Martian Marathon Week

This week was pretty busy for a rest week. We tired to lay low during the week days in order to be rested for my big race on Saturday. On Monday, I had a short workout at the gym while Keira was in school. I don't think I got any of her artwork photographed this week, so I will have to include it in next week's post. She won't have any as this was the week before spring break anyway. We had a surprise guest today with us. Madison, one of Keira's classmates that we have know the longest through library, last year's preschool, and other events, has a very ill grandfather, and needed some emergency babysitting. Thankfully, Ryan has his launch vehicle so I was able to take 3 children home from preschool. I had a visiting teaching lunch planned with Michelle and Amber, to meet at Baha Fresh. We were really bummed to learn when we got there that it was closed! Darn Wal-Mart going into the Novi Town Center has really thrown a wrench into the businesses that I like. It is a struggling complex anyway. A lot of good ones have been forced to relocate and as a result, others can't hang either. We ended up at Bagger Dave's instead. We had a fun afternoon with friends and enjoyed having Madison over. Ryan rode with his friends outside this evening. On Tuesday, we had a pretty full day. I had my last track workout and we did some errands in the morning. Both Keira and Soren looked super cute in their warm up suits. Thanks to facebook, Ryan was able to get in contact with our friend, Liz, who happened to be in town today at her parents house. We were able to squeeze in a quick visit with her tonight. She is a teacher in Colorado, and was on spring break, and heading to CA for the rest of the week. We had to cut our visit a bit short, as I attended the Kindergarten Orientation meeting for Keira for Village Oaks. This is a back up plan, but nevertheless, we want to have everything in order. After attending this, I am a bit sad that she will likely not attend VO school for Kindergarten. Perhaps when we return. On Wednesday, Soren and I hung out in the morning while Keira was at school. The gym was having a "member appreciation party" for the evening, so I planned to workout during that time. It was pretty loud and we missed out on a lot of the food since I needed to get in a short workout. I did get it done, and since there was a DJ, it went really quickly. I had trouble sticking to a slow pace. On Thursday, we had our first really low key day with no workouts for me. I felt like Keira and Soren resorted back to wintertime. It was cold, and they both wore their fleece suits. Keira even got out the Christmas books. Soren loves Christmas, and keeps asking about when it will happen again. Ryan rode outside this evening too. On Friday, I didn't workout while Keira was at school so Soren and I could hang out again. We started the morning at Kindermusik. I think Keira and Soren will have one more of these before we go. We also went to the library. This is the last Storytime for two weeks, and Soren should get to go to one more before we leave. My parents arrived shortly after we got back from picking Keira up from school. Keira and Soren were very happy to see Grandma and Grandpa. My mom came with me to the expo to pick up my race packet and Cristina's while Soren napped. We had an early dinner once Ryan got home at Noodles & Co, and then I got to bed early. Keira and Soren liked riding around in the back of Grandma and Grandpa's car. On Saturday, it was the big day. I had trouble sleeping and woke up at 4am. I decided to eat my breakfast and then try to go back to sleep for about 45 minutes. I don't think I fell back asleep, but I was ultimately glad I had eaten when I did. Cristina came and picked me up and we got to the race with a little under an hour to spare to race time. We found Colleen before the race: We were very fortunate to have a fabulous day for the race. The weather was beautiful, and I ran very well. I was extremely pleased with my finish time of 3:33:18. I struggled with the last 3-4 miles, but was very happy to qualify for Boston and have a HUGE PR. This time was over 20 minutes faster than my time in 2007. My parents came down with Keira and Soren to see me finish, as well as Kris and Linda. That meant a lot to have them come down. I also was able to see fellow marathoners and TIA members, Colleen and Rita after the finish, and Mary and Anna who were there to cheer them on. I somehow missed Monica, who came down to help run me and another friend during the race. We linked up with her after the finish. I could not find Valerie, but we ended up chatting while on our drives home. She was just a tad in front of us. I also placed 2nd in my age group. Here is my "major award". Cristina ran a great race, and was the second female, and won her age. It was an out and back course, so I saw she was in second on her way back. I dropped a few places after the half, I guess I was the 8th female at the half, and dropped to 13th female, which was still amazing to me! I am not used to placing in events this long and large. This was a smaller marathon than Detroit or Columbus, with only 419 finishers, but the race as a whole had 6000 participants, including the half, 10K, 5K, and children's run. I wished I would have been able to link up with a few more people after the race, but I just did not feel good and wanted to go home. Keira and Soren kept themselves busy during and after the race playing in this willow tree. It was their "jungle". Ryan had a nice ride with Kent that morning. They went 65 miles total, including a little extra where they rode down on Hines just to where the race course had it closed off. Once he got back and cleaned up, I was finally about ready to eat a real meal. We hit Logan's in Canton with my parents and just relaxed the rest of the day. Ryan attended the Priesthood session of General Conference. Boy, was I glad this race was conference weekend! I really felt blessed in many ways. We had great weather despite a gloomy/questionable forecast, I felt great for the race and got my Boston Qualifying time, it was a rare Saturday marathon, I could relax and watch church on TV! On Sunday, we went over to Kris and Linda's with my parents for a yummy brunch of french toast. It was so good, and french toast is actually recommended over pancakes or waffles for athletes as it has the eggs in it for additional protein. It also tastes AWESOME. We spent the day with them and enjoyed General Conference. I was super sore all day today, so it was nice to just be able to sit around. Up for next week, Spring Break for Keira. We don't have any big plans. I hope to get rested up so I can start focusing on tri training.