Running through the woods and going to see a president

Two weekends ago we drove to a park on the southwest side of town to run a 5k trail race. All four of us had planned on running but George came down with a fever a few days before and missed some school, so he acted as event photographer instead. Owen and Becca had never run a trail race before. In fact, Owen had never run that distance before. All went well. Owen and Bec started off together, but it wasn't long before Owen took off on his own pace. It was great to look up and see my little man coming out of the woods all by himself, finishing strong.

Yesterday, Bec and I rode our bikes downtown to see a future president. Barak Obama came through town to ask the question, What's so funny about peace,love and understanding? The speech was held in the Veterans' Memorial Mall which sets right before the main library. The mall is a giant rectangular lawn where we used to squeeze in with the rest of the city to watch the fireworks on the Fourth of July. I have never seen the place as crowded as it was yesterday, and with every sort and type of person you can imagine. They estimated there were 35,000 packed in there and I believe it. Bec and I didn't get very close, but we could see him well enough from where we stood, and it was just good to be there. I've never attended any event of that magnitude, and as weird as it sounds to say, especially since it was so amazingly peaceful, it really felt like we were taking part of something important.

What a weekend

We went down to Bloomington this weekend to run the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer races. In all the races and family walks, 5000 registered to participate this year. We've been going down for about seven years now, ever since a young friend of ours lost her life to cancer. We did the family walk when the kids were younger, but the past three years have run the 5k race under the Team Jenny banner. Owen finished third to a 12 and 11 year old in the kid one mile fun run, and took first in his age group. I ran a personal best 5k time and got 36th overall. Becca and George started the 5k together, but after a mile George took off on his own. This was his first 5k race, only the second time he'd ever run that distance, and it was a great success. I think he surprised himself. According to his account--since his mama was too far back to report--he never stopped to rest, got a bang out of taking cups of water from the stations--just like the Olympians he watched this summer--and closed with a strong kick, finishing in the top third of the field of 1500.



The fun continued as we met up with friends Jon (that's him in the picture below), Colleen and their sons Henry and Luca and enjoyed our post-race brunch at the Runciple Spoon like a pack of wild dogs. Looking back, it felt less like brunch and more like a day at the trough. We put it away with wreckless abandon. Oh, the joys of running.

Greetings and welcome

This site marks the arrival of the Hensses to the technology age. I think we might be the last people to come on board. Nonetheless, we're happy to be here, excited to share our experiences with you. The truth is, we don't wander far from our little house, and when we do we don't stay away for too long. We just really like what's going on around here. We use the park behind our house like it's our back yard, even have a few kids in the neighborhood convinced that it is. I felt so bad about how we tore it up last year with all our football and whiffle ball that I threw down some grass seed last fall. And we all dig our schools, which says something since all four of us are in or at school most every day. For what we're doing right now, for how we're living these days, we just couldn't think of a better place to spend our days. If not a few blocks down the street, family is a short drive away, our bike and running trails practically pass right by our front door, and the pools we use are close enough to bike or run to.

About this site and what we plan to do with it. Who knows for sure? I know I'm going to put up a lot of pictures. I just got a new camera and can't keep my hands off it. So you can be sure to get links to lots of pictures. As far as posts, we'll do our best to keep you as updated as we can about what's happening here. The thing is, there's probably no great need for us to give daily, weekly or even monthly reports, because, really, most our days are composed of the same handful of things we like to do again and again. Sounds kind of odd to put it that way, but it's true. Our Mondays are a lot like our Thursdays, and we seem to like it that way.