13.1

Last weekend we participated in the Utah Valley 1/2 Marathon. My brother Nathan convinced most of my family to sign up with him. I found out I was pregnant like 3 days after we signed up. I haven't been able to run during this pregnancy so I decided to walk it.

It was still fun, although I wish I would have worn a shirt that said "Baby on Board" or "Walking for 2" or something because I got A LOT of pity looks/cheers, and at times I felt kind of pathetic being SO far behind everyone else. However, I met my goals of finishing before the medal cut-off time (by 1.5 minutes) and beating Nathan, who was doing the full marathon. (I beat him by about an hour.) And I was not dead last. There were 6 people who finished the half marathon after me.

It was harder than I expected it to be. My legs really started hurting about Mile 9, and I was pretty sore for a couple of days afterwards. Matt did awesome! He beat his best 1/2 marathon time. He was pretty sore afterwards too.

Here are all the family finishers! (There were some of us in each distance from the 10K to the full marathon.)

Lots of people ask why we do these things. Why we pay money to go run and be in pain and be sore for days. I was thinking about that on my long walk, and I do it because I feel a sense of accomplishment by crossing that finish line. Even though I was 6th from last, I still accomplished something. I bet not a lot of pregnant ladies have walked a 1/2 marathon. I like to have a challenge to work toward and the sense of accomplishment that comes from reaching your goal. I have felt that in every race I have participated in, except the marathon (oddly enough). And I love that feeling of triumph.

We came home and crashed. Even Emmy. She had spent the day at her Grandma Lively's house (thank you!) and was worn out from having so much fun. All the way home she was telling stories of what she did at Grandma's house (play football, play on stairs, play with Sissa, play cars, feed Roxy dinner, etc. She even told us she went to the farm and saw tigers. Ha!)

She was so worn out that even after her nap, she sat on the couch with her daddy and watched almost an ENTIRE movie (The Princess and the Frog). I was shocked! She has never watched anything for more than 2 minutes. It was nice though because that meant we could sit on the couch too instead of chase her around.