Half Marathon

In May a girlfriend of mine called and asked if I wanted to do a half marathon in Nashville with a group of girls from church.  After a (brief) discussion with Nate, I decided 48+ hours away with girlfriends was worth a 13.1 mile walk. 

I trained with my friend Rachelle, who lives pretty close to me.  We walked maybe 6 times or so, including one 9 mile walk.  That was the extent of our training.  We hoped we would be able to finish! 

We went this past weekend, and let me tell you, it was so fabulous!  There ended up being only 6 of us (it started with about 15 of us, but life happens, so several girls had to drop out).  It was perfect, though, because we could all fit in one van, and the small group meant that there was just one group of us, not several smaller groups. 

We talked and talked and talked...seriously, 6 women and no kids?  It was awesome!  We talked marriage, parenting (between us there were 17 kids, 15 of them boys, from age 10 months to 11 years), family, books, movies...you name it. 

We started out at a health fair to get our shirts and bags and nametag things where I found this hilarious headband to model for Z.  :)

We ate on Friday night at Wild Horse Saloon, where I convinced (not much was needed!) Gwen to come out on the dance floor with me to learn a country line dance, and then Michele joined us as well.  Pretty funny stuff. 

We were in bed relatively early, but most of us slept poorly, so were happy to be up by 5:30 to get ready to go.  The race started at 7, so we grabbed a quick protein bar to eat and headed down.  There were over 5000 women in this race. 

I walked with Rachelle and Sommar (Gwen ran, and Erica and Michele walked together).  We felt pretty good the entire race until mile 12.  At mile 12, you crossed a bridge that was up a huge hill in the hot sun.  Horrid race planners!  We ran for a bit...we called ourselves the "downhill joggers" since we only ran on the downhills :)  Our final time was 3:11, which was a little under 15 minute miles.  Not too shabby, I don't think! 

We ate at Panera for lunch, and my good friend Beth who lives in Nashville was able to meet up with me there, so we got to chat for a few hours.  That in of itself is a special treat...we have 8 kids between us, she homeschools, and we live 5 hours apart, so those factors make it difficult for us to find a time to chat anymore, much less be able to hang out. 

I joined the other girls back at the hotel, and we watched a movie (at 4 pm, no one bothering us!!!).  We went to Maggiano's for dinner at 730, and didn't leave until 945.  It was great to have a 2 hour meal.  And it was yummmmmmy.  Anything that I might have burned off running was certainly put back on again after that meal. 

We slept in (until after 8 anyway), then ate at Panera again and got on the road. 

It was so good to be home and see the boys.  Mike and Dorothy came for the weekend to help Nate out, which he (and I) very much appreciated.  I wish I could say I missed the boys...I did when I was almost home, but I was so busy enjoying my time, conversations, lack of responsibility, no timeline, and eating that I really didn't. 

Incredibly grateful for the opportunity to get away with super friends and for Nate for being so supportive of me going!