Day 3 & 4

Wow, what a last couple of days. Sorry I haven't blogged, but apparently there isn't a wi-fi connection at Rock Creek State Park :)

Let's begin at POG. After everyone went home for the night and slept in their own beds we all met at POG for service and some much needed time with our Church family. The day began with a great service once again and was a really nice lead in to what we were to do that day. It was awesome because Jeff pulled me up on the "stage" to explain what we were doing and to ask for prayers from everyone in the congregation. It turned out that we needed it.

Tim, Mandy's husband, was nice enough to let us rest our legs for a little bit and decided to take on some of our miles for the day. Turns out that 16 miles gets you pretty much through the city of Des Moines. We had a couple of awesome people join in for a short 5 mile walk/run. One guy, Matt, even joined us for an 11 miler in his preparation for the Des Moines 1/2 marathon. He looked real strong being that this was his longest run to date. When we took over for Tim, Aubrey and Mandy began our trek towards Kellogg. It was an awesome day even though we went about 10 miles on one of the scariest highways in history. We made it through, but probably won't take that route again if we do this again.

When Nick took over, he was on dog patrol as we went through a very small town. It seemed like every step that he took there was a new dog popping out of the woodwork. We all were running strong knowing that day was going to be Aubrey's last. We wanted to make sure to maximize the amount of miles we had left in our legs.

As we ran through a few more towns, Aubrey decided that she wanted to end the 3 days off with a bang and busted out a few more miles. As we met her brother, we all decided that Mandy and I would run a little further into the night to get a few more miles. We tacked on another 4 to shorten our day today. After our run we decided to make a few bad decisions and go for some pizza at Pagliais in Grinnell. On our way we were lucky enough to see some 12 year olds get arrested, so that was fun :) After our little pizza adventure we headed to Rock Creek State Park for another adventure, camping. We had a few "techinal difficulties" and ended up sleeping without any heat. Ooops. We all woke up a little chilly and very sore due to our sleeping arrangements.

This morning started off chilly and a little outside of Grinnell. Mandy started the day off with some great hill running. Nick took over to get us through to get us through Grinnell and I hit the road between Grinnell and Brooklyn before handing off to Andrew to bring us in to Brooklyn. When we got in to Brooklyn we met up with Dennis (m-in-laws bf) to help us out for the day. He was a champ and busted out a nice 7 heading out of Brooklyn. After him we started the roation all over again with Mandy and Nick to get us through Victor and Ladora. One of the coolest moments for me was running into my home town of Marengo to meet my sister, my baby nephew Layne, my grandma and my wifes uncle/sponsor Dan. On my way out of town, I decided to pay a little tribute and get my picture taken by the resting places of my grandfather and three uncles. What another great experience to share with my family. Andrew and Dennis got us most of the way to Oxford before we decided that since we have daylight that we would get some more miles in to help out for tomorrow. Tonight we are staying with a very gracious host & hostess, my aunt Sandy and Pat

Well here we sit, 4 days in to our 5 day run. Tomorrow we will start near the Coral Ridge Mall and make our final decent through Coralville, Iowa City, West Liberty and down to Davenport. I will be posting pictures when I get home. We have a ton and Nicks little netbook I don't think can handle it, I kid of course. Stay tuned for more updates

Stay Strong, Run Long,
Brad