I was to meet Traci, so I drove up to take a peek on Saturday. Wouldn't you know, it was at a BARBEQUE restaurant! How funny is that?! Seven in the morning, and I'm supposed to run toward a BBQ hut. Awesome.

Leaves. Sarah baked leaves for us on Saturday evening.

She sprinkled them with salt, so they were very NICE leaves.

Ok, not really - this is baked kale and it was GREAT! Who knew!? AND, Sarah prepared these great lasagna and stuff shells dishes, too. And appetizers. And dessert (the almond cake rocked - the tofu, chocolate dessert was...interesting!) A great night of food, fellowship, and friends!

Sunday morning, May 16, 2010, the day of the big race.

Mother of Pearl. That first number is a FOUR.

Wrong. Just wrong.

I think I'm pretty darn chipper for 4-something in the morning.

Honestly, this was one of the first sights of the morning. HOW am I supposed to take anything seriously when presented with dual-colored Spandex at 6 am?! Really, now. The trash bag is actually understandable - the cheapest and easiest way to stay warm until you run. But, really? Purple AND teal!?

I laughed at myself when I took a picture of the street sign where I parked. Little did I know, referencing this photo was the ONLY way I could find my car later on! Whew!

Hello, wildlife in the park!

East High School, our relay exchange zone, had their Prom/After-Prom party the night before, and it was completely decked out in Pirate garb. Boy, there's going with a theme, and then there is going with a THEME! Arrrgh!

Yeah, Palm Cross! Each of us carried a Palm Cross (a wooden cross that's contoured to fit in your hand) during our leg of the relay, and then passed it off to the next team member. Here's our Palm Cross and the church on Colfax. Sarah called out "The Lord be with you..." to which I replied, "...and also with you!" as we handed off the cross! What a Sunday morning!

Hey! The State Capitol building!

Remember all the stories about ringing the bells in Denver during the holidays? There's the building where the bells are stored, the City and County building. Never RAN past the building before - woohoo!

I'm not sure how I caught this photo, but I did a quick spin-around as I left the city, and captured this photo on my cell-phone. Bye, Denver!

Okay, running OVER Interstate-25 was just AWESOME.

SO much cooler than driving over it.

Look at THAT! Invesco Field, where the Denver Broncos Play!

Yeah, running past that was pretty cool, too!

One really excited, exhausted, and wind-blown Brenda after finishing her FIVE MILE RUN! (I know that in the grand scheme of running accomplishments, 5 miles is not all that impressive, but this non-runner was really happy!)

I shouldn't have this photo. I had PASSED these sights during my leg of the race. What should have been a simple return to my car, however, took an entertaining turn.

The 'shuttle bus' the marathon people provided could hold 18 people. Total. One bus, 18 people. There were over 700 relay teams. 5 people on a team...yeah - it was going to take FOREVER for that bus to get people back to their car.

I stood in line for all of 5 minutes before realizing I was going to completely miss church, the meeting, etc. if I didn't get my buns back in time. And we all know how well Brenda waits in line...

SO....after finishing my 5 mile run, I turned right around, and walked the 5 miles BACK to my car. Thankfully, it was a sunny day. Thankfully, my iPod was full of great tunes. Thankfully, I just kept my spirits up (even if my legs wanted to disconnect themselves from my body at the hip by about mile 9!) Kept counting my blessings instead of the miles!

Hey, look! We've seen this church before today, haven't we....!

Look! East High School! How nice to see you again. Finally.

Oh. My. Goodness. See the red Brendamobile?

What a wonderful sight!

Mind you, I couldn't feel my legs in order to push the gas pedal...

Drove like a bandit over to church, quickly showered and cleaned up, and was able to catch the 10:30 am service AND the noon congregational meeting. Check out the bling! :)

SUCH A WONDERFUL DAY TO BE A FAITHFUL SOLE!

Congratulations, Andrea, Sarah, Amy, and Traci!