So far this year, we've had three races in our family! Tyler told me that he wanted to run a half. Then our friends Andy and Whitney asked us if we would do a race with them at Oklahoma City. I had wanted to do a race in Puerto Rico when we traveled with Tyler for his job. We looked at all the options and decided to do them all! Our first run for training fit perfectly with the new year. I had gotten Tyler a couple gifts for Christmas that were running related and he got me a new Running Watch.
Our first race was just me in PR. The race started at 5 am. Which is 3 am central time. I was able to run in every weather. During the race it was hot, then rainy, humid, sunny. There were parts of the run that had NO lighting. The stone streets of down town San Juan were slippery! I fell once and luckily didn't get hurt!
IT was fun to do the race in a beach area but I sure missed running with my SISTER!! The boys were great sports! cheering and getting rained on. During the last mile, it was raining so hard the water was over my shoes. people were pulling off to stand under awnings. I made myself get going!
Our second race of the year Was Tyler's first. Bentonville. The Bentonville half is always such fun. A lot of people coming out and cheering! This one was freezing! in the 30/40's. which was FINE by me. That is the perfect conditions to run in. Mike and Shelby would be running the race as well. They had just gotten back from a missions trip and hadn't trained during that week. Shelby and I had low expectations. Just get it done. It didn't surprise me one bit that she was all in. Pushing me to run harder and faster! WE were set to beat our 2 hour goal (1:57) We ended up beating it!!! It was such fun! Tyler also did fabulous and finished his first at 1:53. Rissa was at our house early to keep our boys for us. When we finished we were SO Surprised to see she had brought the boys to the race! IT was so much fun for them to get to see daddy and mommy running!
Our third race was with Andy and Whitney. We met them in OKC and grabbed our packets. Kerwin and Nancy were able to come and help us with our boys. They even offered to keep the boys the night before the race! The boys had a great time getting some one on one with Papa and Nanny. The race was hot and windy. What made this race so unique was the constant gratitude from the crowd. This race was memorial race for the OKC bombing. We heard repeatedly, "thank you for running for us" So cool. We finished with our friends and enjoined an amazing lunch! What a great memory doing it with each other!!
_____PUERTO RICO_____
