A Busy Saturday

Woke up a little after 5 and made it to 41st and Riverside by 5:45 am. This was the first day of marathon training, and I ran with the beginners group. It was great to see all the people out there. The plan for the beginners was to run six miles. I started out at the head of the group, running at a pretty good clip with Gina (or perhaps Jenna or Jeannie - maybe I'll figure it out next week). After a mile or so we had caught up to the intermediate group, and it looked like she had a few people to settle in with, so I ran back to check on the rest of the group; all doing well. So, then I ran back up and ended up running/walking with a beginning 1/2 marathoner who somehow got mixed in with the intermediate marathon group, and ended up being alone, looking like she needed a bit of encouragement. Her name was Leslie. When we were almost back to 41st, we passed Joe and Michael, who were out for some extra miles. I told Leslie to go on ahead, and I ran another six miles with Joe. Michael lives near 11th and Riverside, so he just went three with us and then headed home. At the end I ran back to Peoria, where I had parked my car so as to not take up space for the crowd that showed up this morning. Total distance this morning was about 13 miles. I enjoyed the morning and can't wait to meet with the group again.

This afternoon I went to a memorial service at Memorial Bible Church for Betty Martin, who died this week of cancer. She was a gifted artist, devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, and always active teaching kids in Sunday school, or with Child Evangelism Fellowship, or on mission trips. The picture at left, which is a photo of one of her sketches, illustrates her love for children. Her goal in life was to hear the words in Matthew 25:23,

Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.

It really was a joyful memorial service, and many people shared wonderful memories of Betty.

After the memorial service, we ate at El Chico and then went to Asbury Methodist Church for another joyful occasion, a wedding in which my daughter, Melissa, played piano. She was so nervous. She did a great job, but she is glad that is over.

At the reception I saw Peggy Landrum, who used to run with our group some, and has been a long time running partner with Larry Long. She hasn't been running lately because she had a melanoma on her leg that was operated on and kind of sidelined her for a while. I told her about the training groups that started up today, and she said she would probably start up with the Tulsa Run training group in a couple of weeks.