a life beyond running shoes.

WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW!?! micah is not fully sure how he feels about the news he is broadcasting! stef - thanks for the run this morning..... i guess the nature of the funk is fully realized now. you & hot bod will be in my thoughts sunday morning as you blaze the trial along the shore in NJ - have a great run!

i slept horribly, was feeling cranky, and didn't want to run around the park. if stef & janna had not been out there this morning - neither would i. i am so glad that they were there to motivate my sorry attitude. they are running the long branch (in new jersey) half marathon this sunday - alas without me. i opted out of the queens half this weekend due to a bad attitude and lack of consistent training - i know stef thinks she has the same excuse to get out of long branch - but no such luck! rock on quiznos team!!! it seems like a week of doctor's appointments - john had one yesterday for a possible nerve thing (thankfully not about his heart this time), another on wednesday (the referral), and i have a check up on thursday..... weird, huh? no doctors for a year and now three in one week. my lingering funk and weird tummy pangs may cause me to head in a bit early just to make sure everything is okay..... see you with the stroller on thursday, stef!

this was my first opportunity to share about my sister's wedding. here i am with my hubbie & the milkman! what a fun night! it has been a full month since the crew was together - today we were in full form plus midget in the jog stroller. it was a team effort to get that stroller around for 3.3 miles of the park. glorious 60 degrees - naked girls in their sports bras and of course janna is already hot. tales of my sister's wedding and other added events dominated our run..... no one else got a word in edge wise. i guess i got to trump all other stories. it is nice to run in shorts finally.... it is amazing that we made it through the entire winter together! girls, we rock. it has been an interesting journey of having to see that god is in the midst of all things - good and bad. that his goodness does not cease when things become unexplainable - new life or the loss of that new life. i had a great run this morning and just hope that my tales of perfect timing didn...

so i am in a funk. what does that mean, exactly? i am down - true - but not for any reason. i am tired - probably explainable from my sister's wedding last weekend that was awesome and so much fun. i am grumpy - true - but again not for any good reason. so i bailed on my running partner this morning just cuz i didn't want to run.....well that and i didn't sleep very good at all for the third night in a row. bummer! i need the routine of it but i need the routine to jump start it and i need a jump start to get the routine back......the vicious cycle continues. oh well - there is always tomorrow. but until then, i still don't have a working definition of a funk......but i have one that is for sure.

hope - we all want it and need it.... but where it comes from is the critical question. on our 3.5 mile run through the park, molly and talked about this very thing. it was chilly and windy which made for a necessary walk break on the hill. looking to david in the psalms for some guidance, he says, "have mercy on me, o god, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. i will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." - psalm 57. what is amazing to me is that david really knew affliction; the disasters of my life pale in comparison. my struggles are no less real, but i can take comfort that david found his refuge in the same place i should find mine. jobs are temporary, bosses jerks, friends move, the neighborhood changes, but god is constant without change.....in him we find our hope. we are so often inticed by "lovers so less wild" than the creator of the universe that it was good to be reminded this morning of these things...

Micah & G'ma!!! okay time change - spring forward - good for early rising baby to sleep late!!!! gretchen and i headed out to the park this morning for a quick run around 8AM - 4 miles, 50 degrees, sunny & glorious. it is such a delight to my soul to have spring finally arriving. the splendor of the morning is starting to set in for gretchen. by the time we got around to the parade grounds, we had warmed up and were cruising along. we had a great talk about working through issues that lie on the outside only to feel like you are successfully self managing those issues when the danger can be about not getting to the heart issues that are below. when i don't get to the heart issues, i am not able to get to the point where it becomes about jesus getting in there and doing the work to change me. like issues of food and weight. i can think that i am managing my food & weight, which are good things, but when i think that is just about the food and not the comfort t...

gretchen (micah's g'ma) and i ran to the brooklyn bridge and back today - 7 miles, 60 degrees, and the sun was trying to break through all morning. i actually wore shorts this morning - the gloriousness of the morning was lost on gretchen (flordia gal). having run the NY marathon, gretchen was really enjoying trying to figure out where we were during our run in relation to her race. the whole family was awake at 6AM - chatterbox (whose birthday is three days away) was ready to go. g'pa ran with the dog, g'ma ran with mom, and dad had play time with baby. it was a great run cuz gretchen, despite being my mother-in-law, is considerably faster than i am. i was able to keep up - granted she let me set the pace, but it was a bit faster than normal. that made me feel great! seven miles and i broke a sweat! it was nice to push!