to run a half-marathon!!!!!!! (did I mention we had to wake up at 3:45am to catch this flight… I do not like these early morning flights, ahem husband.)

Wee!!!!!!!!

Once we arrive in San Fran we’re going to drive around and visit Google, Facebook and of course Apple. (We’re techie nerds around here.. )

Then that afternnon we’ll to go the expo

I’m glad we’re going to hit it up the first day and hopefully it won’t be too packed. I like to take my time and stroll around to see everything.

Friday we’re going to go tour Alcatraz (excited!) and then check out the city some more.

Any suggestions of great Italian food to eat at on Saturday night?

So I think I’ve figured out what I’m wearing for Nike…

Whatcha think?

I had another outfit in mind too.. but functionally this one worked better. Since its going to be chilly in the morning and then pretty nice the rest of the day…

I have this white hoodie jacket thats about 2 sizes to big now, I’m going to wear it and then toss it when I need to… I checked Nike’s website and they had a tidbit about where your tossed clothes go:

“We all know how it goes… It’s chilly at the starting line. Then twenty minutes later, you’re sweating up a storm, and now you’ve got your long sleeve shirt to carry with you for another 24 miles. Fear not, Nike Women’s Marathon Coat Donation to the rescue! You can bundle up for the start of the race and then be free to shed those hoodies and fleeces at Mile 2. We’ve arranged with theHomeless Prenatal Program (HPP) that ALL clothing you choose to leave at Mile 2 will be donated to this non-profit organization whose mission is to break the cycle of childhood poverty. HPP empowers poor and homeless San Francisco families, particularly mothers motivated by pregnancy and parenthood, to transform their lives. So, while you’re doing what you love on the course, your generosity will benefit many families off the course. It warms our hearts to keep everyone toasty, except our runners after Mile 2!

To learn more about the Homeless Prenatal Program, go to homelessprenatal.org.”

Very cool huh?

Anyone else plan their race outfit or do you just go with whatever you feel like that morning?

I have no idea where to begin this… life has been non-stop since we got back Sunday {late} night, so  going back and sorting through everything that happened is going to be quite the task. Let’s start from the beginning…

We left for Nashville ridiculously early Friday morning. We had to be up at 4am to get out the door for our 7am flight {the airport is an hour away. NUTSO!}, thankfully traffic wasn’t bad and we had plenty of time to go through security and all that mess.

Flight was just fine. We arrived in Nashville, It was GORGEOUS that day…

But there was all this talk of storms for Saturday, we were definitely hoping that was not the case. We headed off to the expo..

Hello blurry pic.

The expo was great, so organized, lots of neat booths, good freebies {which is why you go to the expo, right!?} and really got you even more pumped for the race…

Pic taken when we got back to the hotel, this isn’t even half of the freebies we got.

After the expo, we went back to the hotel and napped for like 5 hours, waking up at 4am is just ungodly I tell you. We had a blah pasta dinner that night at Macaroni Grill. But nonetheless it was carbs.

Then, on to the good stuff. Saturday morning arrived and we’re up {AT 4AM AGAIN!}, got ready, ate breakfast in the car, a tasty bagel I got from Whole Foods the night before. I’ve found the perfect area to live at if I ever moved to Nashville, there’s a Whole Foods, Starbucks and a Target RIGHT THERE. Oh it’d be heavenly!

We parked and of course took a couple pre-race pictures…

sportin’ the amazing running skirt

Ready to run!

We took the shuttle buses to our starting corral, and of course got in the mega long lines for the {yucky} port-a-potties, seriously, those are torture! We felt some rain drops somewhere around 6am, which had me praying even harder, Please God hold off the storms!

The excitement pre-race was awesome, people were pumped, you could feel it. I was definitely excited, but a lot more nervous than I thought I’d be. My mind was playing major tricks on me, I’d think “oh no, my ankle is hurting.” or “my stomach hurts, what if I get sick.” My breathing short, My neck was tense, I was falling apart before we even started. I mentally had to calm down. I knew I was ready for this, but inside I was a wreck, outside, I just looked freakin’ excited! Hubs seemed totally fine, if he was nervous, the man did not show it. The first corrals went off, the music was playing, {Black Eyed Peas “Tonights gonna be a good night”}, people were cheering, it was awesome! I only remember two songs being played while the waves of corrals were going {I know there was more… don’t remember them}, it was black eyed peas and the Miley Cyrus song “The Climb“, Not a big Miley fan, but seriously, if you haven’t heard that song, go listen to it, it held so true for the journey we were about to take on.

The sky was cloudy, but the sun was out! No rain, no thunder, no lighting, no tornados! YIPPEE! But with the possible chance of storms, I had to make the sad, but wise decision to leave my camera in the car.

Then, BAM! it was our turn, we took off! Ready or not, here comes 13.1 miles!

The first two miles there was hills, HILLS, HILLS! Insanity my friends, did I prepare for hills you ask? The truth? NO! I thought, oh what’s a couple of hills gonna do. Well, I can tell you they’re going to hurt like bananas is what. But we got through it. Hubs had to make a potty stop at between mile 1-2, and seriously, why is there only 2 port-a-potties, the line was ridiculous, I felt like we waited forever. I told Hubs I wouldn’t leave him and he told me the same. Throughout the first half of the course my darling husband had to make a couple of bathroom breaks, so I knew our time wasn’t going to be what I expected, but I wasn’t in this for the time, the ultimate goal was completion!

Throughout the course the main things I remember are:

• The spectators were unbelievably amazing. The signs, the cheering, the encouragement was nothing I’ve ever seen before. Seriously, you spectators may not know how important you are, the simplest act of saying “KEEP GOING, GOOD JOB!” is enough to keep you moving.
• The water stations, aid stations, volunteers were by far the best I’ve ever experienced.
• The police officers were encouraging and kind
• The other runners were so happy and friendly, met a lot of great people.

AND the other cool thing was I saw Sean Algaier

from the biggest loser running!! That was really cool!

After every mile hit I cheered, and once we got passed Mile 10 I reminded Hubs that this is the farthest he’s come to far and he’s about to stomp that into the ground with these next few miles, and it was the same for me as well. After Mile 10, the  clouds started to get dark, and thick and then it started, here comes the rain and not just rain, the thunder and some lighting and before we knew it, the police were advising people to take shelter or run at your own risk. I took one look at Hubs and said “We’re finishing this.” His reply “We’re not stopping.” So we pushed harder, everything hurt. I knew hubs was hurting, and each mile I could tell he was ready to be done, but he never gave up, I saw a determination in him like never before and I was beaming with pride for him with each step he took. My shoes were soaked. Squish, squish, squish is all I felt the last few miles. Thankfully the hail was holding off {oh yes, there was going to be hail…} and then we see it. MILE 13! Bring on the .1 because baby we’re almost there! We see the finish line, I held back the tears, I was so excited to see the finish line and the crowds cheering in the RAIN as we crossed, completely 13.1 miles! The sense of accomplishment, pushing yourself out of any comfort zone, and feeling completely spent, knowing that you just completed something that you thought wasn’t possible before, is a feeling like no other. We proudly accepted our metals. We finished in 3:41:16, well technically that was my time, hubs time was 3:41:17, but really who’s counting Sure it was a lot other than anticipated, but with the potty breaks {none for me, thank you very much} and the chance of being struck my lighting, I’m very thankful for our time and that we got to finish this race, and really, it was about finishing, not a goal time.

Another bummer point is that it was now STORMING when we finished and they told everyone to go to their cars, no post-race party, but I did score a bunch of Snicker Marathon bars {that were laying out on a table} as we left. YEA!

Here’s our after photos in the car… since ya know, it was hailing outside ‘n all…

I didn’t stop smiling for hours {ok, I’m still smiling about it!}, and also, I’m really glad I wore a visor! And I didn’t want to take my metal off. My first metal, Nashville now has a very special place in my heart. I love the metal too, the guitar on it reminds me of my Dad, he always loved to play his guitar and having it on my first metal made it that much sweeter to me.

We drove back to the hotel, changes into dry clothes and of course headed to a very Country Cookin’ type of place, after all, we’re in Tennessee baby. Hello Cracker Barrel and a seriously good egg sandwich with tomatoes on it. Then of course we went back to the hotel, and napped!! Well deserved my friends, well deserved! That evening we had dinner with some awesome Nashville friends at a tasty place called J. Alexanders. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel, and thankfully we slept in till 7am-ish, which was brilliant since I was quite over the whole 4am thing. Since our flight didn’t leave until 7pm, we had to check out of our hotel and roam around the city until we could go to the airport, we’ve learned our lesson, anytime we do an out of state race, we’ll be leaving the same day or early morning after. It was terrible having to wait to get home, because we were tired, our bodies were screaming at us and really we just wanted to be HOME.

We did go to the Opry Land Hotel to kill some time…

it was fantastic. I’d love to stay there one there. But when your legs feel like a million pounds you really don’t want to explore that much… and poor Hubs, his flip flop decided to combust on him as we were leaving…

he was mad… I found it ridiculously hilarious… that’s what exhaustion will do to you. So we made a Old Navy stop and thought it was best to just drive around until we could go to the airport.

And of course our flight was delayed about 45 minutes, but the interesting random part is, I saw Jamie Lynn Spears…

Source Here

But my legs ached too much to bother to get up and say hi, but hubs did make sure it was really her… so there ya go. I think I was more excited to see Sean from The Biggest Loser that weekend. Ha.

We arrived back home in lovely Houston somewhere around 11:00pm, came home to our super happy and newly groomed Yorkie,

and crashed into the bed! Sleep was starting to feel so overrated…

Finally now, its Wednesday night and the soreness is mostly gone and life is finally getting back to normal isn’t of feeling beyond busy. But it was all so worth it!… and I’ve been a bit too busy to blog, so if you don’t follow me on twitter, you probably haven’t heard, but I got in for the Women’s Nike Half-Marathon this October!!!!

I found out officially right when we were leaving the expo on Friday!! Can you believe that?! I had my second half-marathon scheduled and I hadn’t even completed my first one!? CRAZY! I’m so beyond excited ya’ll, its just not even funny. So definitely, I’m going to be doing some major HILL work this go-around. So anyone else doing Nike!?

and now I must go to bed…

Leavin’ on a jet plane!

We’re seriously excited! Today is Expo day for the Country Music Marathon/Half-Marathon.

In a few hours we’ll be here…

The anticipation is insane! I can’t believe it’s already here.

See ya’ll on the flip side! Wish us luck and pray for a great race

First Half-Marathon here we come!