Introducing my Group

After I posted yesterday, my group leader e-mailed us a graph of the elevation we covered during our run. You have to see this.

One would assume my butt, legs, and calves would be an aching mess today. Surprisingly not. Perhaps that is because I slept 11 hours last night......? My body had plenty of time to rest, but unfortunately this took away from some of my time to refuel. My entire body was fatigued today. I took Em for a walk and then headed to the gym to pump some iron. My muscles were sooooo shaky. My body was screaming for more food! It is such a funny concept to me because I work in weight loss/weight management. I'm not used to telling people, or myself, that they need to eat more. Luckily we were headed to my parents' house for a wedding meeting/luncheon, so there was plenty of yummy nutritious food to refuel on. I feel much better now :)

I just discovered some pictures from the group long runs. I thought it would be fun to share some of these so that you can 'meet' my group members. Plus it will give me a break from typing- I've been working on the wedding guest list, that is going to be a whole different type of challenge... Enjoy :)

Meet the 10:30 group. We pretty much rock. This was in Forest Park (my second group run).

Left to right: Dan (he likes to run/walk), Laura (she is super fast and always sneaking up to the next pace group), Rachel (she gave me the best advice ever- Immodium), Kelly (she is super tough- battling IT band injury), Kim (she is a fellow DetermiNation athlete and Mizzou grad), Mary (cookie baker)

This is what we do at the hydration stations- catch a breath, relax for a few

We love water and electrolyte drinks. My fav is Nuun but the race course will have Cytomax

More group members: Crystal (she is the racing queen- multiple marathons this year), Me (doing lunges or something), Gayle (she is engaged too and offered to share some of her research), Dale (his wife Mary, also in the group, convinced him it was his life goal to run a marathon)

It looks like we were coasting in, but really we had already finished the 4 miles for the lap. We were just overachievers and took the long way in.

The tall guy is Paul- he's our leader. Since our group is full of small females, it's always easy to find Paul :)

Obviously telling a good story.

Waiting on water.

Again, another break time shot. I promise we actually run. I don't think we want to see the action shots, they're probably too scary to share.

On schedule for tomorrow, fitting in a 7 mile run with work and a date with the Cardinals.

Oh and a quick update on fundraising.....to date I have raised $850!
I'd like to give a shout out to John & Patty.  Thank you to everyone :)

Spread the word that people can donate here