Where are you nice weather?

I am so ready for it to be consistently nice outside.  All this rain and cold is making me depressed.  I think the entire family is ready for more outdoor play.

I haven't posted since running my half-marathon the first weekend of April (can you believe it is already the end of April! This month has flown by.)  Anyway, my goal was to finish in 2 hours 15 minutes.  I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I killed it.  I ran it in 2 hours 11 minutes.  While training for this half I consistently said that this was my last one and I was going to move on to something else list triathlons.  I am still planning on doing that, but I think I am going to run at least one more half.  I would love to get closer to 2 hours and if I am lucky enough to get under 2 I would be so excited.  The St. Louis Go! Half Marathon is a very difficult course.  It has a ton of hills and then the last two miles are almost completely uphill.  It is a killer.  I heard that the St. Louis Rock-n-Roll half in October is a really good course and a lot more fun.  I think I am going to try it.  We will see.

I have been more motivated to run then ever due to the tragic and terrible events at the Boston Marathon.  I was sickened at the fact that spectators were killed and injured.  It freaked me out because I had just ran the race the weekend before.  Dave was planning to meet me at the finish line with all the kids and I he ended up not being able to come, but I was thinking of all the other family members that were waiting for their loved ones to cross the line or just enjoying and cheering on runners.  It made me sick.

This past Saturday the entire family met at Forest Park for a St. Louis Unity Run 4 Boston.  It was a three mile run and the kids were great.  Simone sat in the stroller the whole time although she really wanted to get out.  Samuel ran close to 2 and a half miles and I think Joseph ran about half of a mile.  It was nice to see so many people come together.  We had a great time and the kids really enjoyed be out and exercising.  Samuel is become really excited about running.  He wants to go on runs with me all the time.  Maybe he will turn out to be my running partner!

We are going to be starting our garden again.  We can't wait to grow our own food.  It was so much fun to pick green beans, lettuce, beets and carrots last year.  Can't wait to expand.

Time to go pick the boys up for school.  My free mornings just fly by. It is unbelievable.

My half is almost here

After three full months of training, the half marathon is finally here this weekend.  I am running on Sunday and although I have been extremely excited to see how I do time wise with training I am a little unhappy about the weather forecast.  It is supposed to be nice, like in the 60's but it looks like it will be raining in the morning.  Yuck.  I HATE running in the rain.  I am hoping that it will clear up and I won't be running 2 hours soaking wet.

My body is so ready for this running to be over.  My back is hurting and my knees are hurting.  I can't imagine training and running a full marathon.  I think my body might crumble into little pieces if I tried to do that.

This may be my last half.  I say may because most likely I will want to do it again, but right now I don't have much desire.  I am however going to start training for a sprint triathlon.  I am really excited about that.  I know I can breeze through the running and after some practice and training the biking will be fine too.  What I am worried about it the swimming.  I need to take a couple swim lessons for adults.  I have a problem with coordination when it comes to kicking and breathing and keeping up the swimming.  If I could just get some guidance I think I will be okay.  I am actually really looking forward to doing a tri because I think it will be much easier on my body and it will be such a rush to finish.  My plan is to either do one in July or August.  I just need to see how training goes.

Other then exercising, life is as crazy as always.  We had a wonderful Passover.  I tried to do my first seder, but it didn't go over well.  The kids were going crazy that night and seemed to have no interest at all.  I poured a glass of apple juice (it is normally wine, but I didn't want the kids to accidentally drink it) for the prophet Elijah, which is part of the Passover seder.  Anyway, Samuel has a friend Elijah and he totally lost it because he didn't understand why Elijah was going to come over and get to drink out of a fancy kiddish cup and he couldn't.  We had a good 30 minute meltdown about that.  When Samuel finally calmed down and I put all the food on the table, he actually became pretty interested in the story of Passover and why we were eating certain things.  I hope next year will be better.  This was my first attempt at a Passover seder, so I couldn't expect much.

We also celebrated Easter with Jonathan and Laura and the kids.  We had a wonderful brunch and an easter egg hunt.  All the kids, except Luke participated and it was so much fun.  They had a great time. I love having family traditions and I love that my kids are exposed to different aspects of different religions.

Lastly, of course we watched Michigan pull off an amazing win in the NCAA tournament.  I don't even care that much of all the basketball stuff, but that was pretty exciting.  Dave is looking forward to this weekend and the final four.

I am off to get Simone, she has been sleeping in lately and it has been awesome.  Don't know why the boys can't do the same thing, but I will get what I can take.