Love to Run 4 mile

Here are my friends who were tough enough to do 4 miles in the cold on Valentine's Day. Maria Purtle, Johnna and John Perry.

I gave in to my cravings...

Today I had the option to eat out for lunch. I made bad choices. My head told me I wanted a loaded breaded chicken sandwich with cheese and cheddar bites with ranch dressing. I ate that while driving in the car and doing errands at lunch. After eating that my body said, "Yuck, I don't like all that fried food!" My body is punishing me this afternoon for my moment of weakness. My lesson learned is there are some cravings that we should NOT give in to.

Valentine's day race coming up...

Hope you will join me for my next race on Valentine's day at the downtown KC airport. See the following link to sign up.

My 2008 Goal is acheived!!!

Well, my friend, Mandy and I completed the goal of doing one race a month for the entire year of 2008. Whew! I'm glad that is over! That was an ambitious goal. Glad I had a fun and positive person like Mandy to do those races with. I think this year I will just choose my favorite races to return to and add a few new ones. Looking back I think my favorite races were the January Groundhog Run in the caves, Trolley Run in April around Brookside and the Plaza and, of course, the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. I'm thinking about traveling out of KC for a few races in 2009. Also want to do at least 2 half marathons this year. No, I am NOT gonna try for a full marathon! I am too slow and would probably come in last. I will just stick with what is working for me which is 5K's, 4-milers and 1/2 marathons. Any of you in KC area who want to train with a group can check out this blog to train with ladies in the Northland. Northland Women's Walk/Run Club - http://www.nwwr.blogspot.com/

Last Race of the year!!! Resolution Run 5K - Dec. 28

Today was the Resolution Run 5k. The participants are pictured with this post. Johnna Perry is so creative and she developed the route starting at the Liberty Community Center and in the surrounding neighborhoods. All participants were given a tote bag with the race logo and Johnna's creativity came through again with all the fun activities that were planned during the route and asking all of us to donate $5 to Harversters. On the route we had to answer healthy food questions and add a canned good to our tote bag then at the finish line we got points for how many food questions we answered correctly. Johnna made up challenges for us to do during the race. You had to randomly pick a piece of paper that had a physical challenge on it. My Challenge was to do 20 Front Kicks (10 left and 10 right). Others had things like do 3 cartwheels or do 20 lunges or 30 seconds of jump rope. All the fun things that we did made us forget about how cold and icy and snowy it was out there today. Cold and fun is what I would say about the Resolution Run.

Long Grandchildren Christmas Picture

Nanna Kay asks for us to get a picture from Stephen's Photography every year to be used for photo Christmas cards for Charlie and Kay Long. The Long Grandchildren and ages are Blake Long age 17, Nick Long age 12, Kennadie Kay Long age 10 and Ethan Muir age 5. I can't believe how this picture makes them all look so grown up and tall and like models. Wow! My brother, Paul, and I are so proud of our kids. Merry Christmas!

Long Family Thanksgiving in Bolivar, MO

Ethan and I went to Bolivar for Thanksgiving and stayed with my brother's family. We had fun keeping the kids busy so they would not fight. The kids painted Christmas decorations and we took them to the park to feed the ducks and play. EARLY Friday morning my sister-in-law Brenda and I went to the Black Friday sales in Springfield. We got up at 2:30 am to get in line for our first sale at 4 am. It is a fun tradition that Bren and I love to do. Ethan got to help Uncle Paul put Christmas lights on the house and place the nativity scene on the yard and reindeer on the other part of the yard. Where was Rob? He had to work at the fire station on Thanksgiving and Friday so we hung out with the family while he was working. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday.