Cruisin

Can you say no to that face?

Focused.

This big canyon is part of some park property down the road from our house. This is the most "off-roading" the Jeep has seen thus far.

In All Of It's Glory

Although it's still February and we're the only crazies driving around with the top off, I just wanted to show you that we are thoroughly enjoying the Wrangler. Bought it in January, took the top off about 2 weeks later and it's been off ever since! Yep, we're the real deal. And Duke loves it too by the way, quite a true riding dog he's become.

2011 Mercedes Marathon/Half Marathon

Gearing up for the big race!

A shot in front of the official "start" line.

Waiting in the chute ready for the race to start.

Still waiting...

And we're off!

Josh shortcutted through the path to get some action shots during the race. I believe this was around mile 5?

Finishing the last leg.

Another action shot going through the finishing chute. Hey...it was mile 13, give me some slack.

Crossing the official finish line. I know the clock says 1:59.03 but because I started the race towards the back of the crowd I didn't actually cross the start line until a minute after the race officially started. My actual finish time was 1:58 flat. Barely made it under 2:00!

If you finished the race under a certain time they gave you these medals. It kinda makes you feel important I guess.

The after-race party was really nice, hosted by Jim N' Nicks. I don't believe I've ever tasted a BBQ sandwich quite as good as this one.

I view of the Auditorium in downtown Birmingham where the after race events took place.

Okay so since Josh took all of the pictures I thought it was only right for him to write this blog, but he insist that blogging is MY "thing", so I'm left writing a blog about myself and feeling a little bit strange about it so I'll just give you the main details and we'll call it good.

The race started at 7:03 this morning (not sure why 7:03?), so naturally we woke up at 4:00 to get ready and head to downtown Birmingham (Josh was a trooper). Got there by 6:00 and waited around for things to get started. This was the 10 year anniversary of the Mercedes Marathon and there were over 7,000 runners! There were runners from every state in the U.S as well as 7 different countries! These facts of course made me just a little intimidated and by the time I made it to the chute before the race started I had a major case of stomach butterflies!

The officials line you up according to your running speed so I lined up to run at a 9 minute mile pace hoping that this would allow me to finish in under 2 hours. As soon as the gun was fired and I crossed the start line this weird feeling came over me that I can't really describe and I broke out in chill bumps all over. I think it was the atmosphere and the people lined up all the way down the streets cheering for you, and when I looked straight ahead at the mass of people running for as far as I could see, it was quite exhilarating to say the least.

Anyway, I was able to maintain a 9 minute mile throughout the race (slower on the uphill, faster on the downhill but averaging 9). I stopped at every single watering station (probably cost me 5 minutes in all but i was afraid of what might happen if I didn't drink, and drink a lot. So I drank A LOT). I finished the race at 1 hour and 58 minutes, so I was very pleased that I met my goal of running it under 2 hours. I place 322nd out of around 5,000 that ran the half marathon so that wasn't too bad either for my first go at it.

I'm thinking about trying another race sometime soon. Maybe traveling to run in another state for some different scenery. I'm also trying to talk my wonderful husband into running one with me one day....one day.