Day 32: Effingham, IL, to Evansville, IN (Wednesday, July 16)
Distance traveled: 110 miles
Personal running distance today: 9
Total personal miles to-date: 199.5 miles
Today's dedications: Joyce Zakerski and Mor-Mor
My running buddy: Taylor
Weather: Sunny, 80s
With each day that progresses on this trip, it becomes harder and harder to wake up in the morning. This morning seemed to be a struggle for everyone, since all our alarms went off and nobody moved a muscle for about 5 more minutes. But I'm trying to savor these tough mornings because we only have a few left!
We circled up and left the church in Effingham to make our way into Indiana. I ran with Taylor today and had an incredible time. I got to know her a lot better. She's one of the younger teammates on our team, but she has lived a lot of life in her years. I have even more respect for her after learning more about her today!
We had a good time running/walking, too. Unfortunately she's got a pretty bad back injury bothering her, so we had to walk occasionally, but we enjoyed every moment of it.
Distance traveled: 110 miles
Personal running distance today: 9
Total personal miles to-date: 199.5 miles
Today's dedications: Joyce Zakerski and Mor-Mor
My running buddy: Taylor
Weather: Sunny, 80s
With each day that progresses on this trip, it becomes harder and harder to wake up in the morning. This morning seemed to be a struggle for everyone, since all our alarms went off and nobody moved a muscle for about 5 more minutes. But I'm trying to savor these tough mornings because we only have a few left!
We circled up and left the church in Effingham to make our way into Indiana. I ran with Taylor today and had an incredible time. I got to know her a lot better. She's one of the younger teammates on our team, but she has lived a lot of life in her years. I have even more respect for her after learning more about her today!
We had a good time running/walking, too. Unfortunately she's got a pretty bad back injury bothering her, so we had to walk occasionally, but we enjoyed every moment of it.
Strangely, today Illinois was NOT good to us. Taylor was telling me about her overnight job and how it's haunted; she was telling me some of the spooky stories when the forest bushes next to us rustled a lot, although there was no breeze or anything. We ran to the other side of the road and yelled and clapped to try to scare whatever it was out of the bushes, but there was nothing there... We were also passed by roughly 813591735 Walmart trucks that kept driving past us over and over again. There was just a lot of strange stuff happening in Illinois today and we were ready to get OUT.
Together, Taylor and I did 9 miles. We had 2 more to go, but it was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to pack it in for the day and head to the host so everyone could get showered. Once we arrived at the church in Evansville, a news crew was there to interview us and take some video of us running together.
The church arranged for us to shower at the local country club, which was way too nice for us to be going into as sweaty and stinky as we were. After, we headed back to the church where they shared with us all the amazing amenities they had for us. Not only did we have a HUGE spread of food (my favorite dinner so far on the trip probably), they also said they made a bonfire with s'mores for us tonight, had corn hole boards set up, plus they're playing Forest Gump later and have a huge sack of popcorn for everyone. These are some of the sweetest people!
At dinner tonight, they insisted we all introduce ourselves so that they could learn more about us, where we're from and why we 4K. They were genuinely interested in our stories. They shared with us that one member of their own congregation, Christy, had lost her life to colon cancer last August. They prayed for us before dinner and the man who said the prayer was brought to tears because of what we're doing. It was a really touching moment, and it made me proud to 4K.
After dinner, a group of us headed to Starbucks to work on the route for tomorrow. We are hitting up another new state already! Tomorrow will take us to Kentucky. It's going to be a beautiful day; we're running through Hoosier National Forest, and I can't wait to see it.
Run happy,
Natalie
Together, Taylor and I did 9 miles. We had 2 more to go, but it was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to pack it in for the day and head to the host so everyone could get showered. Once we arrived at the church in Evansville, a news crew was there to interview us and take some video of us running together.
The church arranged for us to shower at the local country club, which was way too nice for us to be going into as sweaty and stinky as we were. After, we headed back to the church where they shared with us all the amazing amenities they had for us. Not only did we have a HUGE spread of food (my favorite dinner so far on the trip probably), they also said they made a bonfire with s'mores for us tonight, had corn hole boards set up, plus they're playing Forest Gump later and have a huge sack of popcorn for everyone. These are some of the sweetest people!
At dinner tonight, they insisted we all introduce ourselves so that they could learn more about us, where we're from and why we 4K. They were genuinely interested in our stories. They shared with us that one member of their own congregation, Christy, had lost her life to colon cancer last August. They prayed for us before dinner and the man who said the prayer was brought to tears because of what we're doing. It was a really touching moment, and it made me proud to 4K.
After dinner, a group of us headed to Starbucks to work on the route for tomorrow. We are hitting up another new state already! Tomorrow will take us to Kentucky. It's going to be a beautiful day; we're running through Hoosier National Forest, and I can't wait to see it.
Run happy,
Natalie