Saturday, November 17, 2007

5.5 for Ryan Shay

This morning I took the challenge to run 5.5 miles for Ryan Shay, who died on November 3 at mile 5.5 at the Olympic trials.
We are leaving early this morning for our Thanksgiving vacation and so for me to do this i knew I would have to be up by 5:45 am to get it in. I actually woke up before my alarm because I was excited to do it.
It was cold, cold, cold! But with the help of 3 layers, 2 unmatching gloves and my green coat it was just fine. Before I left I ran downstairs and grabbed a scrap of fabric and wrote "Running for Ryan 5.5" and pinned it on the back.
the challenge was to dedicate your run and think of his family but also your own family during your run. I thought most of the time of how grateful I am for experience of going to church downtown this year and what a blessing it has been for our family.
I listened to all of my slow songs on my idod and had a really awesome emotional run. Carrie Underwood's "I'll stand by you" got listened to more than once. I even high fived a cute grandpa out running.
The streets were more empty than they have been this summer and I enjoyed only seeing my feet on the street.

4 comments:

Kelly(M&M) said...

Thanks for posting the challenge and sharing your run with us, Kristi. You make me want to appreciate each run I do more.

I took the challenge and I wrote about it on my blog- seemommyrun.blogspot.com

cherl said...

Thanks, Kristi! I was inspired after reading your post and headed out the door myself. It was the first time in quite some time and it felt great to get out there and just do it. I took my 6mo daughter with me for her first run in the jogger. It was beautiful all around and although I wanted to do the 5.5 as you had done, I only managed 4.6 miles. It felt great just the same. Thank you!

** LOVE the photo in this post and in the last one. Such great colors!

Suzie Petunia said...

I ran for Ryan, too! It was pretty emotional to think about such sobering things while running, but I'm glad I did. I wish I'd thought of the little sign like you pinned on. Great idea. I thought a lot about my running friends here at Marathon Mommies. I know we all face difficult things. I'm glad we have each other.

Ang said...

I wanted to do the run so bad! Team Hanni and I were actually together at our brothers last college football game and a run was impossible that day! We thought about Ryan though and all those running. I'm glad you girls did the run! I love how you pinned on his name.