Well. I can honestly say I am glad this weekend is over. I love seeing and spending time with my family of course, but hopefully I can now focus on moving into our house and not have to worry about getting training runs in for the half marathon. Which seriously took a back seat for the past two weeks. I'm not sure I can even say I was "training" but it was more of a "oh..I should go for a run sometime this week. At least once.." It was a sad attempt.
All that being said, I am very pleased with how Jess, Dad and I did in the race! Lily and I took off Saturday morning for Columbus to meet my family and extended family (aka the Church's and Michal and Jill) at the race expo. Lily was a champ and cooperated pretty well for an excitable one year old, switching between being carried around in my backpack and on a leash. Yes, we have one of those for her. Let me tell you what, judge if you want but I love it. And I know people were chuckling and making comments, but she was ecstatic that I was letting her walk around and I had the peace of mind knowing she wasn't going to get far away. I actually heard a few people say that it was a good idea..clearly they were parents.
I hadn't really thought about what I was undertaking by going on a 3 hour drive to a bigger city I don't know, down town, and trying to a) find somewhere to park, b) haul a silly little girl and enough distractions with us to the expo, and c) find my family. I had a small freak out moment but quickly got over it. Mom, Kimmy and Joel were HUGE helps during the race (thanks, guys!). This morning, we all got out of the hotel fairly smoothly and off to the race and let me tell you what, it was windy. And chilly.
As is becoming our (brilliant) tradition, Dad, Jess and I ducked out of the herd of runners once we got moving to go for one last bathroom break. All the runners are so focused on getting going and crossing the start line that the bathrooms are allllll vacant and there are no lines. Perfect time to go. And probably the most amusing part of the day took place at this point: for those of you who don't know, when a marathon starts, clothes go flying. If you don't have a support crew you can toss your sweatshirt to, you throw your hoodie or long sleeved shirt on the ground and off you go. Well, Jess, Dad and I all had dropped our stuff with Mom and were pretty chilly. So when I go into the lovely port-a-potty, I noticed there was a long sleeved shirt about my size hanging on the back of the door. It smelled like perfume and was my size, so I "borrowed" it. Dad thought that was a good idea, so he "borrowed" a fabulous, baby blue sweatshirt with snowmen on it. Jess and I wish he had kept it, but he tossed it once he warmed up. We like this tossing business because we didn't lose anything of ours, and the clean up crews go and gather the clothes for the homeless, typically.
Anyway. We ran. And ran. And ran. And ran farther for good measure. We saw Mom, Kimmy, Joel and Megan at one point...and kept going. Oy. 13.1 miles is far. But Richard went 26.2, so I shouldn't complain.
I was quite pleased with our time. I felt we were going at a good speed, and our/my official chip and finishing time was 2:25.33. I realize that's slow for some of you, but our goal was to finish and that we did! I was curious to see what my other race times were, since I didn't remember, so I shall now share. With a slightly ashamed face for a few of them.
First race: PF Chang's, Rock 'n' Roll- Phoenix, AZ 2:23.44 ((...and it was my PR)
Second race: go! St. Louis- St. Louis, MO 2:36.42 ((16 weeks pregnant))
Third race: Nashville Country Music- Nashville, TN 2:46.10 ((this one was tough for me, I cramped very badly))
and today's race
Fourth race: Nationwide Insurance Columbus- Columbus, OH
and, if we count the marathon relay...that would really make today's race #5.
Anyway. I DEFINITELY prefer running with people. I ran the St. Louis half with Dad, and with Jess and Dad today. You can see how well I did by myself running in Nashville. So, if anyone wants to run (slowly) a race with me...let me know!! :)
Our Scoop Up Crew was busy with Lily today, so I don't have any pictures yet. I'm hoping I can get one or two off the website once they post them..we had some pretty spectacular poses.
Oh, and Jesse didn't go with me this weekend. Did I cover this? It was a last minute decision, we weren't overly thrilled about it, but it was for the best. We're both concerned about getting all the fixing things done at the house before we can really get to moving and get carpet laid, so he worked at the house all weekend. I'm not sure who had more fun..
That's it! I will post more of a life update *maybe* tomorrow..life has been crazy with trying to get things done at the house and running all over the place. I promise I will be a better friend/family member next month.
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