A weekend away

I was conned into running a half marathon with Craig in Florida by Grandpa and Craig. I succumbed to the pressure and I recruited Grandma D to come for the weekend.  I flew off without any kids and minimal luggage.  It was heavenly.  I bought a real book and read in the silence (minus the noisy passengers sitting around me). 

We enjoyed a relaxing Saturday. It was so relaxing I don't even remember it.  Sunday we woke up around 5am to get ready for the start of the race.  It had been cool until it started raining Saturday evening. We woke up Sunday morning and it was so humid and not cool at all. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been or wanted to have been and it was evident about 5 miles in (or sooner). 

This was the only hill on the race course.  We ran over the Caloosahatchee River and back. It was a mile over and a mile back. It was a long two miles. The beauty of the water didn't help the misery of the run. 

We finished though. We both crossed the finish line. The sign is from my friend Jill. She dropped it off before I left. She wanted to make sure I had my own personal cheering section. I carried the note with me in my pocket for the whole race and tried to pull some energy from it when I was feeling down and wanted to quit.

Running 13.1 miles takes a lot out of a person. Big Randy could hardly keep his eyes open. He and Grandma were a good support crew.  It's too bad we can't take them to our next race in April.  Jessie has some big shoes to fill in Champaign.

Grandma and Grandpa bought Miss M a new outfit. She wore it to school this week.  It was about 10 degrees outside. It's a good thing her school is hot and she likes to wear snow pants to school. Her legs are so skinny.

We got a foam stress reliever heart in our race bags and Miss M enjoys playing with it. Cate likes drooling all over it. It will have to disappear once she starts getting teeth if it doesn't end up missing before then.

My flight was incredibly delayed. It was supposed to leave at 10pm and get in around midnight but it was after 1 am when we left and around 4am when I crawled into bed. I managed to sleep for a little while on the airport floor which was gross but a place to sleep.  I bought some Benadryl in hopes of knocking myself out on the plane to sleep. It only sort of worked.  It was so cold and sleeping on an airplane isn't comfortable.

Andrew and Grandma D held down the fort. All the kids were alive and well (enough) when I got home.  It was a nice trip away.