In Training...

My good friend Ciara and I are in training for the Muddy Buddy. "What in the world is that?" you may ask. Well, it's a 7 mile race where two buddies compete together. The way I understand it, one of us will start running while the other starts on a bike. Then we'll come to an obstacle (like a cargo net, some kind of wall to climb, etc.). The person on the bike will park the bike, do the obstacle, then start running. In the meantime, the person who was running will do the obstacle and pick up the bike. It goes back and forth like that for 6 or 7 miles. At the end of the race, the buddies meet up and crawl through a big mud pit to cross the finish line. We have to come up with costumes, and some kind of decoration for our bike. Suggestions are welcome!

Now, the great thing about this, is that it isn't until November! So we have plenty of time to train. That's great news for a couple of reasons. 1. I'm hoping to lose about 25 pounds during this process. If we maintain our schedule of 3 workouts per week, I should be in shape in no time! 2. I have almost zero arm strength, it's sad really. I can hold my camera up for extended periods of time, but try to get me to do a pull-up or go across some monkey bars and it just won't work. Tomorrow's workout is full of cross training, and we'll be going to the park to try some pull ups. I believe the exact words in our training schedule say "do as many pull ups as you can". That in itself is pretty funny, since I can't even do one. Who knows though, maybe by the end of the summer I'll be like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, doing dozens of them. We'll see.

I mention all of this, because I haven't posted a picture in about a month. It's crazy. So, to finally get back into it, here is a picture of my Muddy Buddy. She's here with her husband, in what has become one of my absolute favorite photographs, because it captures them just exactly as I know them. Their personalities really come through in this picture, and it makes me happy whenever I see it.