Back in May I got the idea that I wanted to run another half marathon. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I try to run one after each baby. With Jared's crazy travel schedule and kids needing to go every which way all of the time, I wasn't sure it was going to work. I knew I needed extra motivation this time, so I put it out there on Facebook to recruit some friends to join me. We had about 25 girls interested at the beginning. However, since training had to happen over the summer we had quite a few drop out. We ended up running the race with 7 of us and one husband. I know I've written in earlier posts about how difficult some of those hot summer runs were. I'm so grateful for this group of ladies that kept me motivated and cheered me on. They will always have a special place with me because of this feat that we accomplished together.
The morning of, we all met up at Ali's house and carpooled down together. There were lots of jitters as we had 3 first timers in the group. Stacey has recently lost over 100 pounds and had never run any race before. Talk about a go getter! I couldn't believe the first race she ever signed up for was a half marathon. Our friend Melissa had also never run a half marathon before. Same story with Tiffany even though she runs quite a bit and has done several shorter races. In the group we also had two who've run full marathons. Meredith has run one and Ali has run probably 20-including a Boston Marathon. She's fast! I think she finished this half in under 1:40. Our last friend, Alixa, also had never run a half but ended up finishing at the same time as Ali. I have some super fast friends! I fell right about in the middle. I've run two, but I don't consider myself particularly fast. My official time was 2:20 or so, but my Mapmyrun app says I finished in 2:18. The official time was off for all of us, so I'm inclined to believe my app that has been my trustworthy companion for all of my training runs. It wasn't quite as fast as my last half marathon, but this one had a lot more hills. The last mile and a half in particular was all up hill. It was just a little brutal!
After waiting in traffic to park we got there in just enough time to use the porta potty and get in line. I was surprised at how dark it still was with a start time of 7 a.m. I love the adrenaline rush that is there at the start of a race. One of my favorite parts of running is the camaraderie that you feel with other runners. Especially when some of those people are your friends! We all sort of spread out after we started and we never saw Ali and Alixa again. Melissa and I ran pretty much at the same pace for the first 7 miles or so. I think her knees started bugging her after that because she fell back a little about that time. Meredith and Tiffani were behind us for a while, but passed us up about mile 5. They ran together the whole time and finished about 2:10. Stacey really wasn't sure she'd finish before they closed the course, but she ended up finishing in about 2:45. I was so proud of her! It's amazing to see your friends cross that finish line, and it was one of my happiest moments to have Ali and Meredith cheering me on as I ran down to the finish line. I love these ladies, can you tell?! I'm so grateful for a body that allows me to run. I'm not super fast and I doubt I ever will be, but I still love to run. It's such a stress release for me. I don't know if I'll ever run another half (unless I have another baby), so I tried to enjoy this one as much as possible.
I'm so grateful for my little family that supported me and cheered me on along the way. There were many times when I was heading out the door to do my long runs that they would do a little cheer for me on my way out. It kept me going on a lot of those runs. Then seeing my family at the finish line brought me to tears. Jared in particular has been a huge support and my biggest cheerleader. Thank you, Jared, for allowing me to spend so many hours doing something for me. I can't tell you how much it means to me! Okay, enough rambling. Let's get on to some pictures!
Pre-race. L-R: Me, Meredith, Stacey, Ali, Tiffani, and Melissa
With my super fast friend, Ali Theurer. Seriously, she's an amazing runner!
Tiffani, Meredith, and Melissa waiting to start!
Meredith, Melissa, and Stacey
A whole bunch of other crazy people who like to get up at the crack of dawn and run!
The only picture I took on my race. The course was actually really pretty and covered a lot of downtown Dallas. As you can see from the picture, between mile 11 and 12 we went by the American Airlines center. Almost the home stretch! By this time my feet are just going one in front of the other. It's amazing how tiring 13.1 miles can be!
The pre-race picture by the race photographer. I have some beautiful friends!
Ali and Alixa finished before Jared got there, so he didn't get pictures of them, but here's Tiffani and Meredith rounding the last corner to get to the finish line!
Race photographers take the most attractive pictures. ha! My mom made the comment, "Were you smiling the whole race?" haha! No, I definitely wasn't, but I probably was a good portion of it. Maybe that's the advantage of knowing you're not the fastest runner in the world. I'm not out there to race anyone but myself and have fun in the process.
Rounding the corner and seeing that finish line!! Oh happy day!
Post race with our friends Jarom and Alixa Winn, Ali, and Tiffani.
Melissa found us!
Melissa and Brett Stewart. They are some of my favorite people here in Frisco. Brett and Jared like all of the same things, so they have a good time together. They have two of the cutest little boys. We love the Stewarts!
My wonderful friend, Meredith Rotz. She is the mom of all of these 5 kiddos! Her little boy Parker and my son Parker are really good buddies. Little Lauren and Capri are just a few months apart and her daughter Carissa is a few weeks younger than Brody. They'll actually be baptised on the same day next year. Meredith is one of the most giving, loving people I know. I feel so lucky to be her friend!
My boys keeping themselves entertained while they wait. They raided the food tent!
My little cheering section:
Finish line selfie!
Done and done. Checked that off my to do list for the year. Hooray! Moving on... Jared and I got a membership to the Perot Museum downtown because it is such a fun place to go. My kids love it and I enjoy it too! These are just a couple pictures from their exhibits. My boys are cute little rock climbers:
Feeling what it would be like to be in an earthquake:
Capri loves the little kids section. Her brothers are so sweet to her and follow her all around helping her. Parker likes to take her down the slide:
Capri's new cheesy smile. ha!
One night we told the kids to go brush their teeth. I guess Capri followed Brody back there because next thing we know, Brody says, "She wanted her teeth brushed so I put her on the counter and brushed them for her!" He is the sweetest big brother.
Little miss has also discovered she can climb. I find her up here or on the kitchen table quite frequently! I think we have a Parker Jr. on our hands sometimes.
Just a little side note is that I started a business! Bethany introduced me to the Perfectly Posh line when I was in California over the summer and I fell in love. I take better care of my face/skin than I ever have before. I decided to become a consultant and sell it just for a fun little side job. I've had two parties so far. A large first one with these cute ladies below where I sold $800 worth of product! I went in with no expectations at all, so I was pleasantly surprised. My second one was just with a few girls at my house and that was really fun also. I have my third one coming up this week, and I'm hoping it is successful. I'm not as stressed out about this one and since I have low expectations always, it's bound to go well. :) I'm grateful it's not my lifeline or anything and that I can just do this for fun. It's been a good thing for me! I only work on it one day a week and it's become a profitable little side business for me. I guess I can check "starting a profitable business" off my lifetime bucket list. ha! It actually was never on there, but I just had a good feeling about doing this, so I did. If/when it becomes too much, I won't do it anymore. My focus is still my family and kids and I don't ever want to take away from that in pursuit of more money.
Lori and Brandi trying out some facial masks. These ladies are so much fun!
We also have been in full Halloween mode. Jared and I neither one like to carve pumpkins, so thus far in our married life we never have. However, Brody drew five pictures of what he wanted his pumpkins to look like and the boys were dying to try it. So, we bit the bullet and did it this year. The boys were pretty grossed out by the guts (the whole reason I don't like to carve pumpkins....gross), but they liked picking out the pictures to draw. They actually didn't turn out too bad! Pictures will be in the Halloween post.
Just a couple more pictures to document this cute girl's hair. It's amazing to me because I have straight hair. I comb her hair out straight like this: (I love that grin she's giving herself)
...and it dries into this! With no product or anything. My hair would never do that. I hope she loves it as much as I do even though I'm sure it'll be a lot of work for her someday.
