Country Music Madness

The only picture of Leigh and I at the race

16 weeks of training, many early morning runs (5 am), logging way too many miles on a treadmill, passing the finish line in Nashville....priceless! I did it, again. I can't believe I signed up for the craziness of training and running another 1/2 marathon, but I did. They are almost becoming addictive...almost. My time was 2 hours 12 minutes and 45 seconds. Not my best time, but I'll take it any day. I'm not a long distance runner...in fact I really don't enjoy running unless their is a ball that I am chasing, however I run to stay in shape and so that I will be able to eat what I want to eat. It was a lot of fun this time training and running with my sister-in-law, Leigh. She is a much better runner than I, so she keeps me motivated to want to do better. Maybe next time I can hang...but don't count on it.

The kids and I drove up to Nashville Friday morning so that we could do some fun stuff while we were there. We spent some time at the Expo gathering free goodies and then the kids and I headed off to the Adventure Science Museum. We got in free because we are members of our local science museum, which was great for me, and the kids enjoyed the new stuff at this museum and had a great time.Trey the crazy ambulance driverKendal working hard to get her heart pumping

After the museum we headed to the hotel for some swimming, then dinner and then we called it an early night. Leigh and I headed out about 5:15 am for the race, but due to traffic we barely made our start time of 7 am. It was crazy running with 40,000 people. That is a lot of people....and running 13.1 miles surrounded by and dodging hot sweaty people just adds to the exhaustion. Jeff and the kids attempted to make it to the finish line, but there were just too many people. I totally appreciate that they even attempted to come and I was very glad they were able to find me and pick me up so I didn't have to walk home.

We had a great time and I'm glad I did it. However, I am very much looking forward to doing something other than running when I go to the gym next week, whether it be a spin class, the elliptical, or weight training.

The kids had a great couple of days. Besides going to Nashville, Thursday night was their Family Fun Fair at school. It's basically the school's big fundraiser where they have a big carnival with rides, games, food, etc. Bayley was stoked because she won once doing the cake walk and once doing the teacher treat bag (a bag full of treats). They all had a great time and walked away exhausted and happy. Kendal also had a softball game that night. She continues to improve and understand what's going on each and every game. In fact, Thursday night she was playing short stop and made an unassisted out at second base on a ground ball. We were all very excited!
Kendal at bat
Sunday picture