Weekend Recap!

What an exciting weekend it was...

1) Winter Jam with AP Youth Group -

We don't have a cool Youth Group name yet, our church name is Ambassador's Pointe Community Church (AP) so we're going with "AP Youth Group" right now.  Real original, I know.

Friday was our FIRST Youth Outing and we headed downtown to US Bank Arena for Winter Jam!  If you've never been to Winter Jam, it's 10 concerts in 1 night!  A pretty awesome night!  Although all of the artists were awesome, RED completely stole the show!  Their performance was ridiculously amazing!  From fire to fireworks... they totally rocked my face off.

Out of the group, I was only able to snag one picture of 4 of the students!  I didn't want to come on too strong with my camera and scare them off ;)  The students haven't necessarily been exposed to my excessive picture taking yet...  They'll learn soon enough to accept it!

After the concert, they kept me up and we bashed on pancakes and waffles at IHop!  If you know me, staying up late isn't something that happens too often.  I'm a 9:30pm bedtime kinda gal.  Well, I didn't get home until 3 am.   Although I was extremely exhausted, it was a wonderful night pouring into students, hanging out, and getting to know them outside of church.

2)  15.5 miles

"I have learned that there is no failure in running, or in life, as long as you keep moving. It’s not about speed and gold medals. It’s about refusing to be stopped. "

- Amby Burfoot

Training is in full gear, we're almost to the halfway point!  Can you believe it?!  I am SO EXCITED!

The Mini-Heart Half Marathon is just 19 days away!  I am SO excited for it to be here.  Carb loading and race mornings are SO FUN!

The last two weeks Chad, BJ, and I have taken on some pretty intense routes.  The total elevation climb for 2 weeks ago was 692 ft. and this past Sunday was 804 ft.  Preparing for the Mini Heart Half and Pig is a bit intimidating but I'm very excited about tackling the hills and elevation climb and seeing what I can finish in.

It's been really awesome watching my pace change these last 3-4 months.  Prior to the Chicago Marathon, I was pacing between a 10:30-11:30 minute mile for longer distances.  Now for longer distances, I am pacing around 9:30/9:45 minute mile and in my shorter distances 8:50 minute mile.  After discussing with my running buddies, I am thinking of setting my Half Marathon Goal at 2 hours (that's about a 9:09 minute pace).  We've been pacing around 2 hours and 5 mins for our Half Marathon distance on our long runs.  This Sunday we get to drop down to 13.1 miles so I'm going to see where I'm at.  I think it's a good goal but a little intimidating... it's a challenge.  Part of me wants to just enjoy the race and see what I finish in and then there's a side of me that wants to see what I've got.

Erin and I are going to head downtown to check out the Mini Heart Half route to see how it compares to our hills here in the country ;)

I remember standing in my corral with Nicole for the Chicago Marathon - looking 26.2 miles in the face, tears welling up in my eyes, thinking- well, this is it, I am going to run 26.2 miles....WHAT IN THE WORLD have I gotten myself into?  Then crossing the finish line and thinking, I AM IN LOVE with running, when is my next race?!

3) Demo on the Youth Room -

The church we are at has one very large room and one smaller room all for Youth.  What a huge blessing!  We don't have to share it with another ministry - it's all ours!  It definitely needs a fresh coat of paint (we're working with hot orange, lime green, and baby blue) but outside of paint, it's ready to go!  One of the things I wanted to do was blow out the wall between the two rooms so they were connected.  The smaller room will be our hang out room (couches, food, coffee shop feel) and you know me, there will be highlander grogg brewing ;) and the baby blue room will be our worship/teaching area!  How blessed are we?!

Another AMAZING thing... one of the dad's is demo-ing our room!  He is taking time out of his work schedule to do this for us!  See those awesome mint green chairs on that orange wall?  We've had a few congregation members offer to reupholster them for us!!!  It's so awesome to have the support of the Pastor, other ministry leaders, parents, and congregation members who want to help.

Once the room is completed, we are going to have an "open house" for all the congregation members, parents, and students to go through and see our new place!

Thank you Lord for blessing us beyond what we deserve.

4) Rainy Runs

Well, this morning's 4 miles was a bit rough.  4 miles tends to be easy but throw in some 12-16 mph winds and a steady downpour and you've got yourself a challenging run.  The reason I still run in crappy weather like this morning is because I'm not promised sunshine and blue skies on race day.  I need to know, rain or shine, I can take on whatever mother nature hands me.  Erin and I were drenched and had squishy shoes!  Totally worth it!

I cannot lie, I am BEYOND ready for warmer running weather!  To not have to wear 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, ear warmer, hat, and gloves... getting dressed for cold running weather takes about 20 minutes. Remind me of this post when it's 87 degrees and I'm complaining about the humidity and heat ;)  Mr. Groundhog got me excited about our early spring and I am SO READY for it!

Have a great week, friends!