Cheryl and Josh dot Net

So, I did it. I ran in a relay team in the Illinois Marathon on Saturday May 1st.  It was a lot of fun but I’m never doing it again.

My friend Sarah picked me up at 6:15am and we headed over to Theresa’s house. Both teams gathered there, put on our numbers and headed for the start. Sarah and Greg strapped on the time chips on their ankles and a little after 7:30am they were off. They had a 6.7 mile leg of the race. The rest of us loaded into the cars and headed for the first exchange zone which was near the Meijer in Urbana. After about an hour and half of running, we saw Sarah and Greg! They did awesome!!! The running chips then were switched to Franni and Nicole and they were off. We again got into the car and headed for exchange zone B which was near the Tumble inn in Champaign. Again, Franni and Nicole did awesome!!! Next up to run was Anne and her Dad. Once they headed out we were on our way to exchange zone c – this is where I would start! After breaking some speed records, Anne and her Dad were there and Jen and I were ready to start our run!

I put the chip around my ankle and I was off! Since I had been waiting for 4 hours to run, I really hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink… which is what I blame the cramp on. At the second water station I slowed down and that helped with the cramp issue.  I ran the first mile in under 9 minutes which is way to fast for me so I definitely needed to slow down. After making lots of turns and having no idea where I was in Champaign, I finally crossed over Neil St. There was no one in front of me and no one behind me and the police stopped 4 lanes of traffic to let me through. You better believe I was running then. It was downhill from there, literally. One more turn and I headed for Memorial Stadium. I saw the rest of my team waiting for me and while we were running in I swore to them that I will NEVER do this again! We crossed the finish line, received our medals and took some pictures.

Overall, it was really fun and I’m glad I did and can say that I have checked that off my list of things to do in life. Next year, I’ll either do the 5k or I’ll volunteer. I would love to sit in a lawn chair in the yellow vest and block off a street while I cheer on the runners. I”M SO GLAD ITS OVER!!! Check out the pictures here.

In other news, Josh recently returned from a “conference” in Las Vegas. He was gone for a week and said it was a pretty good time. He came back with a suitcase full of swag. Lily loves the bouncy ball that lights up, she did not appreciate the monkey that screams when you throw it.

I’ll be on my way to the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers conference soon! I’m so excited! Its very rare for social workers to have a conference dedicated to exactly what we do. Since social workers often do SO many things and work with every population its really hard to have such a specific conference. However, with my position at the hospital, I’m dedicated to the NICU and this conference is all about exactly what I do. I can’t wait to hear how others do it and learn new things to incorporate into our NICU.

Lily is doing great! She is talking up a storm. She has likes and dislikes and wants and things she doesn’t want and she can tell us all about it! She loves to play outside on her sand and water table and slide! We are sort of working on potty training. The kid really likes toilet paper so we have to keep an eye on that. And she discovered she can open doors using the handle… that’s a bummer for us.

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