Week 16 Completed- One More Hard Week

  Rebecca        October 20, 2013

Another 195 miles this week. I’m past Tempe and on my way to San Diego- no wonder I’m tired. One more hard week, then we start tapering down for the race.  I’m tired, hungry, and worn out, but amazingly still keeping all the balls in the air with the family!!!! I’m still grocery shopping, cooking, doing laundry, etc. The kids are doing the house cleaning for a while. BIG smile- I had to let something go!!!  : )  Maybe I’ll like it so much that they can keep cleaning after the race- if they don’t get a vote. They actually do a great job and it’s good for them to help out. Families need to work together to accomplish goals.

The highlight of this week was having Denny Gillen and his wife, Stella, come up from Missouri. We ran the Grand Rapids Marathon this morning. He did the full and I did the half. He’s trying to do a marathon in every state and I think today was number 10 or 11 for him. We had them over for dinner Friday night and chatted for hours!  If you’ve been following Team Orphans or our facebook page, Denny is also a crazy Ironman who raised over $12,000 for Team Orphans this last year! He’s also the one who was in the bike accident and many of you prayed him to recovery. He is fully recovered and going strong!  We finally got to meet in person and it was such a blessing! He has a similar heart and passion for adoption- we’re kindred spirits.  Tom and I  have three adopted kids. They have four adopted grand kids. He’s registered for Ironman Boulder for next year in early August. I’m hoping to fly out and see my sister, Deb, for the weekend, watch him race, and keep Stella company as a spectator.  I’ve never been a spectator at an Ironman….. wonder what that’s like. From what Tom says, it’s a LONG time to be watching a race.  Bless his heart!  It’s a LONG time to be racing.   : )

I have one last week of intense, long training. I’d appreciate your prayers for strength and no injuries. Speaking of prayer, my friend, Jennie Nichols, is doing another prayer team for me for race day. You can sign up for a 30 minute or 1 hour spot during my race to pray for me a couple times during that time slot. She’ll have specific requests for different times during the day. Her times will be in Michigan time- two hours later than Arizona time. Email her at jlnwren@gmail.com if you’d like to sign up. Thank you for all your words of encouragement and support!