Baltimore Running Festival and Youth Sunday

Sorry it's been a while since I've written.  Our internet has been moving slowly, and it won't allow me to upload all of these photos!

Lil' E has had an action-packed last couple of weeks!  From visitors to running to spending several hours at church...it has been non-stop.  We are so thankful that he is flexible with us.   Joe Ella Darby, a dear friend of Eli's from the University of Tennessee, came to visit us.  I say that she is a dear friend of Eli's, but Eli says that I have stolen her from him because Joe Ella and I hit it off like we've known each other for years.  I just love her so much!  As an aside, Joe has 9 brothers and sisters (and they're all from the same two parents)--so she knows how to handle a baby!  She's also from West Tennessee like my daddy.

Early on Saturday morning, Oct. 11, Eli and I got ready to run in the Baltimore Running Festival.  Our church used the Running Festival as an opportunity to raise funds for our Christian School and our non-profit that provides one-on-one tutoring, sports leagues, and community advocacy to people in our neighborhood.  (By the way, Eli and I both ran in the event, and we are STILL LOOKING FOR SPONSORS, so if you want to sponsor us, you can make a check out to Faith Urban Works and mail it to me--it is 100% tax-deductible--but no worries if you forget, we will send you a letter).  Eli was on a relay for the marathon where he was slotted to run 6.8 miles.  Anybody who knows my husband knows that he is super competitive, but he hadn't trained in two weeks for this race because of pulled muscles.  We weren't quite sure he was going to make it!  I told him to make sure he filled out the medical information on the back of his race number just in case!  Well, to make a long story short (I am sure that Eli will tell this one for years to come), Eli and his relay team beat the other two relay teams at our church...but one of the girls on the other relay team passed him about 3.5 miles in and tapped him on the shoulder.  He couldn't believe how fast she was going!   He said that she was the Road Runner and that he was Wylie Coyote (long story).  He finished the race and ran pretty fast, but he was exhausted afterwards.  

And, yes, I ran the 5K--I ran faster than I thought I would...but I wish that I could have run 7 minute miles.  I ended up running 8.10 minute miles.  Well, let me tell you that having a baby changes everything!  Emily and I were supposed to train together, but I didn't have the strength to wake up at 6:45 every morning and run because I was waking every 2-3 hours with Emmanuel.  As a matter of fact, the night before the race, I woke at 2, 3, and 4AM and finally decided that I might as well get up.  I guess it's not the smartest thing to do (running in a race while you are sleep deprived), but it was fun...God had mercy on both Eli and me by allowing us to finish the race.  Next time I won't sign up for a race that happens 3 months after I give birth.    

We also had more visitors from UT that weekend.  Eli's dear friend, Rodney Lee and his girlfriend, Jessica, came to see Lil' E and so did their friend Desmond.  We went to church, grilled out, watched football, and played games all night long.  It was the girls vs the guys in Taboo--unfortunately, the girls lost, but we had a lot of fun!  

There is so much more to write, but I will save that for another post.  We had Youth Sunday at our church and we just got back from a CCDA (Christian Community Development Association, www.ccda.org) conference in Miami.  

I will post more later this week!  Thanks for reading.