Asher Quick Quote

*Picture from Doughnuts with Dad Day at Preschool

"Quick Jay wun (run) away fwum the poopy monster!"

Me: Asher we don't talk like that!

"Quick Jay, wun away fwum de droppings!"

*Droppings is a term compliments of Matt. He is refined like that.

Murder on Sunflower Drive

What you should do on the day of your 1/2 marathon: Host a Murder Mystery of course!

The suspects:
Heidi & Thomas aka Terra & Con-(niver)

Mustachioed Matt and I were the Major General and Missy/Rosie Glow

Mindy & Michael aka Anne & Les

Ben and Lavon aka Ham & Ashley

The dessert *13.1 stands for how many miles we ran that day. You can see how tired we look!

Thanks to the Morby's, Simpson's and Tonga's for being such great sports.

# 33

This is the only picture I have from my birthday this year. (10/10/09)
My parents sent me the most beautiful flowers I've ever had. I woke up early and ran 8 miles, went to brunch with girlfriends, then a soccer game for Jay. The boys "built" me a cake, Matt took me shopping and we had dinner with friends at Cheesecake Factory. It was a great day. I felt very loved. I have wonderful friends and family.

Pictures from my 1/2 marathon

The Get-Along-Gang:
Jamey, Heidi, Cheri, Carie, Bruce, Jason & Tiffany

Pre-race "carb loading" pasta dinner. You can click on this to see my friend Carie's post on the race.

This was taken just before the race started downtown at Crown Center. (Hallmark's HQ) I'd like to say that these are some of the finest people I've ever known. Good down to earth, loving friends. We gathered together for prayer before the race started.
For me that was one of the highlights of the race. Giving thanks for healthy bodies, that can do amazing things. Giving thanks for friendship and the beautiful creations of the earth. Our Heavenly Father loves us.

This one is from the Kansas City Star.
Things I learned about myself.
1. I can do hard things.
2. I can't stand for any strand of hair to touch me while I am running, thus the severe Fraulein hair-do.
3. Be careful not to drop your headband/ear warmer while you are in the port-a-pottie. Your ears will be cold the rest of the race.
4. Good friends can make all the difference.

This is me on the plaza at about mile 7, waving to the Koford family. It was so nice to see familiar faces! My friend Tiffany Whitney & I ran together the entire race. Running with friends works well for me. We didn't use ipods the entire race. We visited, encouraged each other, cried together...and kept on running. Our mission was to finish in 3 hours. We beat our goal by 18 minutes!
*Side note: I did use an ipod to train though and now suddenly it has died! Drat. Looks like I better start saving up for a new one.

The finish line, I'm not in this one but you get the idea. Matt ran to the car to get the camera and missed me finishing the race. There are lots of pictures online of the finish and the entire race. You can go here to view those. It won't let me copy them b/c they are for sale. But you can see that I actually finished!

Post race still on a runner's high. It was SO cold though, we left pretty quickly after we ate and took pictures.

My sweet boys brought me flowers! I loved having them there at the finish. Thanks Matt, I love you!

This entire training experience has been wonderful. Never in my life would I have thought I'd commit to run 13.1 miles for fun without someone chasing me.
I can see how people get addicted to running road races.

In summary if you are still reading (Grandma & Grandpa) there were about 11,000 runners there. The air was filled with a great sense of camaraderie, fun and excitement. There were several moments in the race when I would tear up with emotion and joy. There were runners wearing shirts that said things like "you think this 1/2 marathon is hard? You should try chemotherapy!" and "Honk if I'm walking" and "running in memory of..." I literally loved every moment.

All 2 hours and 42 minutes.

It's GO time.

My 1/2 marathon is in less then 48 hours. This morning I had my last 3 mile run of the week. Tomorrow is an off day and my friends and I are going to go pick up our race packets and get our numbers. We will probably drive the race course too.

I have followed my training schedule for the past 16 weeks. (I started out really slow due to my tail bone injury.) I've completed my 11 mile run. The theory is if you can run 10 miles you can run 13.1 I've done everything I can possibly do to prepare.

I am excited and a little bit nervous but I am ready.