Night one... St. Jude events 2010

JinJin... bat outta hell. She drove mine and Staci's lazy butts to Memphis! Or well, at least to Jackson. That's where she met her "beau", Baxter, who now realizes we are a bunch of crazies! I'll introduce him shortly. FIVE LONG HOURS later, we were in Memphis, and Staci decided a bra may be a good idea for the gathering of TEAMJAKE which we were FLYING to get to at the Cook Convention Center.

All who passed us on the interstate KNEW what we were going to do!

Once there, we ran right into Ron, who is a past TEAMJAKEr and a first time marathoner this year!

YEP, an actual marathoner! I am not even kidding when I say I get tired even DRIVING 26.2 miles!!

Staci, ironically, was registered to RUN the 5k!! Ha. I am not saying anything... I am NOT a runner either. But every year, after the marathon weekend, I say, I AM DOING THIS NEXT YEAR!

Registration is cool, and there are vendors everywhere selling their wares to runners. Running gear... not what I am really interested in!

The big dinner was held at the same place as the registration this year, which was VERY much more streamlined! I thought it was absolutely awesome! They had a speaker who had also lost her daughter and who was also from Louisiana. She did a fabulour job describing the journey from diagnosis to losing a child. Her child was 11 and was very strong throughout her journey!

TEAMJAKErs who had never met sat together with their families and made connections that I hope will last a long long time.

These were on the table to remind everyone of the kids for whom they'd be running. I remember distinctly when Jake was one of the kids in the St. Jude print publications.

Mom and new beau, Baxter, were in their purple and gold for full-on support!

Pops and Nana were there too, but throughout my posts, note how many people were there... it is not unusual to not run into someone you are looking for!

These are the Hardies. Dawn is a past marathonner and ran this year too. Hey, Matt... where were ya?!

Jenn is a physical therapist in my Shreveport office, and this was to be her first 1/2 marathon! goooo Jenn! We only hire "weird" people! Ha

Sooooo... except for me, who is taking the picture, this is TEAMJAKE 2010. Stay tuned for more info on this crew!Oh wait... there I am! And I will be posting about the races for the next two days! There were LOTS of pics taken, and because of the sacrifice of so many, I try really hard to get everyone in a picture!

If you were a TEAMJAKEr, read my blog, and do not see yourself in a picture in the next two days... call me. I deserve to be shamed! I tried to capture EVERYONE on the course. And Charlene, may get the SPIRIT award!

Stay tuned, guys.... It was a banner year!!

MO