Surfside 1/2 Marathon

I finished a half marathon. That is 13.1 miles. I ran the whole thing!

And with as hard as running is for me, I can't believe I accomplished this. Running isn't hard any more. I trained. I really trained. 3 months of training 5 times a week. 

And after that intense training period, getting to know myself so much better and learning to push myself harder than I wanted to (I have 6 children, I have been pushed pretty hard already), making sure I fit a run into my schedule basically every single day, I was ready to run 13 miles.

I had an audience. I really thought I would run this thing by myself. That I would have to drive to the coast to run the race, run it alone, and drive by myself home.  I was worried I was be too tired to drive home, so I asked my parents to come. 

Not only did my parents come, but my brother Eric and his family came. My sister Bonnie and her family came. And Evan brought the kids down.

The lady at the running store suggested wearing a trash bag to keep warm until my body warmed up. And since it was a trash bag I could easily discard it. It was a little long and so my dad gave me his jacket to begin the run and he wore the trash bag. Seriously, my dad is awesome! He was there to pick up his jacket when I finally warmed up, so that I wouldn't have to carry it the whole run.

The coolest part of the race, well beside completing 13.1 miles, was having my family there. The set up of the marathon was along the coast. You could drive up the coast. So, Evan drove up the beach where I was running (they showed up about mile 6) and kept dropping kids off to run with me. Spencer was the first to run with me. He probably ran 1/2 a mile with me. And it wasn't just any 1/2 mile. We had head winds that were so strong I thought they were going to push me backwards.

Danielle took her turn running with me. Taneal probably ran 2 miles of it with me. Camie even ran with me! Finally at mile 9 I got to turn and head back, the wind no longer pushing against me. But by that point I was more tired than normal because of the wind. And maybe running on the sand. The sand was hard packed, so it felt like I was running on a track. Plus the sounds and smell of the ocean was pretty awesome. And the company.

My sister-in-law Angela ran 3+ miles with me. She almost crossed the finish line with me. She made me feel good. She had to stop running because she was too tired. And she runs almost daily. It was a hard workout. 

This is me crossing the finish line. Danielle and Nathan crossed it with me.

The last mile was tough. By half a mile left, I was grateful that I didn't have much farther. I even thought to myself that if I had more than a mile left to go, I would have to walk it. But I didn't. And so I accomplished my goal, to run the whole thing. My time was much slower than any run I had ever done before, but I hadn't had head winds like that on any run before. I wanted to complete it in under 2 hrs 20 min. But my main goal was to run the entire thing. My time was 2 hrs 25 min. That is about an 11 minute mile. Pretty slow for what I had been doing. But I ran for nearly two hours and a half. And that is amazing. I never thought I could do something like that.

I DID IT!!!!!!

Bonnie, Jarom, and Sage. Bonnie and Jarom made the posters. So cool!

Taneal and Camie. Probably some of my biggest fans. My biggest supporters helping me train for this race. 

Here is the app on my phone that tracked my run. I started at the big box, headed south on the beach for 2 miles, turned around and headed up the beach to mile 9, turned around and headed back to the starting line.

My family. All there cheering me on.

One of my favorite apps is "Find Friends". My mom took a picture of this for me. Me running along the beach. I thought it was pretty cool.

Kids playing in the ocean while I ran. 

All done. Now what do I do?

Children's Museum

I decided to let the kids play hookey from school and we all went to the children's museum

This was Nathan's favorite place. He loved putting his hand in that thing and picking up the tweezers and picking up the little BB things and putting them on the board. It was slow work, but he stuck to it and even wanted to go back later and do it again.

Spencer like the pullys.

Taneal really liked the rock climbing. I think her favorite part of it was making the slime.

Danielle spent a lot of time making the parachute to put in the wind tunnel. She also spent a lot of time making a ball bouncer and catcher made from two cups with the ends cut off, a balloon at one end, a cotton ball in the middle. You pull and release on the balloon and it launches the cotton ball that you then have to try to catch.

 

Taking a 2 second rest. That was about all these kids rested the 6 hours we were there.

They had this 3 story maze sorta thing to climb. I am pretty sure this was Gavin's favorite thing.

This kind of freaked me out. I thought it was a real kid that Nathan was working on. When I realized it was just a dummy, I kind of laughed. Nathan thought it was pretty cool. Besides the scientist center, he really liked the ambulance and police car.

 Taneal had fun playing with the mirrors. I was glad she had a good time. She is my first teenager and I've heard that teenagers are supposed to be just plain aweful. Taneal is wonderful and so much fun to be around.

We had a great day at the children's museum. We picked a perfect day to go, it wasn't crowded at all. Bonnie met up with us for a while. We all left worn out and happy. Well, most of us were happy. Nathan said he didn't have any fun at all. But I know he did.

Happy Valentines Day

We had another great Valentines Day this year. 

We made cookies for some of our loved ones (crossing guards, teachers, visiting teaching friends, etc.)

Taneal found the idea of french bread pizza. SO much fun.

Here is the dessert. Yah, there is an Oreo in that pudding.

heart shaped cheese and cucumbers in the salad.

Our fancy dinner. About as fancy as we can get. 

Taneal was pretty insistent we all dress up. It was very fun. Very special, and we all felt very loved.

Happy 13th Birthday, Taneal

Taneal's birthday was several celebrations. She got to go to IHOP and help celebrate with a few of her friends who also have February birthdays.

She had some friends over for a party. They had cupcakes, food, and watched a movie, Here Come the Boom. They had a great time and Taneal says that is the kind of birthday party she wants to start having. I agree. It was so simple to do.

Camie made Taneal breakfast in bed. Such sisterly love!

On her actual birthday, Taneal wanted a cake. It couldn't be a Costco cake. It had to be a homemade cake. And she was specific about how she wanted it decorated. The only problem with that is if I can't picture it in my head, I can't make it beautiful. I never was able to picture what she wanted in her head, so I never was in  love with the cake. But Taneal loved it and so my goal was accomplished. However, if she ever decided Costco cakes are great too, I would love to do that option. So simple, yummy, and not personal. No wonder she wants a homemade cake.

Bonnie and Sage came over. So glad to have them come. Check out Sage's legs. Mmmm. 

Color In Motion 5K

Taneal and I ran our first 5K at the most awesome and exciting race ever. We were given white shirts. And a bag of powder dye used to splatter each other with. At each 1K station, volunteers squirted us with color. By the time we finished the race, we were splattered with green, blue, red, orange, purple, and yellow.

This is my friend, Nicole, the one who told me about this 5K. She ran the race with us. We finished in about 32 minutes, with a prolonged water break. Not too bad for our first 5k.

Taneal had so much fun. Okay, so did I. I had so much fun flinging color at Nicole, my OCD friend. She said she didn't mind. Taneal loved the color too. We are going to have to do this again. Maybe next year Camie will want to join the fun!

Bonnie, Jarom, and Sage came for the race. Bonnie wouldn't let me throw color at her. 

I didn't give my mom a choice. She drove down to get pictures. I think she liked having the color on her. In fact, she agreed to do the race with me if they have one again next year. She has already gotten on the treadmill at home and walked a mile each day. Hopefully she will keep it up so she can walk it next year.

My aunt Cookie even came for the event. So much fun to have her here!

This is us before the race. So clean!

 Afterwards we went to IHOP for breakfast. We got so many looks! I still can't believe I went out in public like this!