Seven hours to go

And man it feels good. Lets see, why don't we recap the last 18 hours since my last post.

1. I ran 6 miles in the heat of the day. Oh yea, that was fun. Hardest run yet.

2. I shook my booty on the side of many highways to Peanut Butter Jelly Time, which is our theme song.

3. I took a military type shower, 30 seconds tops, in a high school locker room. There were several people taking really long showers. I have no idea what they were doing in there.

4. I slept one hour on the gym floor. I was expecting it to be so much worse than it was. Maybe I am ready for camping. Then again, maybe not.

5. I ran 6.25 miles starting at 4:45 a.m. through some beautiful suburb of Houston. Half of the race was in the neighborhood and the other on the trails in George Bush park. My favorite part was running over a .25 wooden bridge. So awesome! I tried to take a picture but my camera didn't have flash, so you will just have to take my word for it.

7. And now I need coffee. :).

I have one more 2.97 mile leg. No, I shouldn't have just said 3 miles, that .03 is substantial on these tired legs.

One down, three to go

Here's the thing about relays. You get to do things that are no acceptable in your everyday life. Like take a nap on the ground in small town texas. Or stop the van to foam roll in the middle of the street because your legs are getting tight. Yes, I did both of those things. BEST NAP EVER!!

All is going well in relay land. I've ran 5 miles, ate lunch, and am ready for round two. My picture did fall off the van within 5 minutes of the race, but luckily for my team I'm an artist and was able to replace it.

We are having so much fun and our team is killing it. This morning was perfect running weather, with temps in the low 50s. We started off in hill country and ran on streets lined in blue bonnets. There were several legs on completely dirt roads. Truly picturesque. Maybe Texas really is God's country.

All of the teams are so cordial and it is fun to cheer everyone on. I think we have made it approximately 50 miles. I will probably be running again in a couple hours, my first 6 mile leg, almost exclusively downhill. I'm really excited. :).

Now for the good stuff - pictures. We have a lot more on our Facebook page, which I will try to upload later, but that's a hard thing to do in the middle of nowhere.

And we're off

As of 7:50 this morning, Team Peanut Butter Jelly Legs has taken off. We arrived at the hotel around 11:00 last night and left this morning at 5:30, so we are running on pure adrenaline and excitement and little sleep.

After running the prologue together, approximately one mile, Ashley started with her first five mile leg.

Woo hoo, go PBJL!

Let the fun begin!

You guys, I am SO excited about this weekend! It's Texas Independence Relay time!

I have been waiting for this day for such a long time. My BFF Ashley (no seriously, since I was 2) organized a relay team of her, me, and ten of my favorite strangers to run 201 miles across Texas. Best part: my handsome husband (who still needs a blog name btw) is my driver. One of the rules is that you must have a runner on the road at all times. Basically we will be running/traveling for 30 hours straight. And I will be blogging about all of it.

So basically, here is the skinny. We start at 7:50 tomorrow morning. I have legs 2, 14, 27, and 37, for a total of 18 miles. My longest run is a little over 6 miles and shortest is 3. Since we will not have much time to rest Saturday night, we will be staying and showering at a local high school gym. Should be interesting.

So here are the details and half of our team aka van 1.

Little Rock Half Marathon

We are traveling back to Little Rock this weekend for my dear friend Ailini's baby shower and the drive has me thinking about the race a couple weeks ago. I haven't a chance to post about it and I am sure you all are on pins and needles, so here it goes.

I won't say much about the race expo or the race course because I didn't stay at the expo long enough to have an opinion and I think the half course could do a better job showcasing the city. I will say that the organizers and volunteers were SO nice! The race really has a small town feel, which I loved.

And now .... drum roll please... the race. First, lets talk about the goals I had planned for this race: 1. Negative splits; 2. stay positive; and 3. Finish under 1:55.

I am not sure how close I came to the first goal, but I managed to maintain even splits for the entire race, except for mile 12. During mile 12, I was beginning to be delirious and got confused on the race signs. I thought I was closer to the finish than I was and believed I actually had a chance to finish under 1:50, which resulted in me running my 12th mile in 7:40 - much faster than my pace during the rest of the race. It just goes to show that the mind is a powerful powerful thing! Once I saw the actual 12th mile marker I slowed back down to my planned pace. With the 7:40, I technically did have negative splits.

Hmm, did I stay positive?? At times. Other times I had to work really really hard to keep the negative thoughts at bay. I never wanted to stop and walk but I had to resist the constant "this course sucks" mentality.

Oh yea, and that last goal? CRUSHED IT!! Final time 1:50:46. I hope you guys don't think I am gloating over here, (OK, maybe a little), it's just that this is so much better than my previous times and I am not sure quite where it is coming from.

When it comes to running, I know all about things feeling too far out of reach. When I first started running again as an adult and one of my friends talked about running 3 miles at a 10:00/mile pace I thought, man if I could do that I would be happy. Then, my dad told me how he ran 6 miles at 9:00/mile pace and I thought, no way, that will never be me. Truly, that sounded so impossible. A year or so later I ran my first half and finished in 2:07, walking in the last mile. Second half, same result. Now here I am, running 13.1 miles at 8:30/mile.

Now lets be clear, I am by no means the fastest runner, or anywhere near the front actually. I'm a middle of the packer all the way. But to look back at where I came from and see what I have accomplished with running -what I thought was impossible- it feels good.

And there you go, now you know why it's so addicting. :)

Evan, Bill and Bill's mom did come down to watch, but I never saw them. The temps were in the thirties so I think they stayed inside at the coffee shop, but they swore they stood outside looking for me. Oh we'll, at least Evan makes a cute cheerleader.

My friend Ailini and her family came to watch and saw me three times on the course! Thanks for coming Lini, I loved seeing you,

Top Six Things You Should Know

about Evan Wesley.  No. 1, we do not ever call him that.  I don't know why I just did.   Anyway. . . most people who read this blog do not get to see us on a daily or weekly basis, and I do not kid myself, I know they read only to keep up with Evan and see cute pictures.   So, I thought I would do a six things you need to know about Evan post:

1.  He has very long hair, especially on the top.  Actually, it is almost like two different hair styles.  The top is so straight and long and the back is a frizzy mess.  One day I put it in a ponytail:

I have also put gel in it, just to see what will happen.

2.  He loves outside.   Weekends usually involve one, if not two, walks around the neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday. 

This is us yesterday afternoon taking a walk with temps in the upper thirties.  He will crawl into his stroller and beg to go "outside", "bye bye". Yesterday, he did this and I said "no bye bye today Evan".  He started crying and the guilt ensued.  He won, I froze. 

3.  He loves loves his daddy.  He copies everything that Bill does. 

Melt my heart!

4.  His favorite food is bananas.  Kid would eat bananas all day long if I let him.  

5.  His favorite song is the itsy bitsy spider.  He attempts to do the motions and everything, so cute.  When you are finished, he will cheer and say, again.  And the singing continues on repeat. 

6.  He is an excellent shopper.  Seriously.  As long as you avoid the produce/banana isle (see no. 5), he can sit in the cart for a really long time without complaint.