What a Day!

Yesterday started bright and early for me in Little Rock. I participated in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 5K run. I've been training for this run for the past 9 weeks because I wanted to be able to jog most of this as opposed to walking my last one. I got to downtown Little Rock about 6:30 am and boy was in freezing! The next big thing that hit me was just how many thousands of people were at this event. I walked up to one long line at one point and asked someone what the line was for and she said, "yogurt." There were tons of vendors giving away free stuff and yogurt was one of them. I however was not going to stand in a very long line just for yogurt. I was actually one of the first people at the starting line. I wanted to do this because I wanted to be able to jog this race so I didn't want to be stuck behind people walking. However, by the time the race started it was crazy how many people were around me. It litterally was wall-to-wall people. If you were standing straight and leaned over just a little in any direction you would bump into someone else.


I thought the race went pretty good (especially for the first one I jogged). However I did have a wardrobe problem that caused problems throughout the race. I learned several weeks ago that when I am jogging I can't have anything in my pockets because the weight and bouncing tends to pull my pants down so I would constantly have to keep tugging at them to stay up. Well, yesterday I had taken off my sweatshirt before I started jogging and tied it around my waist. Unfortunately the weight of this heavy sweatshirt was having the same effect as if I had stuff in my pockets. It was kind of an annoying thing to have to deal with throughout the race but I managed (but might have looked a little funny doing it). :-) There were tons of people lining the race route and that was actually interesting. I've always thought I wouldn't want to exercise in front of too many people (and still don't really) but these people were cheering and encouraging everyone who jogged by them. It actually kind of helped in my opinion. It was neat!



I read on the Arkansas news station's website that there were 45,000 people who walked/jogged this race. That is a ton of people. Supposedly last year's Arkansas' race was the 4th largest in the entire world. I finished the race in 33 minutes and 50 seconds. That's not bad for my first time. I had to stop twice to tie my shoe, once to try to do something with my sweatshirt and pants and I walked 1-2 minutes up part of the third hill. I think I would do it again. It was a good experience and for a good cause.



After this I went pack to Petit Jean State Park and got to see some things that I didn't see the last time. Here are a few pictures:

This picture is from the Petit Jean overlook that is by her gravesite.

This is another one of the same place just a different spot.

This was taken at a different overlook and I just thought the rocks were neat.

This was a neat place that looks like a cave but really was more like a rock shelter. There are indian drawings on the wall but they were a little hard to identify.

This I believe is called "Davies Bridge." It was made by 15-20 men and is one of only 8 remaining masonry bridges in Arkansas (if I remember correctly what the sign said). It was pretty. I love the color of those stones.

This is a picture of Cedar Falls which is the tallest waterfall in Arkansas (see picture on previous post) from a different, much higher perspective.

This is part of a rock grouping called Bear Cave Trail. It was also pretty neat and had amazing views on top of some of the big rocks.

Here is one of those amazing views from the rocks. Can you imagine in a week or so when all the leaves are changing how incredible this view would be. I took a ton more photos and had a hard time picking which ones to put on here. I just really love this park and think that it should be something people take the time to see. It's amazing!

Me and my friend Josh posing for a picture. Again, can you imagine this picture in a week or so when more of the leaves have changed??? Amazing!

To end this eventful and fun day I got to sit and relax for awhile and watch the stars. In fact I saw two shooting stars and that was the first time I had even seen any shooting stars. It was also pretty neat. Unfortunately my day ended all too soon. I had a wonderful day, got to spend time with a great guy and I'm really thankful for it.

I'm amazed at the way God has taken care of me the last several months. I'm thankful that He put a person in my life when I needed someone. I'm thankful that I got to participate in a 5K (jogging no less). If anyone knows me they would know that prior to training for this, the most I had ever jogged was one mile and that was in PE class when I was a freshmen in high school!!! I'm thankful that God let's me enjoy the beauty of His creation. There really is nothing that compares to it. I'm thankful for the Bible and that I have it. I really do love that book. I'm most thankful that the God of the universe knows me completely and He still loves me. That kind of love is priceless. I would be lost without it. I have no idea what the future holds (good or bad) but I know someone who will be with me through it all and for that I am also extremely thankful.

Okay - I've gone on and on and this is a really long post. I'm done for now! :-)