“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:31.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Thankful to be safe from the storms..

Wednesday our area was hit hard by tornados. Areas within a mile of my home were completely devastated. We are safe...no damage. They say we will be 5-7 days without power but if that is the worst we have then I am blessed.
I will not be running a marathon this weekend.
J works at the BP plant and it was hit twice...the second tornado was an f4. Please pass the word to pray for the people of Alabama. For restoration and comfort.

God is a good God he will restore what has been stolen.
Grace and peace,
April
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Monday, April 25, 2011

Is there a marathon at the end of my rainbow?


Possibly....more on that in a little bit..

3 weeks...Has it really been that long since my last post!?
I guess the reason is fairly simple...
I have been traveling, working, vacationing, balling, chauffeuring, party planning, coaching........blah,blah,blah...

A couple weeks ago we took a family trip to the Smoky Mountains

please note:after 5 months of wearing rubber boots, notice baby M no longer has rain boots on!!!!
we ate some seriously good food while vacationing,
The Old Mill..BEST. FOOD. EVER!
rode rollercoasters and spinning rides and swam until we were water logged.

He no longer wears boots......now he wears a cowboy hat everywhere! Such style!
my favorite and last picture of vacation.....can you tell they were done with the paparazzi me?
We all agreed it was the best vacation ever!
As soon as we got back from vacation we hit the ground running...not really running...but you know what I mean. Speaking of running.. I have done less running in the last 3 weeks than I have done in 2 years.:(
J went out of town for work the week after vacation. Single parenting it with a full-time job and 2 kids playing ball does not allow for a lot of time to yourself. 

It wouldn't be that big of a deal if I hadn't already paid the $110 registration fee to run the Country Music Marathon THIS Saturday!
I got all my long runs in, but have not run anything close to the mileage I put in for my last marathon. 
So as of now, I'm undecided about running it.
More on this tomorrow......I have to get to my second home the ball fields.

Hope you all had a beautiful Easter! It is my absolute favorite holiday! I am so thankful for the Lord and the resurrection!

Grace and peace,

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Weekend/Race Recap

Saturday I ran the Oak Barrel Half Marathon HERE.  My 6th half marathon!! I didn't PR or anything, but it was an amazing race. My friend Erika and I made the 1hr and 30min drive up to Lynchburg, TN., at 5:30am Saturday morning.  It was a cool 40 degrees and we debated whether or not to wear a light jacket. We decided not to and were so thankful for that decision. The weather warmed up to a beautiful 65. It was sunny with just enough breeze to cool us off.  The course was unlike any course I have run(I may need to get out more), it was 13.26 miles of scenic country and history.  The race was in Lynchburg, TN., home of the Jack Daniels Distillery, and the race was sponsored by Jack Daniels. (no samples though, it's in a dry County)
This is where the race finished....
 This was the most organized race I have ever been to.  I highly recommend it and will be running it again next year.
It was NOT flat at all, so if you plan on running it you might want to hill train first.....unlike me.
I was warned about  the hills- the race director even sent out a warning email to all runners that stated:
  • This is NOT a flat course
  • There is one character building hill (Whiskey Hill) that starts at about mile 4.
  • Whiskey Hill is a gradual climb for about a mile.  The last little bit of it however gets very steep.  The steep part is very short.
"character building" is a nice way of saying "this hill will kick your butt, you will want to lie on the side of the road in the fetal position.....but once you get to the top the rest of the race will seem like a cake walk."
 They were right that it was a gradual climb... half way up the hill we were still maintaining an 8:30 pace, I started to think that they were totally over exaggerating the severity of the hill.   And then. we turned a corner and the road made a double "S" and went straight up..this is the first time I have ever had to walk during a race. I could hear "Eye of the Tiger" playing on speakers at the top of the hill and it pumped us up enough to start running again. We finished that mile in 11:37.  Next year I'll be ready for Whiskey Hill!
The benefits of having outrageous uphills are the gorgeous downhills.....these are where we made up our time.

  I finished 1:58:29 and 16th out of 88 in my age group.  Not too bad.  I went into the race with absolutely no personal goals, which was kind of nice for a change.  The only goal was to help my running bud Erika run a sub 2hr half.  Erika finished in 1:58:50 and 9th in her age group. She did awesome!
Post race pic- I look like a GIANT!!
Finishers Medal- Cool, huh?
After the race they had food and a little festival and were giving people tours of the Jack Daniels Distillery which would have been really cool to participate in, however, we had to hit the road in order to make it to kids ballgames.
We drove the 1hr 30 mins back home and I had 10mins to shower and be back out the door to Seb's ball games which were 1hr 30mins in the opposite direction in Birmingham, AL.  This is his first year playing travel ball and I'm not sure I fully understood exactly what travel ball entailed when J signed him up.  Especially since J coaches Ty's team, which means I am the one who will be doing all of the traveling for Seb's games.(I'm almost positive this detail was not fully disclosed to me.) :)  Thankfully we have friends who have kids on the same team and they brought him to the game so he wouldn't be late in the case I was running behind.....and of course I was.
I missed the first game. :( They played well, but lost all three games.
During the last game Seb went to catch a pop fly and the ball smacked him right in the face. Thankfully it didn't knock out any teeth or do any real damage. It hit him on the side of the jaw and left an imprint of the baseball seams on his face. He thinks that is pretty cool.
my little slugger

It was a pretty great day! 

There was really only one casualty.......
another toenail bites the dust...

seriously. My feet were never this ugly before I started running....so much for looking cute in sandals this summer.;)

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend too! Last week was super busy and I am looking forward to catching up on all my blog reading this week.

Grace and peace,
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