The Big Four-O

Yes that is right, I am now 40 years old. Quite honestly, I can't believe it. I remember when my Dad was 40 and he kept telling us he was middle age. I didn't believe him then and by golly I refuse to believe it now. For my birthday, Greg organised a "Totally 80's" party for me. It was a small get together of family and a few friends. It was fun to see the way everyone dressed up and it was also fun just hanging out. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Kentucky Derby miniMarathon

Last Saturday was the big day. I had been training for the mini Marathon for several months and it was finally here. I felt well prepared for it and was ready to run. The night before we got together with several of our friends to have a pre race party. We got our shirts that we ran in and had a great time eating and being goofy. The shirts we ran in were in memory of Jonathan Cunningham. Becky is wife ran the race with us.
The kids slept at grandma and grandpa's house so that we could get up bright and early. We picked April up at 6am and made our way in the rain to the start of the race. April and I decided to run with a pace team to help us reach my goal of a 2 hour mini. The pace team started out really fast and didn't stick to the average pace posted. We kept up with them for a long time, but this was a mistake and my undoing. We had planned to gout relatively slowly and then pick up the pace, but that didn't happen. at about 6 miles I was so tired and sore that I felt a little defeated. I did run the first 10 miles faster than the Papa John's 10 miler a few weeks ago. After 10 miles though I found it very difficult to keep running. April would run up ahead and then walk back to find me. She was very encouraging and is a true friend. I kept telling her to go ahead and run better time for herself, but she kept telling me that we trained together so we would finish together. She truly kept me going that last 3 miles.
Next year we are going to do longer runs and run at least a 15 mile run before the race so that my brain and body knows it can make 13.1 miles. I can't believe we are strategizing next years training already. It was a good experience and I will definitely do it again.

TERESA HAYWORTH #11414
LOUISVILLE, KY
Age: 39 Gender: F
Distance HALF MAR
Clock Time 2:14:02
Chip Time 2:11:34
Gender Place 1502 / 6093
Division Place 241 / 874
Oall 4105
Ctz USA
10K 58:00
Divtotal 891
Sextotal 6093

That 10 Miles About Did Me In and Greg too!

Today I ran the Papa John's 10 miler. Not the first time running this distance, but the first race at this distance. I had high hopes of running under 1 hour 30 minutes, but my mental state got the best of me. I ran 1 hour 35 minutes and 51 seconds. Not too bad, but still a little disappointing. It is amazing how I could be running with 8000 people and still be running all alone. Several of my friends ran, but we are all at different levels and so I ran by myself. The first 3 miles were hard because there were so many people to dodge. The second 3 miles were through Iroquois Park, which is 3 miles of hills. Literally! There are no flat sections in the park. It is either up or down. The ups are long and the downs are over far too quickly. The last 4 miles were all mental. It started pouring down rain at about mile 7 and I kept telling myself "anyone can run 3 miles!" It took us 9 minutes to get to the start line after the race's official start time.
While I was running Greg and the kids were waiting a the Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. He was less than excited to be spending the day with 2 small children in a crowd of people. Top things off with a thunder storm and when I finished the race they were "finished" too. We stayed for the kids 50 yard dash. By that point Naomi as not interested in anything except going home, so Josiah ran it and got his participation medal. He is quite the little sprinter. He may take after his mother after all!

Sundress Number 2

Here is the second sundress I have made for our trip to the Bahamas.

Looking Ahead

It has been cold and dreary here for several months and I am so ready for warm weather and Summer time. We are booked on a family cruise leaving Cape Canaveral on April 26th. I am excited about taking the kids to the Bahamas and on a big cruise liner. Josiah is especially excited. We will have to take him out of school for a week in order to go, so we are figuring out different ways we can incorporate fun learning while on the trip. Josiah said he would like to learn about the animals that will be in the ocean that we are sailing on. I think that can be arranged. We are still waiting on Naomi's passport to arrive in the mail. We are praying that there is no major hold up on it especially since the paperwork for a passport for an adopted child can be tricky. It shouldn't be, but it is. Please pray that we get it in time. I have joked with Greg that if we don't get it that he and Naomi will have a fun time at home while Josiah, Greg's family and I cruise. He did not find that amusing. In anticipation of going I having been looking at buying some sundresses. I was shocked to see the price of little bitty dresses on line ($50 each), so I began an adventure that I haven't had in many years. I found myself in a fabric store buying patterns and fabric to make dresses. Yes I said make them. It has been about 17 years since I made any article of clothing for myself. I was nervous to say the least. I spent $60 and will have 3 dresses and possibly 4 to show for that. I think that is a good deal. This weekend I made the first one. Here it is:

It's Official

I am officially crazy. This week I signed up to do a half marathon in April. I have been training for it for 3 weeks now and it has been hard work already. My training program is 24 weeks long, but the race is 26 weeks away. I have allowed myself plenty of time to increase my training runs slowly to try to minimize injury. We shall have to wait and see how well that plan works out. This week my longest run was 4 miles so as you can see I have a long way to work my way up to 13.1 miles. I will keep you posted on how the training is going.