It "Runs" in the Family

Our local YMCA hosted a 5k race this morning, and our participation spanned three generations. Grandparents Pete and Nancy Pratt walked/jogged the race and Cindy ran a respectable 22:10. Andrew wrapped things up with an impressive one-mile kids run, finishing in 9:50.



Andrew, like all of the other little kids, started out in a full sprint!



He settled into a good pace and finished strong!



He received a medal at the finish line and wore it so proudly. In fact, he wore it for the rest of the day.



Grandpop and Grandmom were so proud of their little runner!

Cindy Smokes the Half Marathon

Cindy is smokin! She's training hard and running great races. Two weeks ago it was a half marathon on the western branch of the Illinois Prairie Path. We both do so much training on the prairie path that it seemed like the perfect place to run a race. Cindy ran the race with a few friends, including Christine Elsen from our College Church small group. The ladies had a brisk, windy morning, and the fellas (Paul Elsen and I) had a busy morning of our own. We gathered our six kids, loaded them into the Elsen-mobile, and managed to see the moms four or five times along the course.



Cindy looked strong from the beginning.



Still looking strong at the end.



And still looking good after the race. Cindy ran a PR of 1:37:57 for the half and we're so proud of her!

April 29: Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

On my way home from the crazy design/pirate conference, I spent 24 hours in Oklahoma City with one of my college roommates, Dan Walmer. Dan flew up from Houston and we met for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. We had just enough time to pick up our race packets, grab some dinner, and then stay up too late talking. Dan and I didn't really know each other until our senior year at Wheaton, but hit it off right away. We realized how much we had in common, and our common interests now include marathons.

This was the third marathon Dan and I have done together in the last 15 months, and it was certainly a memorable one. We arrived at the gear check area shortly after 5am, enjoyed the 5:30am prayer service which takes place in the dark at the OKC memorial, and the 168 seconds of silence (one second for each victim of the bombing) before the start were especially poignant.

The race started at 6:30am (early, even for a marathon) which was a good thing because by the time we finished later that morning the temperature had already risen to over 80F. We both had good times, but even better than that, we had a good time.



Dan finishing the marathon.



The memorial is an amazing experience.



Many runners run in memory of friends and family and leave their medals and race numbers on the chairs in the memorial that recognize each of the 168 victims.



There's also a memory wall at the memorial where people leave cards, flowers, race numbers, photos, and other memorable items.

Adam at ADIM

For the last six or seven years, Adam has had the privelege of teaching and helping at the annual ADIM Conference for art directors. Essentially, you gather together about 120 of the most talented designers and art directors from around the world for a week of learning, designing, and having lots of whacky fun. There's a theme every time, and this year it was Pirates! Imagine a hands-on computer training conference combined with drama camp.

Anyway, it's always a highlight for me and I thought you might get a kick out of a few of the pictures as well as this video [BIG!].