The 40 Days of Fitness Challenge certainly took off! We now have 165 participants! When I first posted the challenge, I thought it would be great to have 40 or 50 people sign up. I had no idea that people near and far would take on this challenge. It has been fun reading what people are doing each day and hearing the positive feedback. Some people were at a plateau in weight loss, and have seen the number on the scale move again. Others have exercised when they didn’t really feel like it, and were glad they did. And still others are realizing that working in some type of exercise every day isn’t quite as impossible as initially thought. One hundred sixty-five people are moving more! We have shirts picked out and a dinner planned. People are signing up for races, encouraging one another, spending more time outside, and getting healthier. 

On the 4th of July, I ran my first 5k in a year and a half. It was an unusually cool morning for July – perfect race conditions. I ran the race with my daughter, and enjoyed every minute of it, even the moment toward the end when I was encouraging Morgan to push through, and she told me to shut up. Morgan later told me that at the same time, a spectator had yelled something encouraging to her, and when Morgan told me to shut up, the lady thought she was telling her to shut up, and apologized! Morgan was spent by that point, and didn’t have the energy to tell the poor lady she was just telling her mother to shut up. The poor lady will probably never yell for racers again.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy 5Ks. When I run half marathons, it’s a struggle just to finish. 13.1 miles is a long way to run. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I could finish the 5K; I could just enjoy running. We are running another race this weekend, and possible three or four more in the next month. One of the races we are running is an Extreme 5K that is run through farm fields and involves obstacles. I have lovingly convinced some friends to join me, and I think we will have a blast! I am a little frightened to try a Tough Mudder or Spartan Run, so this will satisfy my need to step out a little. 

This Saturday, Gary, some of our friends, and I will run a 5K on the Runway…yes, we will run a race on an airport runway. How many runners can say they’ve done that? My plan is to run these shorter races until school starts (at which time band and golf will take over our Saturdays), and then begin training for the Women Rock Chicago 10K at the end of September, and then the Monumental Half Marathon in Indianapolis in November. I am working on my speed while I am running everyday since my runs are shorter. Although I will never be fast, I hope to improve, and then to be able to maintain some speed as I add mileage. In my mind I’m 20, and this is highly possible. My 47 year old body might have different ideas.