GO GO GO JOSEPH!

About December/January ish Joe came home from work and told me that he had the opportunity to run in a relay. He told me that he wanted to get back into shape -- and he always wanted to do something like this. I'm thinking ... 5K ... cool! Well the race was no small feat. Him and 11 others would run from Logan to Park City (the Wasatch back) on June 19th/20th. Wow!

He spent the next several months training. He would run several times a week .. trying to average 3 times per week. I'm not going to lie ... I wasn't always the most supportive wife. When I was still pregnant ... we had a TON to do to get ready for Jace to come home. After Jace was home ... well ... being a new mom isn't easy and I had a difficult time staying home with him alone so much. Well we worked through his running schedule and finally the big day was here.

I dropped Joe off at a runner's home and Jace and I went to my parent's house. We decided it would be a good idea to make a "WAY TO GO" poster for him. Now ... to explain the poster ... his team name was: "team hot RUNS". Their "mascot" was the toilet paper. {{GET IT?}} Gross I know. So on the poster we put the slogan for a ... "runs" medication. haha.

Jace, Stephanie, and I went up to see him along the way. We were stationed perfectly ... close to the finish line, but out of the way. We waited and waited for the red head with maroon shorts. Found him! Then we were cheering so loud that I forgot to take a picture while he was close! oops. Well because we were so close to the end he was able to come back and see us. We hugged the sweaty boy and took a couple of photos.

All in all he ran about 17 miles split in to three chunks. The first was about 3.5 miles (easy). The next was very hard (9.6) because of the distance. The last was very hard because of the pitch (3.5). He was going straight up on the last one. Luckily his sister, parents, and nephew came to cheer him on.

I am so proud of Joe. This was a huge accomplishment -- one that he plans to continue on next year. He has inspired our family to get more active. We are running together 3 times a week now. I have gone twice .. and boy am I out of shape ... but it will come. We even want to do a marathon relay in September if we can find 3 more people to do it with. It is 5.2 miles per person.

Congrats Joe! You did great.