Feel the Burn

Race For A Reason

I had the esteemed privilege to watch Randy Stephens grow up in the Warwood United Methodist Church, and even more of a privilege to go on a trip to Spring Heights years ago and participate in team-building exercises with him and other youth who were going through confirmation class.  Not long after that trip, Randy was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, which he would battle against for three years.  Randy’s spirit and continued faith raged on, even though his body was losing the battle.  In February, the good Lord called him home from the fight. That day a son, a brother, a family-member, a friend was whisked away from us, but his inspiring faith through it all continues to live on in the many lives that he touched.  

Tonight I plan to register for the Debbie Green 5K and to join “Team Randy” to walk in memory of Randy Stephens on August 17th.

This will be my first race, as this is not something that I’ve ever considered being a part of in the past.  Over the past couple of months, I’ve thought about doing a 5K, but the one I had in mind was the Color Run, which looks incredibly fun, simply because you start out wearing white and every so many miles they throw colored powder on you, until you’re end up looking like an Easter egg.  That race I planned to do in honor of the fact that I’ve gotten off my lazy bum and started to do something for my health – so I may still do it some day, but joining Team Randy is a far better reason to race, in my mind at least.  Will you join me?  It’s only $20!

I’ve mentioned before that I am one of two Sign Language interpreters at Covenant Community Church (C3) in Wheeling.  I started at C3 back in January as part of my internship for my Interpreting Training Program at WVNCC.  I graduated in May, but I’ve enjoyed it so much, I’ve decided to stay on.  Each Sunday the praise band gets together to practice the set list of songs that will be a part of the worship service and so I use that time to practice interpreting the lyrics of the songs.  The group is a fun-loving, energetic (even though it’s 8am on a Sunday) bunch and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know and work along-side them.

Then the worship service is an hour and a half long.  Since we have two interpreters, we team interpret, which means that we take turns interpreting the songs and then during the sermon, we interpret for 15-20 minutes each.  This allows for some much needed rest in between, as interpreting is very taxing not only on your muscles, but also your brain.  I’ve worked my way up to the full time team interpreting since January and have enjoyed the challenge each week.

This week and next week, the other interpreter is on vacation, and so another member of the church, who is a registered interpreter, agreed to help me out.  He arrived during rehearsal and told me that he had some bad news, he broke his finger. I gulped, but surprisingly took the news that I would be interpreting the entire service solo rather well.  He promised to feed me signs and that he would jump up if I found that I was struggling to keep up.  I was determined to not let that happen, and once again I surprised myself in completing the task rather successfully.  He did provide some valid feedback that I need to work on my facial expressions.  I’ve known for some time, that my face goes blank while interpreting, simply because I am so focused on receiving the spoken information, processing it and sending it back out through my hands, that I completely forget what my face is doing.  I also had an in-ear monitor (yay!) for the first time, so I was also trying to get used to that.  But he gave some great pointers on how to work on improving my expression and so I’m working on finding some content to practice.  He also requested that I interpret at an assignment outside of the church, but I’m unsure if I will be able to accept it, since it is during the day when I work.  It would be a great opportunity though.

I typically forget to sign into Myfitnesspal.com to log my interpreting under cardiovascular exercise (hey, that kind of arm-flapping works up a sweat!), but I made sure to log it on Sunday and was shocked at how many calories I burned!  A few months back I did a basic Google search trying to determine how many calories interpreting burns and came across the forum on MyFitnessPal where others were comparing the constant arm movements to Tai Chi.  Who knew!?!  So I logged my 150 minutes of interpreting and I burned…wait for it…920 calories!  So essentially, I get to do something that I’m passionate about and burn roughly 360 calories an hour!

All in all, a fantastic and rather fit weekend!