As I look around and see so many hurting I am reminded that we have much to be thankful for and that life is a gift. It was an honor and a blessing to be able to celebrate another Baby’s FIRST Thanksgiving this year.
My husband had to work today (Friday) so our Holiday has been a little different, but we are still having a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving!
Here is a short video of our time in Miami with my husbands side of the family.
Question of the day: What are you Thankful for today?
The race was scheduled to begin at 7:00 a.m., but for some (unannounced) reason the race began late. Our pre-race instructions encouraged you to line up with your pace, but there were no signs or pace groups to line up with.
Just after mile 8 we turned a corner and started up a ramp… “just like Disney” I told myself for the entire time. Disney is always throwing ramps and over passes in the course (just for kicks and giggles I suppose). When I reached mile 9 I was exhausted. So I decided I’d walk until 9.5… that turned into walking until mile 10,… and then eventually walking until mile 11.
At mile 11 I made myself promise I’d go back to running 30:30’s. 30 second running and 30 second walking. I kept my promise and mile 11 proved to be the most grueling of them all… (a 17:12 mile pace).
During mile 11 we started the climb up and over the second bridge of the course, and had now been in direct sunlight since mile 9. By this point, I was just ready to be done – I couldn’t imagine how the runners doing the full marathon were feeling, but the finish line was coming.
Even though I could see the finish line for the last mile, it took all I had in me to cross the finish line.
After the race I walked directly to the nearest curb and plopped myself down to hydrate. It was during that time while talking over the race with my husband that I realized I had missed my sub 3 hour half marathon by a few seconds.
I’m sad but not upset, I gave it my all. It was hot, it was humid and I was running on less than 4 hours of sleep.
When I look back on this race, I will remember the older woman who cheered me on throughout the race, the fire fighter running in all her gear to raise awareness for cancer and watching the Marathon winner cross the finish line!
Official time: 3:00:10
Thanks for the memories and the PR Fort Myers Half!
p.s. I think you should consider starting the race at 6:00 a.m. next year; especially if it’s hot like this year.
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| The current 13.1 time to beat! November 2015 |
Saturday morning arrived far too early, and my husband headed out the door with both girls for a shake out run while I did some speed cleaning around the house.
While he was out, I was able to get the bathrooms cleaned, floor vacuumed, laundry moved along and started to unload the dish washer. I raced around the house dreaming of lounging on the couch with a cup of coffee. Someday I’ll be able to enjoy that coffee, and that day will be sad because it will mean my girls are in school…
Around 12:30 my husbands parents arrived, I pulled a frozen pizza out of the oven (I’m quite the chef, I know) and we headed out the door for packet pick up.
Packet pick up took place at a crab festival in town, and if you wanted to park it was 5.00. Since we were only picking up our packets and heading over to Target we decided that I would jump out and get the packets while my husband drove around the block .
Well,… I jumped out of the car and only took my drivers license (oops). I picked up our packets and then walked around the perimeter of the crab festival looking for my husband. My love was calling me, but I couldn’t answer because my phone was on silent in the car.
Eventually we found each other and we headed over to Target.
All the Halloween costumes were 90% off so we may have had a little fun in that department (We were without kids you know…). I also found a Star Wars shirt to wear to the movie in December and some other random things ( like stickers and Mickey tissues from the dollar spot).
After Target we headed home to visit with our family, and then decided to order dinner from Jason’s Deli. After dinner we put our littlest love in bed and watched Inside Out before all going to sleep around 9:00 p.m.
Question of the day: Have you ever had to pay for parking at a packet pick up?