Raleigh Marathon April 2014

First of all, SHOUT OUT to Kelly who finished her first 13.1!!!  Way to go, Kelly! I am so happy for you and proud of your determination and dedication.  You rock!  And way to go, Josh, for knocking out your second 13.1!

Tony also finished his third half marathon!  He cramped up from the heat toward the end, but he still rocked it.  So proud of my hunky hubby! 

Last weekend, I completed my second full marathon!  Another 26.2 in the books. 

Tony and I went down to Raleigh after work on Friday.  We shopped on Saturday morning, visited the expo and picked up our race packets, met Mary and Kenny for lunch, took a nap, had dinner with my Fleet Feet team, then went to a movie with Josh and Kelly before hitting the bed (too late!) around 11:00pm.  Sunday morning was race day and we were all up by 5:00-5:30am. 

It was a hot day and got into the 80s during the race.  The route was also very hilly.  Luckily, we trained hills all season and this part I felt prepared for.  I did take salt tabs to help with the heat, but I did have some trouble bearing the heat after mile 14 or so.  I hate to think what I might have felt like without the salt sticks! 

I did not meet my time goal.  HOWEVER, I felt absolutely fantastic the entire race.  I, of course, was tired near the end, but I felt so much stronger this race than the Richmond race.  I am 100% confident that I could have knocked about 10 minutes or so off of my time.  I was running with a few of my team members and I just couldn't leave them, not in the heat like it was.  At mile 23, I did finally take off on my own and finished strong at 4:54.  The only thing that really bothered me after was my back, but nothing a little ibuprofen couldn't take care of.  We had dinner with our teammates, then headed home.  Back to work on Monday!

What an amazing experience yet again!  Within 24 hours of the race, I was already planning my next one!  I'm crazy, I know. 

I think I am going to plan several half marathons for the Fall, then plan another full next Spring.  Tony has been so giving of his time to make sure I had time to train this past year.  I feel like I need to give him a slight break from it all and training for half marathons will be much less time consuming.  Our big plan is to go to Ann Arbor, Michigan in March to run the Ann Arbor Marathon.  The course runs through Michigan's campus and right by the stadium....that will be heaven for Tony.  We also talked about "renewing our vows" on the field while we are there.  Not a real ceremony, just the two of us. 

It's a good life and God deserves all the praise and glory! 

About mile 18

mile 20-ish

screenshot from a friend's phone showing the hills!  wow!

Mile 25!

Love these guys!

so hungry after!

before!

waiting for Mary to finish in the shade!

Telling Kenny that Mary is right behind me

Disney Half Marathon 2014

Tony and I just got back from Disney World!  To say it was amazing is an understatement.  We had the best time.  We missed our kids terribly, but enjoyed the alone time too! 

We had an awesome flight there and back.  We went to the Pasta in the Park party at Epcot one evening and got to take our picture with some characters, eat a pasta dinner, and watch the light/fireworks show at Epcot. 

Tony's aunt and uncle live in Orlando and have a small guest house in their back yard.  It was perfect.  His aunt even stocked the fridge and cabinets with food/snack for us.  What a sweetheart!  We also got to visit with Tony's grandmother which was nice. 

We did some outlet shopping one day, then we had a luncheon with the charity we were running for - Lazarex Cancer Foundation. 

Saturday morning, we set our alarms for 2:30AM for the race!!  We had to be there two hours early for parking and to get in our corral and the race began at 5:30am. 

Honestly, I was so excited that I was wide awake!  Each corral got a fireworks send off and a countdown by Donald Duck.  That was pretty cool!  The race was super organized.  There were characters everywhere along the course for runners to take their picture with and we even got to run by the castle. 

Somewhere around mile 4, I lost Tony.  He always runs a few feet behind me and when I turned around at one point, he was gone.  There were 30,000 runners so it was a little crazy.  Occasionally, I stopped to take pictures and I would wait a minute or two to try to find him but never did.  I kept great pace and ended up at 2:11 even with all the picture stops.  My guess is that my finish time would have been closer to 2:05ish.  My body felt super strong the whole time which is strange since we had to wake up so early. 

It was super humid and my shirt and shorts were absolutely soaked.  Thankfully, I prepared for the heat and brought my salt sticks with me...ended up taking two of those suckers because it was so hot.  It definitely helped.  I took one Gu around mile 7 and drank Nuun on course.

After the race, we showered, napped for about an hour, then headed to Magic Kingdom for the day.  What a magical experience!  We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, then headed back in to pack our luggage before the next morning flight.

I can't wait to return for the Dopey Challenge in 1-2 years.  It's a 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, half on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday.  oh yeah!!!  Who is going with me?

before the race..around 4am

Donald Duck counted us down

A fireworks send off for each corral

86 degrees!!

30,000 runners in Magic Kingdom

Pasta Party at Epcot

stretching before the race

FINISHER MEDALS!! 

Just the two of us

Right before school started in August, Tony and I took a weekend getaway trip to Arlington/DC without the kids.  We had the best time!!  We did some shopping, good eating, sight seeing, rode the metro, went to the zoo, and went to Arlington National Cemetery.  It was so nice to really have no plans except to be together.  It is always worth spending some extra money for the two of us to getaway together a few times each year. 

And as always, it was great to get home to our two munchkins too! 

Tomb of the Unknowns

Changing of the Guards ceremony

dinner date

The Melting Pot...our favorite!!!

Dessert Heaven

Chocolate and Peanut Butter fondue

30 Club and Thanksgiving 2012

It's official.  I am thirty years old.  For my birthday, I asked for 48 hours with no kids to have to get dressed, potty train, feed, bathe, scold, put to bed, etc.  I love my kids more than anything in this entire world, but it was so nice to have 48 hours alone with my hubby.  We were suppose to go out of town for a fun hunting date, but the wind on Saturday would not have made for good hunting so we decided to stay home.

We did a little shopping, picked up some ice cream, and watched a movie at home on Friday.  Saturday, we went to breakfast, looked at some different pieces of property for sale, came home and snuggled up while we watched the Michigan/Ohio State game, then we went to dinner at Kabuki before renting another movie to watch at home.  On Sunday, we slept in and lounged around for a little while before going to pick up the babies.  Then the four of us went and got our Christmas tree and spent the evening decorating together and listening to Christmas music.  It was a perfect weekend. 

Cheers to the next 30!


Thanksgiving 2012 was fantastic!  Tony stayed home from hunting which the kids and I loved!!  I started the morning off by going downtown to run in the Drumstick Dash.  It was a great race.  I ran at a 9 min. pace ....the times were off some because with 15,000 people the start was so slow.  The gun went off and I was still walking for about 2 minutes before I could start running!  It was a new pace record for me....I'm getting a lot stronger and faster in my runs (although I'm still so slow compared to most people!).  And the best part was that at the end, I felt like I could go two more miles easy (I've been trying to add more distance to my runs).  I'm just so happy that it is getting easier and easier and I'm enjoying it more and more every time I run.  I'm contemplating a half-marathon next Fall, but we'll see.  At this point, it's a big MAYBE.

Tony and I spent the day with the kids after I got home from the race, then we headed to my parent's cabin for Thanksgiving lunch at 2:00, then came home and lounged around until Tony's family came to our house at 6:00 for another great meal! 

My two boys were happy to have me home from the race. :)

Thanksgiving Day 2012...my cuties

Date Night

Last weekend, Tony and I got to go out for a special date night.....Rascall Flatts in concert!  So much fun!  They did not disappoint!!  Here are a few pics I stole from Jen Gray since I did not take any pictures.  Let me just say that we did not have the seats that she had...lucky girl!