Christen here, coming at you from sunny Florida. Kim and I had a fantastic time with Mom & Dad on Saturday getting fitted for just the right shoes for the Avon Walk. Mom & Dad treated us to quite the splurge shopping spree at Runner’s Grove in Downers Grove. What a great store! The second we walked in, we knew we were in for fabulous customer service and attention. We started out walking (we might have strutted just a little bit 
for our expert, who assessed both of us with minor pronation. We really enjoyed our manager expert, who was ironically working on a study on the way dancers and former dancers walk. He is even working with the Joffrey Ballet on the study! Kim and 
I ended up with some awesome running shoes, check them out:
Here are my Nike’s….the very first pair of Nike’s I have ever purchased. I used to have a ban on all Nike shoes since I thought they were too narrow, so guess it just goes to show how important fit is!
And here is a picture of all of Kim’s gear….isn’t she so professional with her pictures?!
As you can see from Kim’s pic, we also purchased some great pants, tops, hats, etc. Here’s a pic Leo snapped of me on Sunday in my new gear:
But the biggest highlight of the weekend for sure was seeing Mom’s new ‘do! No pics yet, but maybe she will strike a pose for us on Easter. Mom has dyed the grey away to a lighter brown and has a cute short cut. Her hair is slowly starting to grow back and we think she looks great! We just passed the 1 year mark from her diagnosis and are approaching the 1 year mark from her surgery, so having this race as a focus really shows us how far our family has come in the last year.
Kim and I are still working on training for the big day. Now that we have shoes and are all set, it is becoming much more of a reality that we are about to walk a Marathon and a Half! Yikes! Boredom is our biggest challenge right now for sure. That and the crazy Chicago weather. I think once it warms up in Chicagoland, we will be in much better walking spirits and will be walking a lot more. The treadmill in Morand Gym is starting to get boring….although yesterday I walked/ran 10 miles while watching a movie. Not too bad! Kim and I are always looking for walking buddies, so please let us know if you’d like to join us! Give us a few weeks and we’ll be outside in full force for sure!
Here’s to a great week of training! Kim has been pretty busy with many projects, so her time (and the weather in Chicago) will certainly be challenges this week. I am on a long-term out of town project in Sarasota, FL, so fitting in workouts out of town can sometimes be hard. Luckily the gym at the hotel is decent. While its always a struggle to be on the road, at least I have this view for the week:
Thank you to everyone for your support, love and encouragement! Kim is still a little short of the fundraising goal, so please consider a tax deductible contribution (I know, I know, shameless CPA plug).
– Christen
