Twolves, game 4

Bj came home this weekend for Lakes' homecoming. While he was here he was able to take in a Twolves game and watch his little sister cheer. She was very excited and got to call the cheers today. (thats a big deal)



The Twolves are undefeated. Yahoo.


Danielle is practicing hard with her friends. They have their first cheer competition on Oct 26th. They have been working on a little dance routine at practice and are actually getting pretty good at it. Will let you all know how that turns out.


I'm not sure why, but today the girls decided to do pushups for when the boys scored touchdowns. Danielle watches too much college football, I think. Here they are dropping and giving you 25 (we cheated a little on some)




And here are the kids signaling a touchdown for the Wolverines....hopefully at least one. (Danielle looks more like Nixon, I know, but we will work on it.)

"I just want to finish and not be last"

Some of you know that I have been "training" (if that's what you want to call it) for my first 5k run for a while now. Today was the day. About 6 months ago, when I couldn't run for 5 straight minutes without thinking I would collapse, I circled today on my calendar. The Lake Villa Township 5k.

I showed up there today at 7:30 and paid my entry fee. (Ironically, the race was sponsored by the Lake Villa Republicans. I should have worn my Obama 08 shirt.)

Anyway, I waited around then until 9am when the race started. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Becca, Danielle and Brian for showing up to support me! When the race was initially described to the runners before the start, it was said to be a smooth course. (Great, i thought, no hills. I didn't train a whole lot on hills.) That was about when Dad pointed out that the race started on a hill to get into the forest preserve. That should have sent mental flares shooting in my brain.

I strategically stood next to older woman at the starting line. My goal for today was not to be last. (Earlier in the week, my adorable 7 year old told me "Mommy, I think you might finish last at your race. But its ok if you do.") I figured if I could hang with a 62 year old lady during the route, I could take her in a sprint to the finish and accomplish my goal.

Anyway. I didnt stay with the old lady very long. The hills got to her. Remember the smooth course the man talked about? He was referring to the crushed gravel that covered the seemingly endless inclines I had to run up. LOTS of hills. Big hills. Hills that made me think I was going to throw up. (to a real runner, they were probably not so bad). Hill afer hill after hill. Funny, they never seemed to go down as far as they had gone up.

Anyway, I was really really really happy to see the 4k marker. I figured I could do one more "K". (Longest "K" of my life). Sure was a rush though to make it out of the forest preserve and see the finish line looming. And to see my family at the end was even better.

And while I squatted to catch my breath afterwards, up ran my daughter. "I love you Mommy. You weren't last!" Nope, I sure wasn't. I ran a blistering pace....(he he he) of 35 minutes and 54 seconds. Not too shabby for an overweight, bad back having, pushing forty first timer.

I am hooked though. Can't say I will ever run any marathons, but I do like it. Maybe I will shoot for doing the next one in 30 minutes. Will settle for finishing though.

First College Meet

BJ ran in his first college meet today for Carthage at Concordia. I have attached the adress to the Carthage website if anyone is interested in the results on the school site...

http://www.carthage.edu/athletics/


In the article on the athletics page, there is a link to the results of the Invitational...BJ is the first person listed for his school in 50th place overall. He finished with a time right around 29 minutes.


He is getting used to the switch from 3 miles in high school to 5 in college. He did great though. This was his first run this year. He had been injured up until this past Monday when he really started to workout hard with the team again. We are all proud of him.

I will be making the trip on Oct 3rd to his home course in Kenosha to cheer the team on for that race. There is also one next weekend in Minnesota for the Varsity runners. Im not yet sure if BJ will make that road trip with the team or not. We will see. His coach was immpressed with his efforts today.

As a side note...the Lake Villa Timberwolves are 4-0 (I am sure in LARGE part due to their FABULOUS cheerleaders).