Derby Festival Mini-Marathon!

I finished 13.1 miles!

The mini marathon is over, and I'm still alive. I went to bed late the night before ( screaming child), and woke up just about every hour the entire night. I was so anxious to get out there and just get it over with. I woke up around 6ish, ate an orange, got dressed, and headed out with Amanda and my Dad. He dropped us off close to the start line, and I had a terrible stomach ache, and headed straight to the porto- potties ( sorry if it's TMI). The lines were SOOOO long, we stood there for at least 15 minutes, and left because it was 7:15, and we wanted to head to the starting line.I was SO nervous to start the race all by myself, but was mentally ready for it! I didn't let any of the " what am I doing?!?!" or " I CAN'T DO THIS!" thoughts into my head at all, and knew I had to finish! The only bad thought I had was "OMG, when will I be able to stop and use the bathroom?!?!"

The first mile was spent dodging walkers. How they got into corral B & C, I have no clue! My pace was right at 10 minutes the first 2-3 miles. I hadn't trained on ANY hills, so mile 2-4 being in the park with hills slowed me down a little bit. I love the FCA posters with bible verses on all of them up until their power aid station! They made me smile. I also loved that most of the water stops had mini water bottles, so I carried them almost until the next stop, and drank all along the way. Once we got out of the park, the drizzle had turned into a little harder rain. I saw some potties right outside the park, debated stopping, THEN saw like 15 people in line. I didn't wanna add THAT much time on, so I kept going. I saw some people along Southern Parkway that we knew, and said a little "hi" as I ran past. Then around mile 6, the sun came out, and the drizzle stopped! I was already 8 minutes behind my pace at that point, but wanted to try to get my pace back up, and only finish 8 minutes later than I wanted.I kept looking for another potty, and the only other one had a massive line too. I had NO clue how I was going to finish like this haha. FINALLY once in the infield at Churchill Downs, the bathrooms were open!!!! It added a few minutes onto my time, but I had to stop =(. Once I got out of Churchill Downs, I kept waiting to see my baby boy and parents.....but I never found them where they said they'd be. Turns out they had a flat tire ( my dad ran over something when he dropped us off). Once I got to 8 miles, I knew that's that farthest I had run, and that was my 'goal'. I did NOT want to walk as much as I did, but I did the best I could. The last 2 miles were MISERABLE! I thought FOR SURE I had missed the 12 mile marker, and there was NO way that mile was THAT Long. haha AND THE HILL at the end was killer! Some guy was like " WWWHHHYYYY DDDIIIIDD THEY PUT A HILL RRIIIGGGHHHTT HHERRREEE???", and it gave us all a good laugh at the end. There were so many turns, and when I thought we were almost done, we went up another block and turned again.The worst part was--seeing a ton of people already walking back to their cars with their medals! FINALLY, I saw a mile 26 marker for the full, and knew .2 left, and I need to kick it up to finish. Well, I turned the corner, saw the finish, and took off. THEN I got like 20 steps away from the finish and thought I would die. haha Seriously, I finished 20 minutes later than I wanted to , and am embarrassed of my time, compared to others that I know who ran it. THEN I think, I've always hated running, and I have ALWAYS been slow! With taking a few minutes off for my bathroom break, and calf stretching a few during the last 4 miles, I finished right around 2 1/2 hours. At least that's a starting point! And the next time I run one, I will have a time to beat. I'll try to get at least 1 or 2 more weeks of training in, so my body doesn't die at mile 10. I will also run with someone hopefully. I think it would make a world of difference running with someone, and also having people cheer along the way for me. MAYBE I can get Luke to do one with me! ! !Let me know if there's any good half-marathons coming up! In the meantime, I'm hoping to be running some 5ks with some friends. The best part of the day was after I was over the stomach sickness, and Amanda was done throwing up ( I think we ate bad food!) I ordered some Papa John's thin crust!!!! YUUMMY! After burning like 1500 calroies, who cares what you eat!

Amanda after finishing.

Mini-Vaca

We had a wonderful long weekend trip to the beach! It was very relaxing, even with Landon. Luke let me get a lot of laying out time to get a break from my 'job' since we took it with us. And since he takes a 3 hour nap ( and it was longer from being SO worn out while we were there), Luke got to sneek in a nap each day too. On Sunday afternoon we both layed out, read, slept, and relaxed outside by the pool while Landon napped. We were on the 4th floor ( pool level), so we could lay right by our patio.I'll add a few pictures and 2 videos, but have a lot on facebook.

Daddy and his sweet little boy!

Landon and his Mommy on the beach.Sharing some superman icecream. He loved the water, and playing with his Daddy all day.

The best $24.99

The best $24.99 I have spent on Landon was on his sound machine.


We just got it last week. It's a Homedics Sound Spa.The best part about it is that we can hear it on the monitor and go to sleep to the ocean waves too! Now we don't have to leave the bathroom fan on across from his room at night, and we can take it with us wherever we go!

Easter

We had a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection on Easter. Church was amazing. The service started with the choir singing God is Here:

There is a sweet annointing inthe sactuary

There is a stillness in the atmosphere

Come and lay down

The burdens you have carried

For in this sanctuary God is here

He is here, He is here

to break the yoke and lift the heavy burdened

He is here, He is here
To heal the hopeless heart and bless the broken
Come and lay down
The burdens you have carried
For in this sanctuary God is here

And the youth did another amazing skit.

My family was in town, we got some fun Easter baskets, and we had planned an Easter lunch ! Landon's Easter basket was a basketball goal. We ended up having to take it back, and get the one we originally wanted. He LOVES it! Luke got The Blind Side book and some candy, and I got 2 vases of flowers--1 from Landon & 1 from Luke.

The lillies are all opened up now, and they are beautiful!

Landon went STRAIGHT to bed when we got home from church, and we didn't even THINK to try to take another picture of the family. The picture from before church is NOT my favorite, but as soon as we got home, his whiney butt went to bed! I feel like I'm much smaller than I look at this angle.
We didn't even think to take one of the whole family either. BUT Elyssa did manage to pose at some trees by the car after church.

And I got a cute picture of Elyssa, Landon, and Luke walking to the car after church.
And yes, Elyssa and I match. Her and Amanda got matching shirts/dress. and I just happened to buy the same print dress from Target. But if you ask Elyssa, she just matched Aunt Emma and not her mommy.

We were going to color eggs Saturday night, but it was too late when we got around to it, so we colored them Sunday afternoon while the ham was finishing. We had some regular Dudley's egg dye, and we also got a "Bright and Shiny" box. They looked like gold leafed eggs on the box--we were skeptical!
But they turned out GREAT!

We had some wonderful ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and Hawaiin rolls.And we had some strawberry shortcake ( for Amanda's birthday--Aril 3rd). I ate MORE than on Thanksgiving I think. Totally stuffed! We didn't get a Honey Baked ham, but we got a honey glazed ham from Kroger that was FabUlOuS! We still are eating it!!!

It was a great day--my favroite of the whole year. Elyssa got to play with Landon and Poppy outside A LOT, and Landon was sad when they all left. Elyssa took all the eggs home with her to hunt all week on her Spring Break.

Luke 24:1-7
1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'

Easter Egg hunt

Landon had his firt Easter Egg Hunt today! They had an AWESOME set up at church today, thank you all SO much! Everyting you can imagine was there--and yummy hot dogs too! We didn't get there in time to do much in the gym besides get his face painted and eat. Then it was time for the hunts. The kids were seperated in different areas outside of the church/TNU by age. He did so good picking them up, and he finally got the hang of putting them into his basket. He was just walking around with a plastic egg in each hand. Maybe he'll be good now with his cousin Elyssa tomorrow. We're going to dye some tonight--I'm so excited! We bought the regular dudley's dye, and then some gold/silver leafing type box too.I've got 3 dozen boiled,and 1 dozen left to boil. We need some for deviled eggs too! MMMMm Ham, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, green beans, hawaiin rolls, pasta salad= YUMMY! I'm so ready for tomorrow, it's better than ChRiStMaS! I hope Landon can grow up thinking that way too. I'll post a few pictures from this morning, then it's on the clean before the family arrives.

Half marathon news~I am up to 6 miles now. I had to get it in before the day began, so I ran on the treadmill at the Y. I hope to do 8 next weekend, 10 the next ( at the beach), then the race is the next weekend!My goal is STILL to run 8 miles....but deep inside I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to run all 13.1, with a few SHORT walks when I need to. BUT, my goal is to run 8, and more importantly TO FINISH!!!!