Wonderful Exhausting Weekend...Wonderful Run!

What a great weekend at my brothers wedding!  Wonderful, but exhausting!  It was tough driving an 8 hour trip in 9+ hours thanks to wonderfully inclement weather!  Then get in the car and drive the rest of the 11 hour trip!  Thankfully that trip went as scheduled!

Exhausting thing #2 & #3  - my beautiful young children.  Note to self, never be in a wedding with your husband and children and not bring a designated babysitter!!!  Toting a toddler around on your hip while in heels is not recommended!  By the time the wedding began on Saturday I was mentally and physically done!  But SO excited for my brother and amazing new sister in law!!!

Exhausting thing #4 - Dancing for hours!  This was fun but again exhausting!  What a blast we had making fools of ourselves!  Believe me when I say I can't dance, and there is video evidence out there to prove it!f

Exhausting thing #5 - Sleeping on a full hotel bed with your husband. Needless to say. I got no sleep! 

Exhausting thing #.....who's annoyed with the numbers yet?!?  Me! Me! 

Drive an 11 hour trip home in 12.5 hours (at least)  We were moving along swimmingly and were scheduled to get home at 6:30pm when I had to pee.  So we stopped and a few of us got out for a quick potty stop.  We get back on the road and a few moments later by husband was slamming on the brakes because moments before around a corner a semi truck had just taken a curve too fast and tipped over!  Right in the middle of the road!  Next thing we know, my brother in law is jumping out of the car and running up to the accident.

Yep, that's him on TOP of the overturned truck!  (He was the only one in shape enough to climb up there to talk to the driver)  Thankfully he was conscious and talking, but none to coherently.  Poor kid had just gotten his license a few days earlier and this was his first haul!  We are praying he was really as ok as he seemed!

The embankment he went up on...wrecked it up nicely!

Dirt all over the road. Our van is right behind the semi on the right!

Kids with daddy waiting for the accident to be cleaned up!

About 1 1/2 -2 hours later they finally let us through after pulling the load to the side and cleaning up the road! (I have a video of this but blogger is being stupid and won't let me upload it for some reason, its all right, it wasn't that exciting!)

So we finally got home about 9:30ish and the kids ran around screaming and yelling!!  So happy to be out of the car!!!

All in all, I LOVED this weekend even though it exhausted me!

And even though I was exhausted from the weekends events (which included eating plenty of crappy food) I managed an 8mi run on Monday.  Yeah that's right 8mi!!!  Oh, and did I mention I did it at a 9:17 pace!!!  Last time I did 8 mi was training for my half and I did it at a 10:58 pace!  Now that's what I call improvement!!!

Nothing like being trapped in a car for 12 hours to get your legs moving.  And besides I have to re-lose the 2lbs I lost last week!! 

Wedding

I have a new sister-in-law!  Yay!  She is amazing and I am SO happy she is part of our family!  I'll post pics of the wedding when I get them uploaded...but for now, here is a taste of the entertainment at the reception!  He had all in the room laughing and cheering because for a while we were the only two on the dance floor and he tore it up!!!!  Man do I love this kid!!

What!?!

Remember how proud I was of my pace for the race?

Remember it was a personal best?

I still am I guess.

Except for the fact that yesterday I ran 4mi at a 9:05 pace.

Really proud of that!  But it made me sad that I didn't do better at the race on Sunday! 

I blame the hills!

Snowball 5 Miler

Ran another race today!  First races I haven't hated halfway through.  Usually I ask myself about halfway through "why am I doing this?"  Its usually the pressure of the race or being intimidated by all the runners around me! 

But today was fun!  A pretty hilly course but so much fun!  AND an added bonus, I did my best time for 5 miles yet!  47:24!  And my first mile was 8:53.  I knew I coudn't keep that pace for the whole race, but I am thrilled with how I did!  Did I mention the hilly course!  So I am happy!

I was supposed to have a whole team of people to run with today, but we had one sick and one sick husband and one move away so our team of 6 became 3!  (we forgot to get a pic with Kamala) 

After the race!!

Kaci also recorded a person best which was great to!

We were joined too by some girls from our youth group! 

They were the "redheads" and for not training much at all they did GREAT!  Coming in at just over an hour!  VERY proud of them even if one of them was cursing me in her head for making her run faster at the very end!  They did SO great!  Way to go Abby and Emily!!

So overall I am thrilled with how today went and looking forward to a great running week this week!

Running With Friends!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE running with friends!  (now)

I have to let you in on a little secret....I have always been scared to run with people. It has always intimidated me.  I feel like I would be holding them back or breathing to loud or talking too much or I run funny or what if I can't keep up and have to walk, or etc etc etc.  A few years ago when I was running a lot too I had a friend who always said we should run together...I was SUPER intimidated.  So I never did.  Until this past summer I had only run with 3 people.  Two of them were my sisters and one was a friend from college who pressured me into it.  I hated every minute of it!


But this year something changed.  I found a running partner who I was good friends with.  I have known her since college and was SO comfortable running with her.  I knew she wouldn't judge me and would just run. And low and behold I LOVED it! 

So to me that is key, running with people I am comfortable running with.  Period.

I did take a HUGE step running "with" someone who runs WAY faster than me and guess what, it was one of my best runs ever.  It was in my training for my half and it was my 12 mile run.  I got done and wasn't even tired.  I didn't get to run along side her, but knowing she was there pushed me to keep going and going and going. 

Now I have a few running buddies who I LOVE running with! 

Thanks girls!!