The Second Half...

...really felt like a First all over again! It's been nearly seven years since I last ran a half-marathon, and my life has completely changed in the years between races. Before, I was teaching full time, Ryan and I were training together on the weekends (he race-walked the full marathon that year), and we didn't have any little ones and didn't know if we'd ever have any little ones!

Oh how things have changed. It was much harder to get into running this time around (people, ladies don't lie when they say their bodies change after having a baby! or three!) and I felt much slower. BUT, I had some incredible friends who were in it with me. These two ladies had never run a half marathon before, so we were all learning and training from the beginning together. Through the past six months, we've experienced several highs and lows together, and had some of the cheapest therapy around while taking it to the pavement at 5am on Saturday mornings and 9pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and/or Thursdays. These two are like sisters to me in this time of life, and I am so grateful that we have been able to reach this goal together.
Here's Erin with her bib number. This was at the Expo the day before the race. We drove out to San Antonio on Saturday, checked into our hotel, and walked over to the Alamodome where the Expo was held to check in for the race. There were all sorts of vendors at the Expo, selling all manner of running/walking/biking gear as well as so many other fitness goods. After walking around the Expo for a bit, we went back to the hotel to freshen up before going to an early dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was then back to the hotel for an early bedtime.
This is Jessica. This was her first night away from her little boy, who will turn one this week! She accomplished two very major - and very different - milestones this weekend!
And then there's me. (Not gonna lie... I was excited to have a 'girls weekend')
We all laid out our clothes for the next morning, went through a mental checklist of what we needed to do after waking up, and went backwards on a timeline from the start of the race to see when we needed to wake up and when we needed to leave to go to the start. 5:45am was the time we set our alarms to wake us, and we had to laugh because it was "so late" for us to wake up in order to run together!
We had some shirts made for us, just to have a bit of fun. All three of us have major sweet tooths (should that be teeth?), so it seemed appropriate to have these little slogans on our shirts. Honestly, I'd run for all three of these things! Ha!

Here we are, 6:45am on Sunday, ready to walk out to our corral in the starting area. We were in corral 25 -- they had organized groups into corrals to start in waves so it wasn't just a mad stampede at the beginning, and to spread the runners out. There were over 30,000 participants in this race, which was both a full and half marathon.
The start line was directly out the doors of our hotel. Nice! However, we had to walk about six blocks to get to our corral. Oh well!
It took us about 30 minutes to actually cross the start line after the initial gun went off at 7:30am to begin the race. Two hours and forty-four minutes and 13.41 miles later (according to my RunKeeper app on my iPhone) we crossed the finish line! It was a very HOT morning by running standards. The starting temperature outside was in the mid-sixties, and when we finished the announcer said something about it being 76 degrees. When you run, your body "reads" the external temperature as twenty degrees warmer than it actually is... Plus, factor in about 60% humidity... It wasn't easy. All three of us had moments were we struggled, but thankfully we were in it together and took turns cheering each other on.
This is one heavy medal!! I am so proud of Erin, Jess and myself for accomplishing this goal of finishing a half marathon together! We've already signed up for another one -- March 4, 2012 will find us running the streets of New Orleans! Hopefully we'll have cooler weather, but I know that's a gamble at that time of year just as it is here in Texas in early November (apparently). At any rate, I've got some great running buddies who make this all worthwhile.

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

...some of the recent (and not so recent but still fun) events/creations/things we've been up to.

Last Friday, Ryan and I got a fairly rare treat of a night out with all adults. Our dear friends, Scott and Jill, had given us some concert tickets for Christmas and the concert was last Friday. We went to see Rend Collective, Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, and Louie Giglio at a mega-church in the Woodlands. It was fabulous - I almost felt like I was revisiting some college days while listening to Christy Nockels sing and then listening to Louie Giglio speak!

We were given a tough time by some of the friends who went with us, because Ryan and I are admittedly not the biggest Chris Tomlin fans. Don't get me wrong - if you're familiar with his music, it's all very good and the lyrics are fabulous and very worshipful - but I think we're both "tapped out" on him. Our area Christian radio station plays at least one of his songs (if not two or three) every hour, and we sing many of the songs he's written in church. Again - it's not a bad thing! - it's just a saturation level for us. We were excited to see him in concert again, though - that's where both of us were introduced to his music in college, through concerts. He puts on a very good live show. Christy Nockels still remains one of my favorite female vocalists. Girlfriend can SANG.

Funny story here... Ryan works with a guy named Jeff, who he's developed a friendship with since they've been working together (isn't it great when you like the folks you work with? Bonus.). Jeff's father-in-law owns a successful floral shop in the Houston area near the medical center, and Valentine's Day was quickly approaching. Of course, Valentine's Day = The Busiest Day of the Year in the floral industry. Jeff approached Ryan to ask him if he would consider taking Valentine's Day off in order to be contract labor for the flower shop and be a delivery guy for the day.

He did.

He enjoyed it!

And he brought home a gorgeous arrangement made of my favorite flowers. :)
Super Bowl to me means better-than-average commercials and yummy food. I honestly don't care much about the actual game... just not much of a fan of pro football. Anyhow, here was my contribution to this year's Super Bowl party - cake pops! Football shaped cake balls on a lollipop stick! They sure started out cute, but as they warmed up, gravity took it's toll and we had fumbles all over the countertop. At least they all tasted great!
These last three are some of my favorites of the boys from recent weeks. We were at my folks' house one evening, and the boys were helping Papa pick peppers. I'm not sure if they picked a peck of peppers, but they got quite a few! The one of Logan at the end of the post is probably one of my all-time favorites of the kid. He is one spicy pepper himself!