She Runs By Faith

This was my  fourth consecutive year running the Frozen Feat 5k/10k, which is easily the best winter race in our area. My relationship with winter has its ups and downs. I like when it first begins, the holidays are exciting, but by February I need some sort of motivation to go out in the cold. I'm done! Turns out, a frozen race with fellow all-weather runners is a great motivator. What was new this year? My husband and I ran as a "Lovebirds" team for the 10k and signing up was actually his idea. I could hardly believe it myself! We haven't ran a race together, just the two of us, since I was pregnant with our first baby! We signed up at the end of December and both of us did a decent amount of training for a month or so. I was entertaining the idea of running a couple Spring half marathons at the time and my hubs was wanting to run well in the 10k. In the weeks leading up to the race, we definitely didn't get much running done between sick bugs and then L...

Ten years ago, I toed the line to my very first marathon. I was running it with a group of friends and acquaintances to raise money for my co-worker battling Leukemia. Little did I know how much that experience would change the next ten years of my life. This is my run down of the past decade of marathons and major life moments, with the layout inspired by Teal's post at Miles to the Trials (definitely check it out!). From marathons to marriage to the birth of our three boys, I'm amazed by all the Lord has brought me to and through in the past decade. Lots of mistakes made. Lots of lessons learned. Lots of memories made. And I wouldn't change a thing. 1. Walker North Country Trail Marathon, September 2010 Goal: Finish Training: I ran exactly the miles in the Marathon Training Academy free plan I used. No strength work and minimal warm-up/cooldown or stretching time. Biggest Victory: I completed my very first marathon training cycle! Biggest Challenge: Runn...

I have been a bad blogger over the past six months. Life continues to get busier - and eventually something's gotta give. Because the glorification of busy is my #1 pet peeve, I decided to drop some things from life in order to achieve a better (perception of) balance. (Rather than whine and make excuses for being too busy, why not just do something about it?) One of the dropped "things" was stepping back from running reviews for BibRave , which ended up being a great decision, and then, aside from homeschool curriculum and race reviews, my blog writing pretty much came to a screeching halt! That wasn't on purpose necessarily; though maybe a writing break has helped to rejuvenate my love for writing. As a mom of three little boys - currently ages 2, 4, 6 - I haven't written near as much as when I started this blog. Somehow the joys and the challenges of parenting these sweet, chaotic energizer bunnies has left me speechless. I realize how little I know in th...

The past 12 weeks of the school year have flown by and we are taking full advantage of this Thanksgiving break week! The kids and I are capitalizing on outdoor time on Grandma and Grandpa's farm and making a few trips to the indoor hockey rink as well. We finished Term 1 just in time for this break and will be jumping into Term 2 come Monday. With this being our first school year using the A Gentle Feast curriculum created by Julie Ross, we are studying the Green Year (Cycle 1): Columbus, Conquests, and Colonies from 1000-1650 AD. Disclaimer: I am not compensated for this post but will receive a little $ if you use my A Gentle Feast affiliate link .  Thank you :) A Gentle Feast is a Charlotte Mason curriculum, geared towards the family learning together, consists of four main components: The Appetizer -  Bible study, poetry, picture and composer study along with recitation and fables/hero tales.  The Soup and Salad -  Language Arts Block - writing, readi...

Way back in the exciting Spring months of 2019 — you know, back when we had just conquered another long winter and the feeling of hope had returned — I set aggressive goals for the races to come. 2018 ended disappointingly on the running front after a severe hip flexor strain; so I was ready to get back at it and put the training lessons I learned in the previous year to work. I had three marathons in my sights and three goals to go with them. Goal #1: Run sub-3:15 at Fargo Marathon in May Finished in 3:16:32  on a wet, rainy and cold day; which wasn't quite on goal but I felt it was a complete success! Lots of happy checkmarks on that goal page in my Believe Journal. That was 5 minutes cut off my ancient PR from 2011. Finally! Goal #2: Run back-to-back (2 week) marathons  I ran the Grand Forks Marathon and Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon two weeks apart back in 2016 and wanted to do that again for some weird reason. I had one week to recovery and one week to bas...

What ended up being my worst ever taper week turned into the best outcome. That was Grand Forks Marathon 2019 in a nutshell for me. Parenthood is a blessed daily lesson in humility, it really is, and the past couple weeks were just another one of those lessons! Our youngest boy (23-month-old, can I just say he's 2 already?!) had a gunky cough and runny nose the past couple weeks. Then it passed on to 6-year-old. My husband and our 4-year-old both seemed to avoid getting this sick bug so I figured "Ah ha! My superior immune system helped me miss it too!" Think again there, Amy, think again. To sum up race week,  Monday felt "off" as we met for homeschool co-op; more tired than usual. Tuesday  = felt  bleh and then Wednesday I was pretty much useless. My neck was stiff, lymph nodes swollen, sinuses stuffed and I had a miserable headache. No cough, just a runny nose and PAIN. This felt like a sinus infection coming on so I drank water, some apple juice, so...