V is for Victory + Some Church Humor

We finished our first 5K on Saturday. That was really exciting...I mean Really exciting for a few reasons:

1. I ran for 3.1 miles straight, without stopping at a little more than an average of 12 minute/mile pace.
2. I had never run that long before.
3. I had never run that fast before (and yes, I know it's not *that* fast).
4. It's been a goal of mine for years to do a 5K and I've never had the stamina to even train for one.

I had several interesting thoughts while running it. I'll try to document them in chronological order:

1. Ooh...look at all the people, this is fun!
2. Ouch...my legs hurt. This isn't as fun as it looks.
3. We've only been doing this for 11 minutes? (I didn't realize that was the 1 mile mark or I probably would have been excited I was running that fast).
4. I hear a train....I wonder how far it is to the train....I could throw myself in front of it.
5. Why are gray haired people passing me?
6. Why does the course keep turning away from the finish line, shouldn't we be heading back by now? (this occurred to me several times)
7. There's no way I can stop running because I'd beat myself up too much.

There were several nice people who had set themselves up in their yards or parking lots we ran past who were cheering for us and being encouraging. It was really sweet. The course was totally flat, which was really nice. We came in in under 38 minutes and I never dreamed that we would make it in in less than 40. I'm already plotting on how many minutes I think I can shave off for my next one.

Today my knees and ankles are a little sore and my calves are a little sore, but not too bad. I predict I'll be running again this week sometime.

I ordered a MP3 player today from Amazon. I rebelled against the Ipod monopoly and ended up with a Toshiba. We'll see how that works out.

And now for some church humor. I got a postcard in the mail yesterday from church. It read as follows:

Missed you this week

I just wanted to drop you a personal note letting you know that you were missed this past week in our LIFE group. I hope you will be able to be with us this next week.

If there is anything you need, please don't hesitate to call me. You are an important part of our church family, and it is good to see you in our group.

God Bless you this week,

(unsigned)

1. What kind of "personal" note is left unsigned?
2. Since when is a form letter a personal note? I mean, really.
3. I was actually there this past week!

Just...wow! I'm really getting frustrated with that particular group for several different reasons.