Girlfrieds Half Marathon 2009

Within a span of about 6 weeks a group of Awesome Mom's I know delivered their second babies. Without knowing it those babies or rather the extra baby weight gained during pregnancy would be a major factor in setting a Goal. "Let's all run the Girlfriends Half Marathon next October!"

There was A LOT of skepticism on my part as I had never ran more than a mile in my life. After hearing another fabulous mom I know talk about her training for a 5k (Couch to 5k program), I thought that I would try that first. In April I finished my first ever 5k, the Starlight Run with great family and friends. It was supposedly one of the hardest 5k's I could have picked because of weather and terrain...lol.

The torture didn't end there and I continued to train with 'the girls' and even got my little sister Annette into running when she moved here in June. She finished her first 5k Race for the Homeless in August. She quickly decided to train with us and jump on the running bandwagon for the half marathon.

In early September I did an 8 mile trail run and injured my left foot. Apparently my left leg is about 1/2 shorter than my right which causes overcompensation on my right leg and cause for injury on uneven surface. I saw a fantastic Sports Medicine Physical Therapist, Dr. John Majerus who helped me return to running by October. Thankfully he cleared me to run the Half :)

October 18, 2009 (my birthday) at 9:00am came very quickly and despite injury in September I was able to run it, an accomplishment I never saw in my future before training with the women pictured next to me. Amanda Simonelli, Erika Henry, Julie Roy and Annette Robarge are incredibly inspiring women that I am happy to know and love.

Amanda finished in 10 minutes under her goal, Erika beat her time from 2 years ago when completing her first half marathon (also Girlfriends) and Julie a seasoned runner is an all around rock star  and the backbone we all leaned on for strength as we trained. Annette ended up finishing 2nd Place in her age bracket-an incredible accomplishment for someone who had never run before moving in with me in June!! She is amazing!

I think I may try it again next year to shave about 40 minutes off my time...until then...Happy RUNNING!!

Our Getaway/Great Columbia Crossing 10K

Greg and I planned to run the Great Columbia Crossing 10k as our first quick trip away from both kiddos!

The longest I have been away from Grace is about 6 hours back in August. Jeffrey and I have been separated for only a couple sleepovers with Grandma and Grandpa, and while I was in the hospital delivering Grace he spent those 2 days and nights with Aunt Serena and Uncle Aaron and family.

We left on Saturday around 2:30 during naptime, after our Traditional Pumpkin Patch visit with Greg's Parents and Brother's Family. Happily we left the kids with Aunt Annette, who has truly been a blessing in our house!

We arrived in Astoria at a B&B at 475 Harrison St. Having never stayed at a B&B, I was pleasantly surprised as how homey and comfortable everything was. The hosts Judy and Bob were wonderful and very knowledgeable about Astoria's history and local events.

Our packets for the race included little wooden tokens that were accepted at local restaurants for the race weekend. We decided to celebrate my birthday a week early and have a semi-fancy dinner at The Silver Salmon, a quaint yet superb restaurant in downtown Astoria. Greg enjoyed the 'special' a flame broiled Coho salmon topped with fresh crab. I had the Smoked Salmon Spinach Salad, which was fabulous. Of course we shared and both dishes were delectable!!

After dinner we proceeded on a tour of downtown Astoria visiting local Art Galleries on their "Second Saturday Art Walk". It was definitely great to remember the 'good old days' when we spent a lot of our pre-parent vacations touring galleries for fun.

We were tuckered out and in bed by 9pm. I didn't rest as peacefully as I hoped, I think my body is used to waking up all night now but I didn't have to get up once to make a bottle or comfort anyone which was in its' own way a special treat.

The race went great! The weather was COLD and 'a little breezy' as the locals say which means 'windy' in my book. We met at the Red Lion and we shuttled to the rest stop on the WA side of the Astoria-Megler Bridge and joined about 3000 people waiting for the start. The race went off without a hitch and the incline or GIANT HILL was more of a killer than I thought it would be but I finished with Greg cheering me on. Greg finished in a little under an hour and my time was 1:25:31, which is about 8 mins faster than my last 10k.

We made our way back to the B&B where we showered and scarfed fresh homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs, toast, cantaloupe, coffee, OJ and water...yep we ate whatever we wanted cause we could!

A Great Weekend!!