Easter Egg Hunt 1

This Easter Egg Hunt was the invention of Mommy at the Smith's house for Ian to find.

The Thrill of "the Find"

Blessed Day - Good Friday
What a blessed day! I ran 8 miles in the morning (at 8:30-9:00 minute pace) + found an exersaucer for my friend Jill at a garage sale for a great price AND yard saling with Ian.  Here's this day in pictures.
The rain came back and forth all day but this one "find" was one that was going to be on a Christmas family list this upcoming December however...I found it, we briefly researched it, budgetized it and bought it! Can you guess? Drum-roll please....

Mowing & Cooking

So our little man is quite the yardman and quite the chef. He plays in both worlds!

New Pajamas from Friends

our Saturday 4-16-11

Full of Events: French Lick "kiddy romp" & 10k
Doodlebug Photoshoot with Victory Photography
Rae Ann Burden's Baby Shower (sorry no pics)

The weather was icky 40s, windy & rainy for the morning but Mark persevered and Ian didn't care. He got to be outside!!

 Sorry this photo just won't turn the right way - but this was Ian in the morning with his Tigger.

Recovery - Grateful

It's a little known fact that rest really does help your body. LOL (not that I am the best listener to this though). This past week has been most interesting for me and yet most needed. There were some rescheduling of clients so I could rest more and also just 'being' a little bit more. I was glad to mow yesterday but more importantly run 2.5 miles pain free and conscious of my pace but also my body. I did some light weight lifting and then swam about hmmmm.....700-750m.

This morning though I wanted to see where my legs were recovery-wise so I ran 5 miles on the riverwalk and WOW after about a mile I could kick up my pace and ended up doing the last two miles in 8:30 pace which is really good for me - especially with how much I just stripped & ripped my muscles up from the marathon.  I feel so blessed to be able to move now and just to simply run. After Sunday, I don't want to take for granted the fact that I don't necessarily HAVE to run but am privileged to do it.

Life is different when you see exercise as a gift and not as labor-some or as horribly hard. The sweat poured in the chilly wind and boy my body was happy it wasn't hot. Mark runs in the French Lick 10k tomorrow which is suppose to be in the 40s and rainy :(.  However, we're hoping to have Ian run in the "Kiddy Romp" before hand...he is really getting into running. We went to two track meets this past week and he could not wait until the meets ended to run around the track. He had pretty good form too!

STL Photos - The Experience

Preparation - All items set out...Hat, Chica Band, Bib, Advil, Garmin, ipod Shuffle, Shoes, Sunscreen, Fuel Belt, Shirt, Shorts, Socks, Chaffing Cream, Gels

Bib # 1623 

 Camera Happy - Jill is still Asleep!

 Need I say more?

 Last time for a Ponytail

Yes the bib # is on me!

 Locked & Loaded!

This is me, this is me before walking to the start...look at me, look at the start :)

 Waiting patiently & listening to conversations :)

 Beginning to move...focused.

 HI Jill! It's almost mile 7.

 Yay!

 Running away, packing the gels.

 Finishing: clock time 4:31:46 - my actual time 4:26:33

You can see the guy with the backpack a little waze behind in the green shirt. This is the lovely relay person that slowed down and I yelled "MOVE" to. :S  NOTE: Look for the yellow hat...

 Standing here, drinking water...very, very dizzy...

 So I look "with-it" but in reality I can barely see in front of me & am trying to look for Jill.

 Done! Just trying to relax & refuel.

This is what the finish looks like from about .5 away - can't even see it can ya?
This is what I saw towards the end.

And this is me after a couple of days - got a hair cut & proudly wearing my St. Louis Marathon BRIGHT GREEN shirt. I paid A LOT for this shirt! I will keep it until I'm 50 probably.

St. Louis Marathon - Garmin Stats

Finally got my Garmin to download and was kind of pumped to get this on here!

Evansville Marathon was Cancelled

I just found out that Evansville Marathon was cancelled 17 hours before race time due to weather and the marathon registrants had to run the 1/2 Marathon with everyone else.  Bummer but wow I had thought about entering that race - kind of glad I didn't.

News Report on Evansville

News Report on GO! St. Louis Marathon - Closed due to Heat
It closed or participants were diverted - I was at mile 13 by then...