13.1...Been There, Run That!

I did it!  I did it, and I lived to tell about it!  And I did it 27 seconds faster than my goal time!  My official time for my first ever 1/2 marathon was 2:29:33.  It was an amazing experience, one of the physically most difficult things I've ever done (pretty much tied with being in labor...which I actually only did once and had an epidural, so maybe running 13.1 miles was harder...) 

The beginning of the race was wonderful:  a beautiful course, the energy from the crowd, the excitement of finally doing what I set out to do.  I ran with Brooke for the first mile or so, and then she sped off and I settled into a nice pace.  I ended up in a kind of bubble, almost isolated, with no one really surrounding me.  Runners would pass me every once in a while, but not that often, and I only passed a few people.  I could see the big pack ahead of me, and I knew there were a lot of people behind me, but I wasn't in a group of runners.  I'm not sure why, or that it really matters, I just thought it was odd and interesting.  

I felt really strong the first 9 miles...Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream" got me through the hilly section on the "desert side" between miles 6 and 8, and seeing Mariann's excited, encouraging face at the end of the big bridge around mile 9 really helped. She ran with me for a minutes and I told her I was doing great.  I ran another 1/2 mile or so, and then it got hard.  I was hot, the air was warmer and drier than I'm used to, and my legs were  really tired.  But I pressed on, pouring water over my head at the aid stations and drinking the Power-ade, imagining myself crossing the finish line.  

My time at mile 11 was about 2:05 and I thought to myself, "I can do this, I can beat my goal!" which up to that point I was thinking would be great, but probably not possible.  When I got to the bottom of the bridge the leads to the finish line, the word "FINISH" and three big arrows were chalked onto the pavement.  I saw that and started to cry, knowing that I was so close to accomplishing this huge goal I had set for myself a year ago.  I was hyperventilating a little, trying to keep my breathing under control so I could make it across the bridge and not pass out.  "We are the Champions" was playing on my iPod, so very fitting!  "No time for losers, cause we are the champions of the world...." helped me to go the few more steps.

I could hear my friends cheering for me as I got close to the finish line, but I couldn't see them.  My eyes were full of tears and my breathing still wasn't under control.   As I crossed the finish line, I felt so strong, but so weak at the same time.  I kept saying to myself, (and maybe out loud, I don't know for sure) "I DID IT! I DID IT!" All my training, all my praying, all my hoping and dreaming came together and pushed me through.  There are so many hard things we go through in life that don't have a definite "finish line" at the end.  It felt so good to cross that line, to know that I had worked hard and accomplished my goal.  To have good friends running with me and cheering for me made it even sweeter.  

We stopped at Rusty's in Cashmere on the way to Wenatchee...maybe next year we can check out the Applets and Cotlets factory!

After we dropped our bags off at the hotel, we walked around downtown for a bit.  It was a beautiful day, I just had to take a picture of the temperature...we've been training in 40 to 50 degree weather, so it was a little intimidating to see 72 on the sign...although I knew we'd be done before 3:30 in the afternoon.

We stopped at the Owl Soda Fountain and got some yummy treats!  Stephanie flew up from Las Vegas to join us for the weekend.  It was so great to have her with us!

Saturday morning, ready for the race!  Kendra and I trained together all winter.  She's a great motivator! Sadly, she's moving to Utah in May.  Hopefully we can convince her to join us next year like Steph did this year.

Most of the running group...L to R: Gretchen's friend Kristin, who lives in Wentachee, me, Pam, Greg, Kendra, and Brooke.  Leslie and Rhonda hadn't come down to the start line yet.

1/2 marathoners at the START!   Will we be this happy at the FINISH?

Leslie, Kristin, Rhonda and Greg before their start.  The 10K and full marathon started 15 minutes after the 1/2.  Rhonda ran the full marathon, her first!  The others ran the 10K.  Leslie surprised us and signed up for the 10K the night before; we thought she had come just to cheer us on.  Way to go Leslie!

Crossing the FINISH LINE!  You can't see my face, but I'm crying...in joy, in pain, in exhaustion...

WE DID IT!  First 1/2 Marathons for all of us!  I'm so proud of our group!

Pam and Greg...both won 2nd place in their age divisions.  They are truly inspiring.  Pam's time was around 1:54...she beat us all!

Cheering at the finish line, waiting for Rhonda to finish the full.

And here she comes, looking like she just went for a stroll in the park!  Her time was 4:10, amazing for a first marathon!

She was so happy and said she felt great!

We are the Champions!

Our dedicated cheering squad:  Gretchen, Mariann, and Stephanie. They're all planning to run the 1/2 next year, right girls?

Our post-race tradition...burgers and shakes at Dusty's

Our little vegetarian eating a real hamburger!  When you run a full marathon, you can eat whatever you want!

What a great group of women!  I feel so blessed to have such supportive friends.

Cub Scout Field Trip #4--Art Walk

I had a brilliant idea for this month's Cub Scout field trip...an Art Walk!  One of their requirements is to go to an art gallery or museum, and the thought of taking seven crazy nine-year-old boys into an enclosed space with expensive art made me hyperventilate, so I thought, "Winslow has some cool outdoor art, we should keep them outside and let them explore it."  Sounds like a wonderful idea, doesn't it?  Ha!  It was like trying to take a herd of squirrels on a walk.

This is the "Rainbringer" totem pole at the round-about on Madison and High School Roads.   I want to know why don't we have a "Sunbringer" totem pole instead?  This was our second stop.  Our first stop at the glass mural outside Ordway was so out of control that I totally forgot I had a camera with me.  At least here there was the threat of cars zipping around the round-about to keep them in line.

This is the pool in the library garden.  Of course all they wanted to do was try to fish the coins out of the pond.  

Here's the cute little otter statue, also in the library garden.  You can see how much they loved it.

From the library, we walked down Madison Avenue.  All the way down the street, the boys picked dandelions and chanted, "Mama had a baby and her head popped off!" while popping the tops off the flowers.  I don't even know how many times Whitley and I told them to quit it.  

A little farther down the road are these really cool driftwood sculptures.  A block before we got there, I stopped the boys and told them that these sculptures are for sale and they were NOT allowed to go near them.  Fortunately they listened, because this horse is selling for $2,000.

I didn't get close enough to the dragon to see it's price...but it sure is cool!

Next stop, City Hall.  Finn managed to squeeze himself under these "blackberry vines," and proceeded to mimic an alien attack...I didn't think it was appropriate to encourage him by taking a picture.

More sculptures at City Hall.  The boys weren't quite sure what to make of them, but at least they didn't climb all over them.

This water pump was the definite favorite.  They spent about 20 minutes taking turns figuring out the foot pump...you have to step on it just right to get the water flow steady enough to take a drink, otherwise you get sprayed!

Finn mastered it and kindly helped the other boys take a drink.  I know he was tempted to stomp on the pedal and soak everyone, but thankfully he controlled himself.  

Daniel, Hiram, and Smith tried to pick up the giant fork outside Fork and Spoon. 

We ended our walk at Blackbird Bakery, where we just had to buy some cookies...more as a reward for Whitley and I surviving the walk than for rewarding the boys!  They love to be together and have so much energy, and I'm so glad we didn't take them inside anywhere!

Easter Egg Hunt

A favorite Easter tradition is the Easter Egg Hunt.  I don't know the history of the Easter Egg Hunt, but it sure is fun to watch the kids scrambling around trying to find the hidden eggs.  Fortunately, plastic eggs were invented, so if all the eggs aren't found, there's no worries of a rotten egg stench permeating the yard.  Even though my kids are getting older, they still love candy and it's not hard to get them excited about hunting for eggs.  It was really hard to take pictures because the kids were moving so fast, but here's a few...

Jonah loves Grandpa's tractor and rushed over to it first!

We found lots of great places to hide eggs among Grandpa's trucks and tools.

Hyrum couldn't take the time to smile for the picture...he was on an egg finding mission!

Landon liked to stop and eat all the candy out of each egg before he found the next one.

Twins!  

Even the big kids got in on the action!

Ben's bowl is almost full...

Jillian was so sweet to stop and help Landon.

Grandpa made sure to count all the eggs the kids found so he wouldn't have any surprises when mowing the lawn or weeding the gardens.  It took a few tries to get them all counted correctly, but they did find all 90 eggs!

The intrepid hunters...we missed Kylie.  

She got to to to San Diego with a friend's family for spring break.

Nate had fun pulling his little cousins in the wagon.  They really wore him out!

Corey, Mom, and Me...Happy Easter!

Spring Break

Spring break is almost over...1/2 an hour left until bedtime!  We had a pretty laid back break this year.  Except for Kylie, who got to go to San Diego with her friend's family.  She'll be back on Tuesday, and from her nightly reports has been having a fabulous time.  The rest of us didn't travel anywhere, in fact, we didn't even leave the Island except on Friday.  I had thought about taking the kids to the Science Center in Seattle, but the day I wanted to go (Tuesday) is their closed day.  So we filled the time with sewing, playing with friends, going to the park, relaxing around the house, working in the yard, and on Friday going to "Glass Beach" in Port Townsend.  We had decent weather: a few days of partly sunny, partly rainy and a few days of warm sun.  

Jillian was bored one day and wanted something to do, and also wanted to go and buy a new church bag, so I suggested we find a pattern and make one instead.  My mom has tons of fabric scraps, so we went to her house and chose some fabric, then I found the pattern for this bag on line:

Jill made this one for herself...

we improvised the pocket inside to fit pens or pencils...

and this one for Kylie!  

They are very simple to make (if you know how to sew...fortunately my mom taught Jillian to sew a few summers ago, so she knows what she's doing) and only took us a few hours.  She did all of the sewing, I did the pinning and explaining of the instructions.  

We also went to the park a few times, once with Mariko!  We got to play with her for a few hours so she wasn't stuck at home with her new baby brother all day.  She wasn't too happy about coming with us at first, but we told her we were going to see Grammie and Papa (my parents) and she said, "OK!" and stopped crying.  We stopped by their house for a minute and fed the ponies some carrots, then went to the park.  Mariko loves to swing!

Ben and Tim love to swing, too!

And so do Kaylin and Jillian!

It was fun to have a two year old to play with at the park again!

She ran around the play structure for a while,

Then wanted to get back in the swing.

On Friday, we drove up to Port Townsend to explore North Beach, a.k.a. Glass Beach.  Apparently, this is one place Martha Stewart recommends for finding great beach glass.  We didn't find as much as I was hoping, but apparently we didn't walk down the beach far enough.  We went probably 1/2 a mile, stopping to dig through the pebbles as we went.  Apparently, you have to go up the beach three or four miles to find the really good stuff.  Maybe on a warm, summer day we'll venture that far!  It was a little cold for an extended outing, but we still enjoyed exploring.  

Jill, Russ, & Ada trying to find the first piece of blue glass...

Ben, Daisy, and Brad, trying to beat them to it...

I walked up this far...maybe another 1/2 mile past everyone else, but not far enough!  Next time!

The kids enjoyed playing on the cliffs, too.

and then we went to the ice cream shop in Port Townsend for a treat. 

Here's what I found...

Mine and Brad's mixed together and sorted by color...blue is rare and highly sought after!

And here's Ben's.

So, that about wraps up our Spring Break week.  The kids are not excited to go back to school tomorrow, but I am ready to get back to the routine, except for the waking up early part!