Keep on Runnin'

Sooo....Blake was a little frustrated that I did not get this post done soon enough after his last post to continue the retro running song theme (anyone recognize this one?). But here I am anyway to tell you about our next running adventure of the summer. Since Blake had put so much time and effort into training for the 50/20 event, I kept bugging him that if he could do that, surely he could do a 1/2 marathon easy. It just so happened that Blake's oldest brother Brad and his wife Ali had been trying to get us to do the Airforce 1/2 Marathon in Dayton, Ohio with them for the past year. So Blake caved and decided to train with me for it.

He found us a 10 week training program, and didn't let me sluff off the entire 10 weeks. We ran 8 and 5 miles in Island park at the Kern family reunion, we got babysitters to run saturday mornings, we ran in the snake river canyon. We were ready for this race, and then some! Then Blake's hip started to hurt, and hurt, and hurt (of course he didn't want to mess up the "training schedule so he kept running). And my head started to get a little stuffy, and then a lot stuffy!! We drove down to Utah and left the kids with my sister Sara. I couldn't sleep that night I was so stuffed up, which meant poor Blake didn't sleep either. We flew out that morning, and Brad and Ali picked us up in Louisville, and we all drove to Dayton. We made it just in time to pick up our race packets. The plan was to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, but found out there was an hour wait we decided on Noodle's instead, and got cheesecake to-go for dessert (yum!).

We woke up bright and early to get to the race on time. Brad and Ali had to run to the starting line the year before, and we weren't interested in adding an extra mile or two before the race even started. This was by far the most organized race I had ever participated in, and you could not beat the venue! It was fun to see all the airplanes lining the start and finish line, and the B52 fly over right before the race was awesome! They had "pacers" with signs with the time you wanted to finish with and you lined up beside them. We lined up by the 2:00 pacer. I was feeling a little better than the day before, and was hoping for the best. Blake took off on his own right away, and I was good for the first 9 miles, but crashed on the last 4. I didn't quite make my goal, but did get 2:17, my second best time ever. So I felt ok about it, but am still wondering what "could have been" if I wasn't sick. Blake got within 5 minutes of his goal, but was hurting quite a bit at the end with his hip injury. We were quite the pair. It was a little disappointing, but still a great experience. And of course, great to spend time with Brad and Ali and their kids.

Funny story was that Blake wanted Brad to take him to a specialized running story in Kentucky to see if there was a better running shoe he should be wearing. After about 45 minutes of shoes, advice, and more shoes, he ended up with a brand new pair of the exact same shoe he walked in the store with. It was quite disappointing to him to say the least.

Thank you Brad and Ali for a great time! I am already plotting my next race, so I can see if I can get any closer to my 2 hour goal!!! St. George anyone???