Forward to anybody you think would be interested in helping out. This is not for me to raise money to run the race. I have already paid my part to get into the race, I just would like to raise some money for a great cause that I truly belive in. Thank you for your support.

Dear Friends and Family,
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital depends primarily on public support to care for more than 4,900 young patients battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. That is why I have decided to become a St. Jude Hero!
I will be participating in The St. Jude Memphis Marathon on December 1, 2007 and need your support in helping to raise money for the kids at St. Jude.
I am hoping you will join me in helping save the lives of children! Please consider sponsoring me in The St. Jude Memphis Marathon by making a donation on your credit card.
St. Jude treats children at no cost to their families. Thank you for considering this appeal and for your kind involvement.
To donate, please visit my personal page and click on ‘Support Cristy’ at the top of the thermometer.

http://www.stjudeheroes.org/site/TR?px=1402423&pg=personal&fr_id=3150

copy and paste link above to go to the St Jude donation charity page for me. Thanks

Sincerely,
Cristy

For my dear friend who helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel, and no it is not a train……

I wish there was a place
Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all your heartaches, pain, and poor selfish grief
Could be shed like an old shabby coat at the door
And never be put on again

There is such a place, deep down in your heart you can find it, he shed his cloak for your sins so you would not have to put it on again, therefore there is such a place, just seek and you will find.

Okay, there are many things that I have to sacrifice just to be a somewhat of a good runner.

1. I have to train every day so that means running every night after work. Yeah, it takes up a few hours and it also makes me tired so yes I go to bed early so I don’t really get to go out.

2. I don’t get to eat all the really good junk food. I have to stay in shape so that requires me to try to eat healthy.

3. I don’t get to drink anymore. Yeah, alcohol is a great burden on a runner. Believe it or not but if you go and run a few miles and then go drink a beer well you just put all those calories and extra calories back on that you just burned off. Hum???? But you can indulge in a drink or two maybe once or twice a week, not every single day right after you run.

4. I don’t get to sleep in on the weekends. I wake up every day at 5:30 am for work and on the weekends. I do this so I can get long runs in.

I am not saying that in order to be a runner or start running you have to give up a lot, I am just saying that you have to learn to manage your time better and be able to understand that you do have to give up a few things in order to become better or loose weight. These are just the things I have to give up everyone is different and everyone has something else that they have to give up to be able to run. Nothing against anyone else.

Someone once siad the day you are born is the day you begin dieing.

Well, I say the day you are born is the day you begin learning how to live.

Life is but a long road, sometimes we travel to fast and forget to check out the scenery.

We have great people step into our lives, show us the way down the curvy road, teach us how to live and then let us go so we can show others.

We love people and let them love us for eternal happiness.

For we live, we die, but what we do with our lives is our choice.

People pass on and when we loose someone we are taught yet another lesson in life.

Remember when someone passes on they do not want you to cry or feel sorry for them, they want you to rejoice in the simple fact that they lived and were part of your life.

This one moment in time makes me realize that I will one day have to go thru this time but I will never forget the simple fact that the people here today have done all they can to make it easier on everyone else but just being here to comfort those in need and to remember a great life that has passed on.

Remember keep running, don’t look back, but don’t forget what you had, he will always be apart of you and you are still alive today to tell his story.

Ellis Porch was a very much loved man by not just his family but his friends too. He was a true genuine person. He had the perfect life. A great wife and child and many friends. He smiled all the time, no matter what. He encouraged those of us that thought we were not good enough. He just was there for everyone. I will always remember that every race I ever ran he would always come back with his friend Jerry because they would always finish way before me and just smile at me and tell me good job and keep going. He made me feel good about myself and I know he did the same for others. I will never forget him and will always remember him as a Great Runner. He will be missed by many but one day his story will be told and I am not able to tell you his story but his closes friends and family will be able to one day.

No matter what, I will keep running, not just because of Ellis but for every great runner out there that we have lost to some kind of freak reason.

Thank you to all of you out there that prayed and were there for his family. It means a lot to everyone.

I don’t ask for much, I don’t need much, and I don’t pray for much. But today is a different day. Today is a day of morning and trying to understand why things happen the way they do. I understand death, I understand that things happen for a reason but what I don’t understand is why this could happen to such a great person.

You may not know him but this is his story:

Ellis Porch was running at Seaside in Florida Sunday morning and at about the 10th mile he went into convulsions. They revived him enough to get him airlifted back to Birmingham, Alabama that day. He is now in the hospital on life support. They are not sure what happened. He did not have a heart attack. He was not dehydrated. He did nothing wrong, he trained like he has trained for any race. He is a great runner. He has run the Boston Marathon. He has run many races. But now he is fighting for his life.

All I am asking is for any of you that understand or just want to help, to please pray for him. Medical Science has done all that they can and now it is all in God’s hands. Whether he lives or dies I just want what’s best for him and his family.

He is a father, a husband and a friend. He has the nicest wife I know, he has a sweet child and all of his friends are very caring. All we ask is for a little support and hopefully the best will happen.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, so this past weekend was the Mercedes Marathon, half marathon, and BE5K. I only ran the 5k this year due to past experience of running the half marathon. However, not to go into any details the marathon and half marathon is probably one of the hardest around the country or at least that is what I am told. It has so many hills but they say the down hills is the killer part of the race. However, what I wanted to talk about today was the kids marathon. We have a kids marathon every year. It is a great experience. The rules to my understanding is that they have to qualify by running 25 miles before they can run the last 1.2 miles of their marathon at the Mercedes Kids Marathon. They get a whole year to do this. They only have to run 1 mile a week or more if they want. It is only for kindergarden to 6th grade children. We let them run in groups by age/class. It is really a great experience. However, this year was probably the best one yet. First, we had so many more children run. It was so much fun. But we had two very important children run the race. First was a young boy, I believe he was in either 1st grade or 2nd. Can’t remember which, but he was in a wheel chair. He pushed his way in the cold in that wheelchair with bare hands. He had a little trouble getting up the hill and I kind of helped him out but he did great. And it was so neat watching him finish. Then there was this one boy named Charles. I only remember his name because of the great attitude that he portrayed. You see he has braces on both his legs. He really has no use at all with his legs and he has these metal crutches that his arms go down in to help him be mobile. He literally walked with these crutches all 1.2 miles. And the greatest thing about him is the fact that he was smiling the whole way. His dad was walking with him and was so proud of him. Telling him how great he was doing, asking him if he was okay, seeing if he needed any help and this boy just smiled and told his dad he was doing good and that he was okay. He did so good all the way to the end. Just watching him push himself thru the disability that he has was probably the greatest experience. Watching him made me realize that I am very greatful for the fact that I can run, greatful for the fact that I can run a marathon, and also made me realize that I will never complain ever again about the fact that it is hard to run that far when I realize that a little 5 year old boy named Charles could do it in crutches and push himself thru life with the greatest attitude. Thank you Charles for being who you are, don’t ever change.

I am so frustrated with people lately. Why do humans have to talk about others and why do they have to gossip? I just don’t get it. I mean if you have something to say about someone just tell them to their face. Just be open and honest. I mean I am a very nice person but when you lie to me I really don’t want to talk anymore. If you try to gossip to me I don’t listen. I just like people for who they are. I don’t care to be mean, I don’t care to have others be mean around me.

Humans tend to love gossip, they tend to live and feed off of it. I just don’t understand why. Is it some type of thing in their brains that says uuuwweee that sounds great tell me more. I mean I just really don’t get it.

I have people all the time saying stuff about me behind my back and then others who hear it have to come running to me to tell me all about it. I don’t care what others say about me. I don’t even care what people think of me. However, if I am having a problem with someone I confront them, I talk to them about it.

I guess I was just raised to be open and honest about everything. If someone ask me a question I will always tell them the honest truth of what I think and all it is, is my opinion.

Life is to short to live off of others griefs, problems, etc. Stop talking about others and just work on making yourself better. In the long run, if you stopped gossiping and started working on your own values and beliefs you would be so much happier with your own life.

This is just all my opinion.

For the first time in my life I got to go to an award ceremony. It was probably one of the things on the top of my list of cool things that I have done so far this year. I went with my good friend Mark Baggit. He was nominated for many different things that he did. He did not win anything but I am so proud of him for even being nominated for working for such a large newspaper like the Birmingham News to just be nominated is incredible to me. Not very many people were nominated out of all the people that work there. It was incredible to see how these people take such pride in their work. I mean, Mark takes more pride then anyone else I know and as he stated in a recent email to me, he just would like to be acknowledge just once in his life for his work, but I told him he did not need the acknowledgement, he needs to just be proud of the fact that everyone knows that his work shows how much he loves what he does. I am very proud to say that he is my friend and if you ever read the Birmingham News and ever look in it and see the City Scenes section, he is the graphic designer that puts together the front page of that section. It is really amazing at what he does and can do with that part of the paper. I may not read the newspaper, I may not even watch the news, but I do know what kind of work he can put together. He is incredible, and all I have to say is CONGRATS MARK for being who you are and sharing it with the rest of the world.

You know I have been in several weddings and have been the maid of honor (or as the boys said the Best Woman) many times. However, this was probably the most interesting wedding I have ever been apart of. It all started with the rehersal. We got to the Botanical Gardens about 4pm on Friday, we discussed how we were going to enter, some of the things that will be read, and how the whole ceremony would take place. The best man, Blake, specifically asked the minister if him and I needed to have the rings for the wedding. The minister told us, “No, I would like to keep them in my possession so that they don’t get lost.” So we were like okay, but did not feel comfortable but thought why not. We never actually went thru the whole ceremony and never walked in and out to practice. We then went to the rehersal dinner. Well, this was definitely a site to remember. Her whole family was on one side of the room and his family was on the other. No one really talked to eachother. They served dinner, they drank A LOT, they did not do much. We then had to go shopping because God forbid I forgot to buy the bride a gift and I am the maid of honor (Best Woman). As soon as the dinner was over we went to the mall, got some stuff from Victoria Secret and then went to Wal Mart to get the usual stuff, you know we had to decorate the limo. This was all just Friday night. Now onto the wedding itself…..

It was Saturday morning, we all had to be at the Botanical Gardens at 11:30am. On my way there I called the bride to see how she was doing and to let her know I might be about 5 minutes late. She said don’t worry, my dad has not even picked me up yet. She was so upset, this took me about 10 minutes to calm her down. Then I get there and have to hurry up and change clothes and put on makeup. Now, any of you that know me, I am the total tom-boy that does not wear makeup, does not wear dresses. I mean, every once in awhile I like to dress up but feel so much more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. I finally get dressed and everyone is laughing because I am asking how to put on certain things on my face. Don’t ask me what it was or what it is called because I could not tell you. The the bride shows up. She is doing everything in her power to change as fast as possible. You see we had to get there early so we could take pictures before the groomsmen showed up. We finally had many and I me many many pictures taken. Then finally we had to go back in the bathroom (our dressing room) to finish getting ready and to wait for the groomsmen to show up and go somewhere he could not see her. Well, things got a little worse, they could not get the music started, they could not find everyone. But finally at about 2pm, maybe a little after, we started the ceremony. It started out good, we were all standing there watching the minister do all his speeches and readings, and then it came time to do the rings. Well guess what, the Best Man and Woman did not have them because the minister said he wanted to take care of them. Well, he forgot them in his car so he could not do the rings normally. So we all started to find rings to give to them so they could actually do some type of ring ceremony. But when the minister said that we are all human and I forgot the rings, the best man under his breath says “Are you F**King kidding me.” The ones of us that heard it started laughing so loud. At least it broke the mood. Then the wedding was over. Now time to go and take more pictures. This lasted for another hour or so. It was cold and very tiring. All I could think about was how hungry I was. We finally got to leave and go to the reception. When we got there we had to take more pictures. Yes, this girl is going to have so many pictures of her wedding that she could fill a book case of wedding albums. However, when we got to the reception and were finally allowed to go in and eat all they had was chips and dip, cake, and some pigs in a blanket (you know those little hot dogs with a piece of bread around them.) Now, keep in mind, the wedding party had been going since 11:30 am until about 5:30/6pm. And none of us had eaten yet. We all wanted to leave and just go to McDonalds or something. We did not care. But it turns out we had a lot more to do. But finally I got to go home, about 11pm and get in bed. I woke up the next day and all I wanted to do was eat.

Now, I have learned over the years that if, and this is a big IF, I ever get married, I will make it so simple. All I want to do is buy a cute dress, fly to Cancun, invite anyone who wants to go, they would have to pay their own way, and get married and just have my honeymoon there. I don’t think I could have gone thru all this and done everything that my best friends had to go thru but at least now they are married, they are a great couple. I love them to death, and just to let you know, I am very happy for them. Other then all the crazy things that happened, like at any wedding, it was still beautiful and she was a very beautiful bride.

Oh forgot to tell you, I caught the bouquet so I guess I am next………we will see….any takers out there…..men only…………

So last night I took a class with my friends Lydia, Tim, Mark and Brent on how to do the East Coast Swing. It was so much fun. However, when we got there it was the last class of the month on how to do this dance and we did not know any of the previous steps already taught. When they started the class, they said okay you have already learned these steps now we are going to add this step and this step to the dance. WE just all looked at eachother like WHAT, are you kidding me? A bunch of us runners trying to dance but we tried. It took us a little while but we finally got the basic steps down. We were laughing more then dancing because we just could not get it at first. But starting next Thursday they are going to teach the Mambo. At least we will be there for the beginning of that dance. I never knew that dancing could be so much fun. I mean, I have taken ballet, tap and jazz for 15 years of my life but nothing like this. It was great. Now while we run we might be trying to dance to just remember what we were taught. So if you are ever in Birmingham and see runners trying to do the rock step while running you will now know why.

If you live in Birmingham and ever want to go to this class you should. Go to their website: www.curtnwendy.com and check out their schedule.

Have a great day.