"Ain't nothin gonna break me stride"

YEAH!!!!!
"Ain't nothin gonna break my stride aint nothin gonna hold me down wo no, I've got to keep on movin". These were the lyrics I kept singing over and over in my head. Somehow I did keep movin and actually never hit the wall like usual. I was preparing to hit it at 18 miles cause I always do, but I felt good and kept feeling good all the way to end. It was so great. I was dreading this day basically since I signed up for it, because I knew I wasn't trained like I wanted to be. The night before my cousins husband Josh was showing me pictures of where the course went and what the scenery would look like and that was not helping. It was an out and back course of nothing but weeds and cactus as far as the eye could see. Seriously it was nothing but desert and the road for 26 miles! I ended up running a few miles with some other runners and had a great time meeting them. It was a super small race with only 106 runners, so I ran miles here and there with different people. Most of the runners basically do any marathon they can, many had done over 100 or 50 marathons, some do the 100 milers. Most of them had another marathon in 2 or 3 weeks! I felt like such a wuss since this will do me in for a good 2 years. I loved meeting all these crazy marathon runners. Talking and singing with them made the race go bye surprisingly fast on the barren road. These people had no shame I saw one of my new found friends taking care of business - squatting 3 feet off the road. I don't have the best eyes so I was staring for a bit trying to figure out if I was coming up on an animal or what exactly it was, so of course once I realized I had been looking way too long I felt like an idiot. This really was one of my favorite races ever. Of course the finish line was the best with my cousin Tash and her family and my wonderful supporter Aaron (who watched the girls during my training and put up with my anxiety about this race, he's great) and my girls. That moment alone made it all worth it! As much as I dread those races I can't help but be anxious to do another, call me crazy but I truly love racing!



The key to this race was drinking! Aaron made me promise to drink every water station. I never have been much of a drinker. he he I hate the feeling of it sloshing around in my stomach, it usually makes me nauseous, but I stuck to my promise and I think it made all the difference.

Look at Livy already hungry for one of these



Since it was such a small race I took 2nd out of the girls and 1st in my age group, so fortunately each of the girls got to sport a medal. They thought that was so fun and wore them around all day.

My lovely fan club!

Wahoo! All done!

until baby #4

Topped off the day hanging out with some of the BFF from Hawaii! Super fun! Of course thanks for hooking up with us Julz and JP and mostly thank you for introducing me to Yogurtland - it was phenominal! Why didn't we come up with that place? It was just so perfect.Also met up with Aaron's BFF from Ohio. Maile wouldn't leave him alone, she loved him! Well I guess she'd leave him alone as long as she had others to be all over. She is such the soical girl.

I'm sad I don't have any pictures with Tash & Josh and fam. we had such a great time with them. Thanks for having us! Overall it was a fabulous weekend!