Atlanta Half Marathon...

Great experience..
Rob and I were fortunate enough to participate in the annual Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. We were among 8,500 runners early Thanksgiving morning. While most others were sleeping in and preparing the feasts of the day, we were bustling through downtown Atlanta, Georgia making our way through the Marta train and to the starting line. The race was well-planned and seemed like a great crowd pleaser. Among the many spectators that journeyed out on a frigid morning to cheer us on, I mostly enjoyed the "Pilgrim" that ran along side us at mile 8!

Rob developed a blister on his heel at mile 7 and was in quiet a bit of pain by mile 10..he was also cramping at that point (how the heck he does that in the freezing cold, I will never understand!)..anyway, he still managed to finish under 2 hrs with walking the last two miles...

I was totally jamming to my IPOD and praying along the way and before I knew it, I was approaching mile 11 at about an hour and a half...the competitive bug stung me and I took off thinking, "I would LOVE to make it to that finish line before 1hr 50, so I popped a few pieces of gum and cranked up the rap music and before I even realized it, I had crossed that finish line at 1 hr 42 min. I was pumped!! I was 30th overall in my division of 635 females ages 30-34. Not too bad for an old gal that has been around the block a few times...Out of the 8,500 total runners I crossed over as runner 838...so being 800 out of 8,000 wasn't too bad after all.

The experience was awesome. We ate at the Buckhead Diner the night before. Pre-game race meal was Chicken Parmigiana, Greek island pasta salad, smoked white cheddar grits and p-nut M&M's and coffee!

I am proud of us participating in something that takes dedication, discipline and determination. I love my husband for running with me, encouraging me and supporting me through it all.

And, our weekend would not have even been possible if it weren't for some special people who helped us out with our FIVE kids...Aunt Jill, Aunt Aimee and Uncle Christopher, Nikki, Taylor, Mamaw and Nana...did you count how many people we had to officially use to take care of our FIVE kids for 24 hours...And to top it all off, my mother in law (Mamaw) took care of the boys (very demanding) while preparing an enormous Thanksgiving Feast that fed our entire family (about 25 people!) She is definitely ONE OF A KIND! So thank you so much my sweet best friends and mom and mother in law for supporting us and helping with taking care of our kids.

Next on the calendar is the MERCEDES MARATHON in February. I am considering running the full...but have not committed yet. Not sure if my body can with stand all the training.