Ella's Run

Every year we do Ethan's Run, a race to benefit and raise awareness for Congenital Heart Defects. This year, Ethan's (a CHD angel) incredible mommy wasn't able to organize the run. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to finally being able to run my first 10k in honor of our Ella. But Ethan's mommy needed to rest and take it very easy because of her pregnancy!

Needless to say, she's completely forgiven. (And she and baby are doing great!)

But what to do about running my 10k?
Well, I couldn't organize a run. I had no idea how to do it and I lived too far away to do "Ethan's Run."
So I did my own.
I called it Ella's Run.

All I did was choose a day, map a course, invite anyone who wanted to come, and train.
It was small. Very small. I knew more people would have been there and participated in the run if not for scheduling conflicts and/or pregnancies! But I knew a lot of people were thinking of Ella and Ethan and many other CHD angels and warriors. And that was the whole point.

Here's pictures of that day:



My mom and nephew sporting their Remembering Ella shirts from last year's Ethan's Run. Waiting for us to finish the run.

 An extremely cute group of boys. The two on the left are mine. :)

Little Bub and his cousin E. No, he's not standing on his own even though he looks big enough to do it. The kid is gigantic.

 Here we come! Finishing the first half of the race. Me and my awesome friend Leigh. She's wearing her Remembering Ella shirt from Ethan's Run 2011. She ran by my side for 90% of the race even though she could have gone a lot faster. I'll never forget her support.

And here I come at the end. 10k. The first one ever. Ran the whole way. Roughly 70 minutes.

Glad to be done. Proud of myself. I did it for her (and for me.)

And here's my sister, her boy C, Leigh, Me (red faced and gross), and my Mom.

I miss my girl. Shed a few tears that day. We'll be back again next year, running our hearts out.