Pictures from the half

Well here are the pictures from the website that took our pictures (obviously). I want to order some but they are ridiculously priced. But we will most likely order the one of us together because that is just priceless! We can hang it next to our medals that we won! Enjoy!

Clock time is a little off on these pics since it took me about 5 mins to get to the start line! Perks of running with 16,000 people!

I was WAYYY to excited to see the finish line too! LOL

               

I wanted to die in the picture on the far right! The race was TOUGH!

So glad to be finished!!! Another half marathon down for me and another marathon for Dan!

Goal Accomplished!

The Half Marathon is finally over!!!! Although I have been looking forward to this day for a while, I will miss training. I liked those runs now that I look back at it. But it won't be long before I am on the schedule again for yet another half in September!!

The course was HARD. At times I really thought I was not going to make it. I was struggling, but I just looked inside myself and made it. I did walk a few times, but those hills were KILLER!  I was told it was a rough course, but I just had to see for myself. Most of the course was rolling hills that actually weren't that bad in retrospect. Then we had giant hills that seemed to last forever. I made it to about 10.5 miles and then I started to walk, for small amounts of time only.

The gatorade and water stands were the only thing that made me get through. I really looked forward to giving myself more energy by drinking the gatorade. It was nice.

Now for my time: It was 2:03! YAY for me! On my first half my time was 2:18 with an average pace of 10:34/mile. This time, my pace was 9:24 per mile. That is over a minute improvement since my last race. I am SOOOOO proud of myself. I cried when I finished because I could not believe I actually did it. I look forward to my ultimate goal of getting under 2 hours for my next race!

Dan did okay. He is upset with himself, but I still think he did a good job. The hills were apparently worse on the marathon course. He struggled in the last 5 miles. He didn't get the time he wanted, but it was still a really good time. He finished in 3:38 for the full. I could never run a full in that speed/time so I think he did great. But we look forward to our next race and hope to improve our times!

I'm not sure what I will do with myself now that I am not training. I know that I am going to go to the gym and do more weight strengthening to try and lose a few more pounds (like 10-15) and then we will start running again. I can't wait!

MADNESS!

It's that time of year again! YEP! March Madness. My favorite time of the year (kinda). I love to fill out the brackets. I pick the most random teams for no apparent reason. Sometimes I have good luck, others I make a fool of myself. But it's all in good fun.

Here's how my bracket looks:
Elite 8: Kansas, San Diego State, Syracuse, Kansas St, UK, WVU, Texas A&M, ad Villanova
Final 4: Kansas, Syracuse, UK, and Villanova
Finals: Kansas and Villanova
WINNER: Kansas!!! :)

We'll see what actually happens... considering none of the above will happen.

Since my last post, not much has been going on. Still training for the half marathon, which BTW, is in 3 days. I am FREAKING out. I'm so nervous that I won't make my goal time. I am trying to run below 2 hrs... but it's a very ambitious goal. Throughout my training, I have been able to keep a consistent 9:30 pace for all of my mileage. So, if I do that for the 13.1, then I will come in at 2:03. Which is still REALLY SUPER good compared to my last half. I ran it in 2:18 with an average pace of 10:34. So I am cutting my time down my 1 min per mile. Good stuff.

We signed Chloe up for beginner's training at Pets Mart. I hope this works to at least calm her down and make her easier to live with. She stresses WAAAAY tooo much. Even more than me, which I didn't think was possible. But we'll see. I hope there is more than 2 dogs in her class. That way if she is the worst dog, she won't be the worst out of 2! But wish us luck with this!

I will write again after the marathon. I've got to focus and find my inner Chi. (Ha). Until then!

Two Miracles

Well... if you live under a rock or in a cave, you may not know this. However, most of you do.... my nephews were born!!! They arrived on February 21st. Grant Edward was born at 9:02am and James Thomas (JT) was born at 9:03. Grant weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and JT weighed 6 lbs 1 oz. We are the proudest aunt, uncle and god parents ever!!

It was quite the wake up call that Sunday morning. My mom called at 7:15am to tell me my sister's water broke and was surprised that I was not more talkative. Let's review... 7:15 am, Sunday.... hmmm... then she understood why!!

Dan and I went to visit the little guys on Thursday February 25th - Tuesday March 2nd. It was the best time. I loved holding those boys more than anything. It made me have baby fever... for a couple minutes anyway. I soon realized that I was just not quite there yet.... maybe a few more years and we'll think about it.

Since then, our lives have been uneventful. Just trying to clean the house up after we neglected it for a while. We need to start preparing for Spring Cleaning!

Since when do kids think they can just trample through your yard when they please?! Yeah that is what our neighborhood kids think they can do. Sometimes I just like to look out the window at our view of the street behind us (really not that interesting) and instead of seeing nice houses, i see hoodlums running and riding their bikes through our yard. ANNOYING! So I am hoping we get enough money back on our tax returns to purchase a fence. And we need one for Chloe's sake. Poor thing is sick of being tied up in the yard. But who knows.

The weather has been decent down here. It was low 60's for a few days and then got to 78 one day! I sat outside and read my people magazine. Until the hoodlums decided to hang out in my back yard and climb 10 feet into my tree. again, ANNOYING.

I'll stop writing about annoying things now!! We have some very exciting things coming up that I can wait to write about!!!!!!!!

12 days until the half marathon! wish me luck. Until next time, my friends!