...and I raise you 13.1

(Brent here...) As many of you know, Ann-Marie and I are running in the Chosen Marathon For Adoption (www.chosenmarthonforadoption.com) in New Braunfels, Texas at the end of October.  This race is a means we decided to use to involve our friends and family in our preparation for the adoption,  by  raising emotional, prayer, and financial support.  Ann-Marie and I both signed up for the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) and will be connecting with several friends who have signed up to run with 'Team Bowen'.  We are really looking forward to the race and spending some time with friends.

So race training has been underway for a while, and I am ahead of schedule for where I was hoping to be at six weeks out from the 1/2 marathon.  I did a 1/2 marathon a couple of years ago and took the training a bit lightly and paid dearly for it on race day (and for a couple of days after race day for that matter!).  In contrast, Ann-Marie, an avid runner, is perpetually trained for a 1/2 marathon as she typically runs about 22 miles during the week and caps it off with a 12 mile run on the weekend.  I know...it's crazy.  Well, she stepped up the craziness a couple of weeks ago by casually throwing out the idea of adding the extra 13.1 miles to make her run a full 26.2 mile marathon.  Sure...why not...and why not just go ahead and solve cold fusion and the Rubik's Cube while your at it.  Although for an experienced runner like Ann-Marie it is certainly possible to do an accelerated training program, it is still pretty daunting (the typical marathon training schedule is about 4 months).  Daunting enough that she could use a little extra incentive to pull it off.  I was thinking that it would be a great motivator if some of you donated $26.20 to the adoption to give her some extra encouragement.  Here is the best way to do that.  Browse to http://www.bethesdafund.org/ and follow the instructions to donate.  Make sure and put "Team Bowen" in the special instructions.  There is about a month delay before we are notified of donations, so you might want to send Ann-Marie a note (bowens99@verizon.net) and let her know that you are enabling her addiction to running.  By the way, if you are a runner and want to get in on the race, it is not to late.  We'd love to see you in New Braunfels.