Country Music Marathon

Saturday I ran in the Country Music Marathon and 1/2 Marathon in Nashville. It was quite an experience. I haven't done one in 3 years. There are lots of runners around here and it's always more fun to train with someone.

Here are my training buddies outside Walgreens the morning of the race. This is some friends of mine from Boot Camp that I go to. Jennifer (the instructor), Kelley, and Max. We did some of our long runs together on weekends.

This is funny b/c we decided to go into Walgreens and try to use their bathroom before the race. We were sure they wouldn't let us since there were rows of porta-pottys right outside their door. Not only did they let us use their potty, but they had a photographer there to take your pic, then they put it on this cool pic of downtown Nashville (which was part of the course), for free. We love Walgreens. I know I look like a dork, but I like that it shows this part of the course.

Let me just tell you a little about the race. First, it is HUGE. There were over 32,000 registered to run. WOW! They started you in corrals of 1000 people, because, well, can you imagine- ready set, go and 30,000 people taking off? It was amazing to see that many people running.

Nashville was suppose to get some really bad storms on Saturday, so they started a little early to try to beat the bad weather that was coming in. It was perfect weather to start off and I was done before it got bad, but some of the full marathoners got diverted to finish early when it started to get bad. There were a lot of people really upset about it.

The course was really cool. It went down Music Row, past the honky tonks and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and there were bands playing all along the way. It was a really neat atmosphere.

What wasn't so neat were the hills. The whole course was one hill after another. Whew! Nothing like the plains of Oklahoma ! One of the Elite runners who wins marathons all over, said it was the hardest course he had done.

I beat my last time by less than a minute. 1:57 and some change. I got 1003 rd place out of the females in the 1/2 marathon, which sounds terrible until you consider that there were 15,643. SO- I beat about 14, 600 of them! Not too bad.

The day before the race I was telling Rhett that I had to rest b/c I had to run a really long race the next day. He said "You're in a race? WIN Mommy, push the other mommies back and win!" Ha-Ha. They were so impressed with my medal when I got home. I didn't tell them that 30,000 other people got one too.

( These pics are so small b/c they are the ones they try to sell you on the website and the won't blow up)

Easter 2010

I am a little behind. We have had both sets of grandparents here for visits and gone on a little vacation and I haven't even posted about Easter yet. I'll try to get caught up. I can't believe April is almost over. This month has really flown by-like all the others I guess.

Here is the best picture we managed to get of the three kids.

Here are a few of the kids Easter morning. We don't make a big deal out of the Easter Bunny, but he does come and leave a few small things and hide eggs.

I like this picture because it shows Thad with yet another one of his sippy cups. The third child just doesn't really NEED anything and he doesn't care what he gets, so he often gets things like sippy cups. Poor third child.

Sunday Morning before church

A Few More

Here are a few more picture of Thad we got when we tried a little later. We thought these were a little better than the first ones. He was really a pretty good sport and cooperated a little longer that we thought he would.

One Year Pictures

We finally got some 1 year pictures of Thad done. I know he's 14 mos. old already, but I was waiting for my dad to be here to take some- and hey, he's the third child, he's lucky he had his picture made at all, right?

Here are a couple. I might have some others to post later.

School Pictures

Here it is Spring Break and I'm doing a post about school. Today is the first day of the break and we are out the next TWO full weeks here. It is really going to be hard for them to go back.

These were Hollace's school pictures taken in the fall. I thought they were pretty cute for school pictures. They took pictures again a couple of weeks ago. We didn't buy any this time. I don't think school pics twice a year is really necessary. She looks basically the same minus 8 teeth!


This little card came with the pictures. It is to carry in your wallet so you always have a picture to show authorities if your child is missing. The hot line for missing and exploited children is on it so you always have that too.

I'm sharing this because I really got a kick out of Hollace's version of what the card was for. She said "it is so if I get lost and you can't find me you can look at this card so you can remember what I look like so you can find me." Isn't that cute?