A different perspective, a new horror.

I can't imagine the horror of running the Boston Marathon to finish in the midst of bombs. The terror and the tragedy. I can't help but make a mental picture of getting close to the finish, after a grueling 4 hours (or more like 5+ for me if I were to ever do it...which I realize means that I would never qualify..) and looking for my family. Looking for familiar faces. And then chaos and cruelty takes over. It truly makes my heart stop.

A year ago I would have been horrified and saddened. Today it was personal. I have joined the running family and today's terror was a targeted act.

As I was sitting here pondering, Lexi walked up to me and saw the picture and asked what that was. I told her it was for the Boston Marathon. She asked me if I was going to run it. . I smiled and said no, that I had to run a marathon first and that I'm not that fast! How her world has changed in a year too.

When I told her about the bombs and the loss of life and the injuries, she was dumbfounded and questioned why it had happened. I told her that I didn't know, that nobody knew. Her immediately response was, "You aren't going to run that!"

And she's right for a lot of reasons, but not because of a bomb.

I guess what has me so jumbled up is that I was at a marathon yesterday. Sure it was a thousand or so miles away, but you can't help but feel a kinship with others when you are out on the pavement pounding out the miles.

A Big D. Named Appropriately.

Today was the Big D; also named the Texas Marathon, it's in Dallas. Therefore, the Big D.

 

Five of my running friends ran the marathon. I ran the half marathon.

 

I left home at 4am. Oh My! I drove and Wendy one of the marathon friends rode with me. As Doug said, we crossed a line into a new kind of crazy this morning. I could only agree. Wendy and I made good time and got to Dallas and Fair Park by the target 6:30am. The marathoners were starting at 7:30am and I would start at 8am.

 

Here we are before the race.

I got my friends off on their race, stood in line to go potty another time and then at 7:55 realized that I didn't have my head phones. So, I had a quick little warm up and jogged to the car and got them! Glad I was parked close by!

I crossed the start line at 8:03 with a handful of other runners. Let's just say I was at the back of the pack. I was back with the walkers and the jogging strollers. WHAT??? Jogging strollers? Those aren't allowed on this course. Or so the flyer said. Oh and what was that? A dog on a leash??? Really??

I started the race well. My first miles were right at my target pace  and I was doing fine. Then we hit the trail section going around the lake. I got stuck behind a pace group. ugh. The trail was too narrow to go around and it had a drop off so you couldn't run off the trail. When I did finally get past them, I didn't want to do my walk as I was afraid that I would get stuck again!

Then came the hill known as mile 6. It was crazy.

Overall, I have to say that the race was hard. Really hard. I heard some runners talking about the farthest distance they had run prior to the race. One guy said 6 miles. Ouch. I ran 17 on one run in Februrary in addition to regular weekend runs being between 10 and 14 miles every weekend from November through today. I was ready for this race. I had trained well and I felt good.  I can't imagine how those who didn't train made it through the race.

My impressions of this race are not favorable. I'm not planning on running this again. If it hadn't been for the Dallas PD at every intersection there wouldn't have been any spectators! There was no energy at all! And then there were the "others" on the course. We had to fight for space with bikes, walkers with dogs and random other runners going in the opposite direction.

My time was 2:15:10. The distance was 13.2 (.1 too long. But thankfully not nearly as long as the marathon. The marathon course was too long by more than a mile! How do you mess that up that much?)

I finished 1000 out of 1995 total runners and 69th out 190 runners in the 35 to 39 womens age group. It was by and far a younger and "fitter" race overall than other races that I had run.

 

 And the medal! Kinda fitting to me that it's a Big D!

Our Musical One

Maddie has spent the spring semester in music land. As a life long musician/performer I am thrilled.

There are worse plays to live.

 

Today she finished up the school contest season with another great performance.

 

Last month Maddie performed a clarinet solo and received a top score and a medal.Then later in the month the band competed at ensemble contest and did well.

 

Today, she went and performed a vocal solo and received a top score and will get her medal this week!

 

Next month is her piano recital.

 

Whew.

 

This picture is after the clarinet performance.



Here she is this morning.

 

I'm so proud of Maddie for pursing music, it is such a blessing to her and others. I've always been thankful that I read music and can play the piano. Hopefully the other girls will follow Maddie's lead.

Spring Pictures 2013

Springtime in Texas means that some days you get a high of 45 degrees and some days are 85 degrees. Often you get two of each in a week. This week we have in fact had two of each! Today is a gorgeous high 70's afternoon.

 

Along with the unpredictable weather, we have unpredictable flowers.  The Texas Bluebonnet is a great flower. Some years they are everywhere and some years you find one and holler success.  This was a year of very few bluebonnets.

 

But that doesn't stop me from taking spring pictures!  I love this very Texas ritual!

 

This afternoon, right during the absolutely WORST time of the day to take pictures, I loaded up the girls and went out to a friends place to take pictures. You might recognize the trees and landmarks from previous years.

How nice that blogger allowed me to increase the size of only the very first picture. typical blogger. :\

 I think Kylie might be working on her Karate Kid moves! And look at that sweet Lexi!

 Love the Texas Rangers cap pictures! This was ALL her!

 Maddie turns 13 in a couple of weeks. Please make her stop growing up!

 And there you have Spring Pictures 2013! I truly can't believe how fast my girls are growing up!

Help me decide.. which one should I make for the race?

I am running in another half marathon on Sunday. It's 13.1 miles. {just in case you didn't know :) }
This race I am running by myself as my running group is running the full marathon.  I've decided to make a shirt for myself.

Which one do you like better?

Both options are for the BACK of the shirt.

Option 1:

Option 2:

I'm not sure about the color yet. I'm going to go by a technical shirt at walmart and go from there.

Or do you have any other ideas for me?  I'd love them.