Stuff

This past weekend I ran in my first half marathon. It was actually a ton of fun! I know that sounds really strange and that you might be making a weird face at the computer right now thinking, "how can running 13.1 miles be fun?", but it was a blast. Most of the time I was running without anyone really right next to me, so I just had a lot of thinking time and I just was happy that I was able to finish. I actually had never run more than 12 miles, so it was pretty nice to know that I could do that. (Well, I'd better be able to because I am signed up for the full marathon...26.2 miles in October).

The race that I did was Georgetown to Idaho Springs (straight shot) and it was rolling hills, but heading down. We started at 8,500 ft. above sea level and ended around 7,500. It was awesome. Artie and I parked the car in Idaho Springs and I took the bus up to Georgetown while Artie rode his bike up to Georgetown. (Good for Artie because it was going uphill... I love him). He actually made it about 2 minutes before the race began. On a total side note the line for the port-a-potty was about 35 minutes long. I got in line thinking I'd have plenty of time before the race began and literally I was out of line about 3 minutes before the race began. (I passed one of the ladies while running that was waiting right behind me for the port-a-potty, and I said, "we made it!" It was funny.)

I started out the first two miles slower for a few different reasons. One of the reasons was because when you start in a race where there are 5,000 runners, some are going fast, some slow so you feel like you're flying when you go by the slow people and feel like you're going slow when people pass you. (sorry that was totally a run-on.) But I also have had knee problems that past two weeks and didn't want to injure it more. Luckily it didn't hurt at all during the entire race. Every two miles were marked and I kept thinking , "wow, we're already here." About a quarter of a mile left and I started picking up my pace. When I had about 100 yards to go I was able to give it a full fledged sprint. It was so great to feel that good at the end of the race. My chip time was 1 hour 54 minutes 25 seconds. About 2 minutes slower from the gun time (which is normal since the gun goes and then you don't cross the start line until a couple minutes later).

I was really happy that I finished it and that I beat 2 hours. It looks like I am on pace for running my marathon in 3 hours 30 minutes. Especially since I didn't want to hurt my knee, so I took it a little slower. Artie rode his bike down (so he rode 26.2 that day). But it was nice when he came up and would give me a drink (they did have water/gatorade stations too though) and he was able to take some photos and be there to support me. It was really nice of him. I love that my husband is so supportive of me and my challenges that I put for myself. I hope that I can be as supportive, if not more, of him when he has a goal/challenge that he sets for himself. Okay, okay, I am getting a little sappy, but I just love that I have such a wonderful husband.

Well, that's about all for now. I need to go work on some lesson plans for school. Tomorrow is the first day with all the kids. I've had groups of kids for the past three school days though. So at least I know all my students now. It looks like I should have a good class this year. Hopefully!

Artie and I just got back from our 5 day camping trip. It was a lot of fun, but again another adventure. It rained every single day we were there. On the first day, Friday, we actually got a little bit of time down at the beach. The water was chilly, but felt really nice to go in. We set up camp and enjoyed a night of rain (with a small fire). The next day we woke up and it looked really nasty out. So we ventured into Telluride. It is a cool little town. We walked around and then headed back to camp for another night of rain. This time we got our s'mores in before the rain got us though. Sunday we tried to catch some crawdads, but they weren't in the mood to be caught. We hung out at the reservoir for a little bit and then had another storm come in on us. Monday we were pretty much sick of the rain by then, so we headed into the town of Ouray. Again, cute old mining town. We stopped at this one pub that had all sorts of games, so we played shuffle board and then got to have Sydney sit with us outside. Then it looked like the sun was coming out so we headed to the hot springs. We stayed there for less than an hour. Just a little too much let's say, then we headed back and got 2 hours on the beach. Had a roaring fire that night and actually saw some stars!!!! (who would have thought we would have been so excited about that?!) Then we got hit with basically two thunderstorms coming our way, each from a different direction. It rained so much and so loud that I was actually scared. Our tent mostly held up. Just found a little leak. But other than that it was okay. Headed home Tuesday and got some really pretty shots. Okay, so the pictures aren't posting for some reason, so I will post some later.