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.

Christmas Time (a little outdated)

Duke loved his first Christmas!

The Chambers Fam. (minus Adam, Bentley, Ella, Lizette and Amanda-taking the picture)

Enjoying the Gadsden snow on a beautiful white Christmas!

Josh gearing up for some fun in Mentone!

More fun in the Mentone snow

Horses on the farm. So pretty!

And then the real fun showed up! Josh feeding his niece, Corrine.

Miss Corrine (aka "Snooter") enjoying her new book with her Grandad


Duke inhaling his biscuit from his Uncle Marc and Aunt Trish!

Corrine and her cousin Duke checking out her new wagon.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post some Christmas pictures, things have been super busy around here since the holidays. Well, really since about the first of November it's been nonstop for us every weekend but I won't get into all of that.

Anyway, this Christmas was alot of fun for us! We started out with our own little Christmas at our house in Maylene on Christmas morning before we packed up the gifts and the dog and headed north to Gadsden for my side of the family's festivities. The farther north we drove, the whiter the ground became. By the time we made it to Gadsden, it was a full-blown "White Christmas" for sure! After opening gifts, enjoying the snow, eating lunch, and visiting with my family for a few hours we packed up even more gifts, grabbed the dog, and headed even farther north to Josh's side of the family in Mentone, AL.

Talk about snow! When we arrived in Mentone it was a good 2 to 3 inches deeper than it was in Gadsden, and it was still falling heavily. Although I was feeling some sickness coming on, I just had to get outside and explore around a little after we had arrived that night. So we did, and after an entire day spent in the bed the following day due to the fact that my body refused to move, I was able to get out and play in the snow a little bit. Josh and his dad broke out the 4-wheelers and we headed out to some empty pastures on the farm to cut some doughnuts, and watch Josh's uncle Andy show off a little bit (watch the video I posted to see him in action).

The following day Josh's brother and sister-in-law (Marc & Trish) and their little girl Corrine arrived to Mentone from St. Louis, MO. We had alot of fun getting to see Corrine and how much she's changed and grown up over time! She's quite the little cutie and completely FULL of personality (not shocking at all considering where she came from!). Marc and Trish always spice things up a little bit around the farm whenever we're all together, so we enjoyed hanging out with them and playing Marc's ever- so- infamous board games (always a good time).

After another good day of playing and sledding in the snow with Josh and his brother, it was time to pack things up and head back Mayberry - I mean Maylene, AL. Christmas was great this year! We're looking forward to seeing what 2011 will bring for the Birmingham Smalleys. I'm sure there's much in store for us, we'll just have to wait and see!

Our Trip to Big Canoe & The Biltmore

A view of our home away from home for a few days in Big Canoe, GA. This house was such a wonderful place to go and relax for the weekend and take in the beauty of God's creation (Thank you so much to the Grissett family for sharing you home with us)!

On Friday morning Josh and I decided to go and check out the Amicalola State Park, which was located about 5 miles down the road from where we were staying. This is a view from the bottom of the mountain, and if you look real hard at the very top of the picture you can see the top of the water fall!

After climbing half way up the mountain via trail, we made it to the beginning of the 600+ stairs you had to take to make it to the top of the falls. This was the first flight.

This is Josh (very proud of himself for making it up the first 175)

Us half way up the mountain. The falls were gorgeous!

We made it the 2nd flight of steps. 425 to be exact. Josh was less than thrilled.

Conquered the mountain. And the view was completely worth it!

Hey...he made it...

The next day (Saturday morning) we started off to Ashville, NC. to go see the Biltmore Estate. About an hour into our (what should have been) 3 1/2 hour trip we ran into some less than ideal driving conditions. The roads were covered in ice and snow and we seriously considered turning around to get back to Big Canoe, but the lady in the SUV in the above picture stopped and talked us into sticking to our plans and moving forward. She said that she drove these roads everyday, and this was going to be the worst of it. Well, It wasn't the worst of it. Our 31/2 hour drive turned into about 51/2 hours of creeping along the icy roads. But the longer we drove and the closer we got to the Biltmore, the less willing we were to turn around. So as crazy as it sounds, we just kept driving..

We finally made it to our destination. This is a view of the road to the Biltmore Estate. As you can see, our driving conditions only got worse. But to our surprise, the Biltmore was open for the day (we were really fearing that we would finally make it there and everything would be closed due to the ice and snow)!

And what a beautiful sight it was driving up on this beautiful house in the snow! Definitely worth the 5+ hour drive.

Josh's first trip to the Biltmore!

I snuck in a few shots of the inside..
We got up enough courage to walk around the gardens of the estate a little bit. It was freezing, but the sights were so amazing all covered in snow.

I took this picture of a beautifully shaped American Beach Tree on the estate. Just couldn't pass it by without snappin one off. It turned out really well, we're thinkin about framing this one.

Some more views of the gardens.

Josh in the Conservative area of the gardens.

Another view of our drive around the estate. Possibly another framer.

Josh and I had such a blast this past weekend on our little get away trip to the mountains! The views of the mountains and different sites and parks around the area of Big Canoe were absolutely breathtaking. We could have stayed for the rest of the month and still not have had enough time to take it all in.

Although our trip to the Biltmore probably shouldn't have happened considering the conditions, I'm so very glad it did and that we made it there alive. God was definitely watching out for us. And even though, round trip we drove 9+ hours and only had a little over 3 to take in the sites of the estate, it was still completely worth it. Even the drive to and from Ashville, NC was absolutely gorgeous the whole way.

Side note: On our drive home from the mountains we had to leave GA at about noon on Sunday so that we would miss the bad weather that was in the forecast for the southeast, supposed to hit early Sunday night. We made it through Mentone to pick up the Dukester, through Gadsden to drop off a few things, and all the way to Springville, AL before we ran into any sign of ice. But once the ice hit, it hit hard! We had to drive about 30 MPH the rest of the way home, and even doing so we came inches away from T-boning another vehicle on the interstate after it had started spinning out of control on the ice. I nearly lost my dinner, and just started praying from that point on for us to just make it home without an accident. Again, God was watching out for us. I think we may have passed 30 or more vehicles on our way home that had either run off the road, or had some sort of accident (some fatal). Thankfully we made it home safely, and don't plan on leaving any time soon!