Miles and miles...

We spent a lot of miles on the road during April. And a lot of miles on our feet while we trained for and ran a half-marathon.

One weekend, we drove up to Moscow, ID for a baby blessing. Yes, that is a long way to drive for a baby blessing, but we really wanted to see Mike (Nate's brother) and Natalie and their cute little baby. We made a fun little road trip out of it. Friday, drove to Boise and the kids (and Nate) enjoyed the pool. Saturday, drove the rest of the way and enjoyed the evening with family. Mike and Natalie took us to see the grizzly bears at Washington State University. It was pretty cool to be so close to those big ol' beasts and they couldn't do a thing to us.

Sunday, more family time and great food. We headed back to Boise in order to break up the driving. Monday, home. So, we drove about 20 hours in 4 days, but it was worth it. I loved seeing new country and we only had one barfing incident. Claire, of course.

A week and a half later, we headed to Las Vegas for another baby blessing. Yes, I know. We are probably the best family supporters out there. Actually, we were just looking for a reason to get away from this cold and rainy Spring we are having. And it was Easter and half of my family were going to be there. So we just had to be there too. But that will be a separate post later because I have too many pictures.

Then 5 days later, we ran our half marathon. My brother-in-law, Jason, has been on a running kick and talked Nate into running the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon with him. Four weeks before the race, I decided to sign up too because I felt like I would kick myself if I didn't. But man, those were some cold training weeks. Seriously. My long runs consisted of wind, snow, hail, rain, sleet, nasty storms, and mud. Lots and lots of mud. But I did it! I went into the race not very confident. I am not a very fast long-distance runner. Sprinting, yes. Even 6 miles I can do okay. But longer than that is always a struggle just to finish. However, that feeling of finishing the race is so awesome.

We stayed with Amy, who was kind enough to help out with the kids. I was pretty nervous the night before and didn't sleep much at all. And to add to that, we woke up that morning to huge flakes of snow falling and at least 6 inches on the ground. Great. Luckily, there wasn't too much snow at Thanksgiving Point and it melted by the end of the race, but it was still a cold, cold day.

So anyway, we thought this race was supposed to be relatively flat. Oh. My. Gosh. I am not sure there was much of any flat spots at all. We wound up and down through the gardens. And more gardens. And down along the river, and back and forth through the golf course. These weren't long hills, just lots of little hills one right after another. Despite the hills, this race was really well organized with great aid stations and they even had pacers running. I started running with the 2:10 pacer and quickly caught up to the 2:05 pacer. But by mile 11 I had to slow down and walk a few times because of those dang hills. Those last 2 miles were so hard. I finished in 2:09:23, which was 18 seconds faster than my first half. I was pretty happy with that, but I still feel like I could have done better on a different course. Utah has quite a few half marathons, most of which are down hill races. And yet, I am pretty sure we chose the hardest of them all. Nice.

One of the nice things about this race was that it covered such little area and we were able to see each other a few times through out the race. I never saw Nate because he was so far ahead (he finished in 1:39. I know. He is fast). But I was able to see Jason and my cousin, Nicole, a few times. Nicole and I ran together off and on and pretty much finished together. That was fun.

The kids ran in a mile fun-run afterwards and really enjoyed it. Dylan and Katelyn did really well, I think they finished in 10 1/2 minutes, which is good for their first race. I think. Dylan keeps asking if he can run 2 miles next time.

We spent time with my grandpa that day and it was really nice to visit with him. We also went back to Thanksgiving Point because we had free passes all day. We cruised through the dinosaur museum and can now check that off our list. We were all so wiped out the whole day, but us adults still went out to Texas Roadhouse and were able to finally sit and relax with out the kids.

Next, I am hoping to get on my bike and start a new hobby. I just really need to practice slipping my clip-on shoes out so that I don't fall. Anyone have advise? I am sure I looked pretty funny the other day while Nate was running beside me trying to help me.