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First of all - - I HAVE PICTURES!!!

No, my camera is still not fixed, but Papa had pity upon me and is letting me use his old camera (don't let the word "old" fool you, this camera is very fancy) for the time being. Not that it helps me take better pictures, but at least you'll have something to look at besides my words.

This weekend Spencer and I ran in our second half marathon in Nashville. We thought this would be a great excuse to visit family and keep up our running goals. So we trained, did the Triple Crown here in Lousiville and were ready to go. I started to get antsy early last week when the weather channel began predicting rain for Saturday. But what do they know? The race was still 6 days away. Then they said thunderstorms. Then there was talk of damaging winds. Hail. Tornados. By Friday, Nashville important people and Race important people were having to come up with contingency plans for 35,000 runners when this storm hit.

Thankfully. THANKfully...the weather did as it usually does and went a little higher/lower/slower/faster than planned. The storm did hit Nashville, but not until later in the day and not as severe as it could have been. Many of the marathon runners were pulled off course and diverted to the 1/2 finish line. But most of the half marathoners (us included!) were able to finish just in the nick of time.

Here are Spencer and I at the expo on Friday to pick up our packets:

And here we are after the race on Saturday back at our hotel room. Don't let the smiles fool you - both of us hurt from head to toe.

When you first start running, it's all about finishing. Just getting to the finish line, no matter how slow, is your ulitmate goal. But once you've completed a certain distance, you begin to compare your times with other races. Did I run faster this race? Am I better trained? Is the course harder/easier? Last year I ran the Chicago Half Marathon and finished at 2:32:03. My goal was 2:30 so I was very pleased to be so close to my goal time! My goal for the Country Music Half was again, 2:30. But when I started running I forgot to start my stopwatch! I remembered just a few minutes into the race, but how many? Was it 2 or 5? How far was I off? The entire race I kept looking at my watch and wondering how close I was to my 2:30 goal. At the 10 mile mark my watch said 1:51. Even if my watch were 9 minutes off (which I knew it wasn't) then I was in a great spot! I could definitely finish by 2:30. But wait. The hills. I don't know who puts hills in the last few miles of a long race, but that was not nice. I slowed down a lot. And walked a lot. It wasn't pretty. I ended up crossing the finish line with my watch reading 2:30:23. I didn't know my "real" time but I knew it was more than 2:30. Oh well. It still had to be close and maybe I beat my Chicago time??

Official race time - - 2:32:05

In case you got lost in the numbers - that was 2 SECONDS away from my Chicago time.

TWO SECONDS.

Like one mississippi, two mississippi.

Like, having to run a few steps behind someone slower than me (ha! that rarely happens); or having to wait just a moment longer at the water station; or a few more steps of running instead of walking at the end.

Oh well. The course was definitely harder, so I'm going to say that it was the hills' fault :-)

Now...back up. Remember the picture with us in a hotel? Why would we stay at a hotel when Nana and Papa live in Nashville? Well, Spencer's dad is a member of some thing that accrues points and has been a member for eons so he has a zillion points and we got two free nights out of it! Which really was nice to come back after the race and take a shower and relax before having to be parents again. We ate dinner with Big Granny, Nana and Papa and brought the kids back to our room. They felt so big staying in a real hotel room. Even Claire got her first night sleeping in a big girl bed (notice the wall of pillows wedging her in).

We thought that this would be a good test to see if she was ready to leave the crib and move to a big girl bed at home. Nuh-uh. This child may be in her crib come kindergarten. It took her about 10 seconds to hop out of that bed and start roaming the hotel room (set up like a tiny condo with two bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen area). Every time she got up she went straight for the bathroom and started flushing the toilet. Makes sense I guess. That's what everyone else in the family does when they get out of bed at night, right? Finally she gave up and went to sleep. We heard her again at 4 a.m. when she had turned sideways in the bed and had her feet kicking poor Camille. Instead of Camille being mad that she was kicked, Claire was mad that someone was in her way. I straightened her back out and she went back to sleep for a little longer. Everyone was up way too early the next morning wanting to watch the "cool" TV's (flat screens).

Anyway - we made it home and we're back to business as usual for Monday morning.

Oh! But Friday! I have good news :-) Just wait...