Half-marathon

Well, folks. I survived. Last Saturday, I ran (and walked) 13.1 miles. I am still feeling a little sore today. Yesterday was brutal.

Looking back, I wish I'd trained more. At the same time, I knew if I extended my training too long, I'd give up.

Here's a brief overview of the day.

Left the house at 5:00 and checked in at 5:45. They shuttled us up to the mouth of the canyon and we had about a half hour up there to "warm up" (aka sit on the curb) and use the port-a-potty. On the drive up to the canyon, I sat next to an awesomely chatty older chap who had been running all his life. I could tell by his obvious running attire (insanely small shorts, hairy legs, and race pack), that this was going to be just another run for him. He was super nice though and shared all of his running secrets with me.

The first 8 miles were awesome. I felt great and ran the entire time. I had a pretty good pace and if I'd kept it up, I would've finished under 2:30. During miles 8-10, the sun came up and I ended up getting to a place in the group where there wasn't anyone near me. It was a rough 25 minutes. It was easy at the beginning to see someone 10 feet in front of you and work your up to them, but by myself and if felt like I was going sooo slow. I walked for a minute or two during that time. Then after mile 10, I walked for almost 2 miles. To be honest, it felt so good. My body was rejecting movement and did not want to keep going. However, I walked as fast as I could, took my earbuds out and just enjoyed it. It was perfect for me. I was a little disappointed that I didn't keep running but I also didn't really care.

I ran the last mile and it was fun coming into the park and seeing my hubby and baby there. Leo's family came to support and it was great. My time was 2:40 which was just dandy. Of course later that day, my friend posted her husband's time in another half marathon and his was 1:40.... Just an hour less than my time.

Looking back, that race is so typical me. I don't have a drop of competitiveness in me, not even against myself. Just finishing was perfect. I think I'm going to try to do another one after my next baby (no, I'm not pregnant). For the next few months, I want to take my baby for long walks, at least a couple miles every day and then jog two or three times a week. I want to enjoy it though and not stress about it.

Just a few projects...

So, this is one of those times where it would be awesome if I could spend a week doing nothing but finishing projects. Let's talk about all the things I want to be doing.

First of all, I'm running a half marathon a week from tomorrow. Yes, I realize I couldn't "work" on this with all the time in the world, but Jackson's been sick this week and that means, I'm tired, which means, I don't get up early to run, which means, I'm probably not quite as ready to run 13.1 miles as I should be. (I know that's a run-on sentence. I thought it seemed appropriate, given the topic.) Tomorrow morning, I'm supposed to run 11 miles. I did almost 10 miles last Saturday and it was a good run. I'm hoping tomorrow will be good too.

Second project is tiling my bathrooms. I have been trying to avoid doing it myself (aka pawning it off on my brother-in-law). But I realized, I could work on it during Jackson's naps (again, he's been sick, so not much has happened.) I know, you're thinking, "Does she know how to tile?" Well, I've never done it before if that answers your question. However, both of my parents are serious diy-ers, so I'm hoping I have the gene somewhere inside of me. The vinyl is a beast to get up, so that's the goal for next week is to just get that up. I can tell Jackson's feeling better so hopefully, that'll happen.

Third project is creating a bench seat for Jackson's room. We had this horribly uncomfortable futon up there for guests, but I'm pretty sure it gave everyone who ever slept on it the need to call a chiropractor, so we got rid of it. Now, what I want to do is make a cushion to put on top of a coffee table that we don't use downstairs and then put it under his window and some baskets for toys underneath.

Fourth project includes replacing light fixtures, painting, other fix-it things around the house.

Anyway. Here are some pictures of how we entertained ourselves this week. 

This is the futon frame (that needs to be taken to the dump, honey...) I turned it into a splash park, 'cause I'm awesome like that. Sometimes, I feel bad for our neighbors because I know they can see into our backyard and I know they are thinking, "Wow, that's some white-trash parenting." 

Seriously, mom. More pictures?

Again, questionable parenting. Yes, he's chewing on a vacuum attachment. I washed it with the hose before I gave it to him??...

Snot-nosed angry baby.

Oh so busy.

It's been a busy 2 weeks. A lot of fun and a lot of pictures :) The first week of vacation was Leo's family vacation from my last post. We got home late Friday night July 20th. My mom, Cody & Callie came into town on Saturday. We had so much fun with them. 

My poor brother and sister were the victims of my picture taking. I think they were sick of it by the end of the week. 

Jackson snuggle-buggled all week with them. It was really sweet. 

Tried out a few pinterest hair styles on Callie girl. 

 

We went bowling with Grandma, Uncle Brett and some of his kids. They had a ridiculously good deal going on at Fat Cats for the summer. It was really fun! Jackson, Cody, & Callie played in the games area a lot. 

 You can still see the shadow of his black eye here. It's finally gone now. 

Another day, we met up with my Grandma and cousin, Janessa, and went to a park in the Provo Canyon. They were able to get in the river a little bit. There was also a little playground for Jackson. 

Jackson went down the slides by himself!

And of course, Jackson had to get in the freezing cold water. 

His diaper got too heavy after awhile. 

Probably, one of the greatest pictures ever.

We also hiked the Y, which if you haven't done in a long time, it is surprisingly steep!

 We also went to a fun park by my house that has a sandbox and big pirate ship!

On Tuesday of that week, Leo's grandpa died. Leo loved his grandpa so much. It was really sad. He had been sick of several years, though, so Leo felt comforted to know that he was relieved of pain now. So on early Saturday morning, we drove up to Boise for the funeral. My family left sometime that day. 

The hotel we stayed in had a big beautiful, white comforter, which prompted a small photo shoot. 

Leo was really tired for a nap after the funeral, so I took Jackson out to the hallway and we chewed on ice. 

Ok... how much does it look like he's peeing.

He also did some impromptu yoga.  

And then climbed onto the luggage rolling rack, which resulted in a nasty fall. He sat down too close to the edge and fell backwards and his head hit the edge of the molding. We almost took him to the ER, thinking he had a concussion. He hadn't taken any real nap that day, so he was exhausted. After he hit his head, he wanted to fall asleep so badly, but we wouldn't let him. Leo's uncle is a nurse so we had him take a look and he said he was fine. 

The drive home was hilarious because we still didn't have a window and our duct tape finally gave out. I sat in the back and held the blanket down so it didn't flap so hard in Jackson's face. Jackson was not a fan. We re-duct taped in Burley and it barely lasted the next 3 1/2 hours. We got a new window yesterday. 

We had so much fun with both of our families, but we're glad to be back to normal, too.