Round 1

Ordinarily, I would not sign up for a half-marathon 2 weeks in a row.  But, Camp Barnabas sponsored a half-marathon right here in Springfield this weekend.  If you are not familiar with Camp Barnabas it's a summer camp for kids with disabilities, cancer and terminal illnesses.  During the years our friend Blaine was in remission from his own cancer he volunteered as a counselor there and the time he spent there was obviously very important to him.  So when I saw it listed it seemed like we should sign up and run in his memory.

This was a great event, especially considering it was the first time they had put it on.  The race seemed well organized and the food at the end was the best we've ever had.  There was the usual-water, gatorade, juice, bagels, fruit, yogurt and a huge variety of granola bars.  But there was also candy bars, mini reeces peanut butter cups, cold stone creamery ice cream, chips, hot dogs and sodas.  Plus the weather was great.  It started out a bit cool but with no wind and full sun it soon warmed up to near perfect running weather.

And although we entered this under the pretense of just a training run (that's never really possibly for me when it comes to actual race day) all three of us had such a good run we ended up with PRs.  I bested my last half-marathon time by more than 4 minutes.  Jerry was a given since he had never run one before and Cheri also beat out our time from last spring in CA.

I think Blaine would have loved this day and we will definitely be back next year!

Next weekend-on to Nashville!