I have some big news! We finally reached the halfway mark in donations! My circle of generous family and friends have donated a total of $2,125 towards constructing a community well in Zambia, Africa. I am so thankful and flattered so many people have responded. At this point in my training, this is really the only thing keeping me going. The long Saturday runs have not only been tough on us physically, but they are even harder mentally. It’s been hard to give up four hours every Saturday afternoon away from our husbands and babies. Every single run, we’ll talk about new things Nolan and Heidi are doing, what perfect weather it is for the park, the pumpkin patch, a walk, etc. And almost every time, one of us will say how we wish we were at home playing with them. It would be a little better if 6am runs were possible, but with our husbands working weekends, it’s tougher to get out the door that early.

The good thing is that training is downhill from here. Yesterday, Mindy and I set out to run 20 miles. It took us a few minutes to figure out some routes we could add together to make that kind of distance. We finally figured it out. It involved running back and forth from each other’s houses, crossing a town limit (twice), trail runs through the leaves, street runs through traffic, and a couple neighborhood loops. Unfortunately, we had to cut our run two miles short. My right knee started hurting around mile 16. I walked a little to give it a rest, but I realized the pain wasn’t going away so we headed back. I was really disappointed, since we were set to finish our 20 miles in decent time. But Mindy convinced me two miles wasn’t worth messing up my knee for the race. I agreed and we still finished feeling pretty good about our 18 miles.

Now we begin to taper. It’s crazy the race isn’t until October 15th, and we are already slowing our training down to give our bodies a chance to rest. The longest run between now and our 26.2-mile race is 12 miles. That’s cake. Relatively speaking.

Just to give you an idea of what it feels like to run 18 miles, here are some things we said during those three and a half hours:

“My butt hurts.”

“I feel like a robot, like I’m not even moving. But I am.”

“I’m like…so mad right now.”

“I just want a Dr. Pepper. So bad.”

“OMG IT’S THE KRISPY KREME TRUCK!!” *lotsofwaving”

“I just feel like crying right now. I’m so emotional.”

“I’m NEVER doing this again.”

“I think my blood sugar is off.”

Jamie: “I just hurt everywhere and feel so nauseous when we get done with these runs. Ugh. I wonder what I’m doing wrong.”
Mindy: “You’re running 20 miles. That’s what you’re doing wrong.”

To donate, click here!! Even a dollar makes a difference. Promise. THANK YOU SO MUCH!