Happy birthday Mom! And, Race Day!

On Wednesday, I caught an early-morning flight out to Georgia to celebrate Mom's big birthday weekend. I felt so bad because I left a sick Gigi in charge of two sick kids. She didn't have a voice, Jack was on antibiotics and pink eye medicine, and Caroline had this horrible croupy congested cough. Justin was getting over his sinus infection and our house was basically a virtual petri dish of disgustingness. Thank you, Gigi, for hanging in there. 

She did manage to catch one good picture of the kids…maybe. You can see in C's eyes that she doesn't feel great, and of course Jack's attitude says it all about him. Ha. 

At least they're cute.

After a long day of flying on Wednesday, Dad & Mom picked me up and we had dinner. Everyone got to bed early and Thursday morning I "helped" Dad at the dentist where he had to get some serious dental work done. He was really fine on his own, but everyone needs moral support right? :) It was rough and it looked super painful! Be grateful that I'm sparing you the pictures he texted me from the dentist's chair.

I got to finally see Mom & Dad's new house on St. Simons. It's awesome! I can't wait for the kids to come mess it up break it in see it.

Thursday night we all drove up to Savannah to the Expo for the half marathon. It was really fun! We stocked up on some gear, got some free stuff, and took some funny pictures:

Friday I rested, did a little run, hydrated, and tried to get ready. It was going to be the first half marathon for both Mom & I, and not easy for Dad either who had to get up at 3:30am to drive us to Savannah on Saturday morning!

It was COLD at the start. We figured out the whole sweats check thing (kind of a disaster, note to Rock N Roll Marathon Series, I have ideas for next time…) And got rid of our bulky outwear.

How do I look for getting up at 3:30am, driving an hour, sitting around
for almost an hour because we had to get to Dad's bank for parking
before the closed the roads, and then walking 1/2 a mile in 45 degree weather?
PUMPED UP!

I "borrowed" a lot of these other photos from Marathonphoto.com - they were the professional photographers on the course. So ignore the fact that they are really just screen shots from my phone.

At the start line! We were in Wave 18. Holy cow.
There were a LOT of people.

I tried to smile for the photos in the first 6 miles.

Then I stopped. 

Those last 2 miles HURT!

Look at that. I look like a real runner!

Water break.

Somehow, some way, we both got to the finish line. I was SO PROUD of Mom!!! She did awesome. It's a huge accomplishment to finish a half marathon at 57 (58!) I finished before her and weaved my way back to the finish line viewing area so I could see her finish. When I finally saw her, I yelled "RUN IT IN!" and she gave me an evil death glare. :) But she still got her feet across that finish line!

FINISH LINE!!! GREAT JOB!

I'm a little red. Just a little.

Here are our official times:

And here are my screen shots from my Runkeeper app for my splits, and my Fitbit:

Mom and I were absolutely pooped. We sort of listened to FSU beat Wake Forest (yay!) and then crashed. Saturday night we had dinner at Halyards with Colin & Ashely for Mom's birthday. It was amazing, as usual!

We got up Sunday morning SORE and SORE and - oh, did I mention SORE?? Sunday was pretty bad. I definitely feel much better this morning. The worst part was the layover in Dallas. 

I had this in between my two gates. There was NO WAY
I could even walk down one step. It was pathetic! 

I had some knee pain, oddly on my "good knee," which was pretty bad on Saturday night / Sunday AM (IT band? I think so.) But today it doesn't hurt at all. I guess I just need to do a lot more strengthening and a lot more running before my full marathon* on April 27. 

*just saying that scares me. 

So I'm happy to be home and happy to relax with my husband and my kiddos! I'm super proud of Mom and of myself. And also … HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!