Huntsville Half Marathon

I ran my third half marathon yesterday morning. The morning started early as we made the drive to the race. We were all sleepy and a bit cranky (Carter was very cranky) as we didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked due to circumstances outside of our control. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful morning at a cool 65 degrees--perfect. My goal each time I run a race is to improve my previous time so I set out to run an 8:45 mile pace, but I didn't know how the numerous hills would affect me. Not all the hills were steep, but there were at least two steep ones and all the hills were definitely more of an incline than I ever run on my regular routes. The lowest elevation was 357 feet and the highest elevation was 490 feet during the half marathon course. Our good friends, the Burches, were there with us again for this half marathon. I'm so proud of Jacob who swore after the Galveston Half that he would never run a half marathon again. Not only did he run it again, but I believe he smoked his time from the Galveston run!

Here we are with a thumbs up ready to run the race.

This week we got a Garmin to help me track my runs. It's expensive, but amazing! I love being able to see what pace I'm running at any glance of the watch. I can see my mileage, set a pace guy to run with, see calories burned, etc. And I love being able to analyze the data afterwards on my computer. Love it! I've always clocked my regular running routes with my car, so I could not deviate from my routes if I wanted to know how far I ran and thus be able to calculate my average running pace. Clocking the mileage with my car, needless to say, is not the most accurate. (One of my loops that I do my car clocked at 1.1 miles and my Garmin clocked at 1.05 which makes a difference when I'm running long distances.) It's just nice to know and to be able to run any direction I feel like and my Garmin will clock it. Have I mentioned yet that I love it?

Anyway, the race course was two 6.55 mile loops. (So those two steep hills I mentioned previously I had to run twice making it 4 steep hills.) The first half I ran really well and surprised even myself that I was doing so well. My slowest mile in the first half was 8:35 and fastest was an 8:14. The hills didn't bother me too much because the downhill more than made up for the uphill I thought. The second half of the race was a little harder. The hills seemed more unbearable. By mile 11 the downhills hurt more than the uphills because momentum would carry my body faster than I was able to go at that point. The second half of the race my fastest mile was an 8:23 and my slowest mile was a 9:11.

Here I am sprinting at the finish.

I was so pleased with the final results! According to my Garmin, my average pace was an 8:34 minute-mile which put me finishing 13.1 miles at 1:52:13. I knocked 5 minutes off last year's half marathon time. That is a significant improvement, and I'm finally out of the rut of running 9-minute miles! Running is invigorating, and I love seeing improvement. As always, a big thank you to the support of my husband who had to deal with two cranky boys for the two hours that I ran.

After the race

The best picture of me and my boys. Caleb is unable to look at the camera for a picture these days.

Pumpkin Time

Some cooler weather came our way, so what better time to visit a pumpkin patch? We went today for a preschool field trip.

The best picture we could get of my boys and me.

Jackets were a necessity with the cool wind! Each person got to take a pumpkin home after the field trip.

A train ride

Playing at the park while we ate lunch in a pavilion. Carter just went back and forth between the swing and the animals.

Petting the dogs

Kissing a goat

I actually got a picture with Carter looking at the camera and smiling!!

Looking at these pictures of Carter, he looks like the sweetest most lovable little boy--which he can be at times. He actually is quite the challenge, especially compared to Caleb. He's into bullying/hurting other smaller children with pinching, biting, and pulling hair. I'm having fun working through it especially when he doesn't understand the connection between the consequences and the undesirable behavior. A lot of his aggressive behavior has to do with the inability to verbally tell me what he wants. Hopefully this is just a passing stage and not here to stay!

Carter with his cousin Gavin.

The cooler weather is very welcome after the hot summer weather. We hope it is here to stay!

Cantaloupe

We haven't done as well staying on top of our garden this year, but we are producing some cantaloupe. This is the biggest one so far, and there are about 6 more growing right now. Caleb finds it so exciting to watch them get bigger and finally to pick them! We'll have to do better next year.

Running Update

A year ago at this time, I was training for a marathon. Carter was 6 months old, and I had been training for 2 months already. It was definitely difficult to work the training around nursing, but it felt invigorating to seriously train again after taking a 6 week break when Carter was born and doing some light running to try to get back in shape. Since my marathon on January 1st of this year, I haven't run any other races, but I have kept up the running to around 6 miles. Since the money can add up to run a lot of races, I didn't plan on running another race until November. I planned to run the Galveston half marathon again this year since I enjoyed the run last year along the Seawall looking out at the ocean. Unfortunately it was cancelled. The next half marathon race I was aware of nearby wasn't until March. I was kind of bummed. It's fun to work towards a race, but March was too far off.

A few days ago, I learned of a half marathon coming up in 3 weeks about 45-60 minutes away. Today I ran 13.1 miles to make sure I could do it, then I signed up. It's a month sooner than the Galveston race I was planning on, which cuts my training short. There's more I still want to do to shave minutes off my time, but I'll just have to make do.

I have made great strides in improving my running times. I've been able to run up to 6 miles in 8:45-9:00 minute-miles depending on the day while pushing my kids in a double running stroller. Today's 13.1 mile time was 1:54:35, 3 minutes faster than my half marathon last November, and the last mile was pushing the stroller as Matt had to be somewhere. The pace was 8:45-minute-miles. I'm hoping to run just as well in 3 weeks if not faster. The number one thing that might get in the way? Hills. The half marathon I signed up for I haven't considered in the past due to the hills. There are 2 large hills and other mild hills throughout the race. There are not many hills to train on around here that are close, so I have not done much hill training. In the next 3 weeks, I hope I can get a chance to run some hills but will have the difficulties of time (the closest hills are 20 minutes away so that's 40 minutes of driving time) and having to push my kiddos in the stroller. It's exciting to have a race on the calendar though and to have a time frame to push myself harder. Races have such a fun atmosphere, and I'm looking forward to it!

Happenings

A few weeks ago, Caleb went to the doctor for his 4-year-old check-up. His doctor visit at 3 years old didn't go so well, so I was pleasantly surprised this time around. He was a little jittery and nervous, but he did great as the nurse took his blood pressure, temperature, etc. He had a vision and hearing screening done as well, which was kind of fun. The amazing part was that he didn't even cry during his shots. On shot number two he said "ow," but that was it! To carry on the tradition from last year, his doctor's visit was followed by a snow cone.

As I mentioned in the last post, our lives are busier now due to preschool. Caleb is a great student and is very eager to please. He loves having all these friends come over regularly as well! (I have a total of 8 students including him.)

Here's Carter on the first day of Caleb's preschool. He wants to be a big kid and just tag along.

When I'm not teaching preschool, we're spending more time on the potty seat. We've had a few random successes, but we'll keep practicing. He's such a big boy!

And as mentioned in the last post, church is keeping me busy always, but I love working in the Primary with the children. We did a Primary temple trip yesterday and had a tour around the temple. A temple worker also came and spoke to us. Overall it went well. We were surprised by a little rain as we walked around, but definitely grateful as we're in a drought right now.

(Carter's grumpy face...we had to wake him up early from a nap in order to attend.)

Busy

I just realized that it's been a few weeks since I've posted. My free time has dwindled with the start of preschool this year. I have 8 fun kids in my class--5 girls and 3 boys. The first two weeks went well, and I am anticipating a wonderful year. It's a lot of work though when I don't have a sister to divide up the work-load with this year. It's fun to plan all the fun activities/field trips we'll do this year though. I love teaching Caleb especially and seeing him learn and socialize. Carter does pretty well while I teach. I just make sure to have an extra carpet square and activities for him as he wants to do everything right along with the rest of the class. Sometimes he proves to be a distraction, but the kids are learning to ignore him. I'll plan something more post-worthy for next time!

P.S. Right now any free time I have is spent reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. It's a page-turner and reminds me a lot of Hunger Games, which I quite enjoyed. Check it out if you're in the need of a good futuristic book.

4 Years Old

4 years ago on August 22nd, this sweet boy joined our family.

Caleb has waited FOREVER for his birthday to come. He's so excited to be four!! Caleb definitely has his hard things about him (#1 being his sleeping as I've posted in the past), but we have loved every minute of him being a part of our family. Here are some of the things I love most about Caleb:

1) He tries so hard to be a good boy and make everyone happy. He's just plain sweet.

2) He is always asking questions and loves to learn.

3) He is such a hard worker. He loves to help me clean, loves to help Daddy build, and just works hard at whatever he does. Recently he worked really hard to learn to ride a bike, swim, and now as we're learning to read.

Due to the timing of his birthday and the cut off for grades, we've really debated whether to put Caleb in the grade he should be in knowing he'll be THE youngest in his grade, or to hold him back so he can be the oldest. We've decided to put him in the right class, but because of this, I work extra hard with him. He has come so far this past year, and he's right with all the other students in our preschool class. I love being able to teach him in preschool to see his progress. He is such a smart boy.

Here are more birthday pictures with my family. One of the presents we got Caleb is a real t-ball bat and balls. He has such a natural athleticism in general, but he really excels at baseball. We know that this will be a fun talent for him to pursue in the coming years.

Caleb blowing out the candles on his dinosaur cake.

We love you Caleb! Happy birthday sweet boy. Here's to another year of waiting...