Oh Where, Oh Where, Has This Blogger Gone?

If you can find her, let me know.  I need to tell her to get caught up on her blog posts.  It’s pretty bad when she promises new and exciting posts and then disappears for two more weeks.

I wish I had an exciting reason for not blogging, but it’s mostly just that I spend my time doing other things.  These past few weeks have seemed particularly hectic, possibly because I’ve added two physical therapy sessions each week, and those end up getting squeezed in at the most inconvenient times.

Charlotte told me the other day, “It just seems like we’re busier.”  I must say she’s right, although it doesn’t seem as if two PT sessions should throw our schedule into such an uproar.

Oh, well.  Thanksgiving is coming, and I am looking forward to a nice break!

We’re going a bit non-traditional this year.  We had originally expected my brother, sister-in-law, and niece and/or my dad to come here for Thanksgiving, but my dad decided to come the first weekend in December instead.  That weekend offers Elijah in the church Christmas play, breakfast with Santa, and Charlotte’s first basketball game, instead of a big meal and Black Friday.  Then, Zech and Alyse worked it out that they could come that weekend, too, so we are on our own Thursday.

I’ve decided to save the turkey breast I bought for when everyone comes and bought some turkey burgers and turkey hot dogs.  As it’s supposed to be a fairly pretty day (for November), we are going to grill and relax. 

On Black Friday, I will go to physical therapy at 9:00 and smugly revel in the fact that I already have most of my Christmas shopping done.  Then, that evening, we will hang out with some friends whom we saw this summer in Minneapolis as they visit Peoria.  Saturday will bring FOLEPI River Trail Classic with my running group.  As I am currently injured, I will be doing the two-mile fun walk, while most of them do the four-mile run.  And, sometime in there, I hope to put up the Christmas tree!

Instead of cram-packed days, we’ll do something each day we like (with the exception of physical therapy) and spend the rest of the time relaxing.  I can’t wait!

And I’ll end this post with a random picture, just because it’s funny.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll get a few posts up about our Great Northwestern Adventure.  But no promises.

Have a good one!

Back at Last

Although I appear to have disappeared from the blogosphere, I was simply out gathering material for my next set of posts.  We returned on Saturday evening from a nine-day trip to Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.  I call it our “silver lining” vacation, as our airfare and rental cars were completely paid for with Jeff’s frequent-flier miles.

Due to a number of factors, which I’ll surely enumerate later, I wouldn’t call this the best of vacations, but it did have some truly memorable and remarkable moments.  One of the factors that may slow down the blogging process, however, is the fact that we forgot to pack the charger for our camera battery.  Therefore, most of the pictures we took on this trip were on our phones.  They loaded to the computer upside down, so it should be lots of fun trying to figure out what was taken where.  Plus, we still have some on the camera.  This should be a fun challenge for me!

But, hopefully, I will have some posts up soon.

In other news, Jeff left for Japan again this morning.  This is our second vacation this year that was virtually bookended by his trips.  He is a bit tired, to say the least.  He comes back home on Friday, though, if all things go as planned.  I am very grateful that he is not headed back to flooded Bangkok on this particular trip.

And that’s our past couple weeks in brief!  Talk to you soon!

Oh, What a Week

Let’s see.

Monday, I found out that my sore knee is actually a fairly common running injury called IT Band Syndrome.  Just Google it if you want details.  The short version is that it’s relatively easy to “fix,” but that “fix” requires not running for three to four weeks, a regimen of Aleve to reduce inflammation, and a couple meetings with a physical therapist to learn some convoluted stretches and massage techniques to loosen up my IT band (which, incidentally, I didn’t even know I had).  After a couple of days of denial, I called a friend who really likes his sports-injury PT to get a recommendation and then set up an appointment.

Bottom line:  I either stop running altogether or I deal with the aggravation of fixing it.  Since I can’t see myself giving up running yet, I guess I try to fix it.

Tuesday was fairly normal.

Wednesday, Charlotte had a follow-up appointment for her sprained ankle and then an orthodontist appointment to get a mouth guard, her Step One in the braces process.

Thursday, when it was barely past 9:00 a.m., Jeremy pulled a barstool over on himself and sliced his chin open.  I called the pediatrician’s office while Charlotte and Elijah, respectively, pressed a cloth against the wound to slow the bleeding and held his arms down.  The nurse told me that it sounded as if stitches were necessary and that I needed to take him to the ER because “they were better equipped to deal with possible head injuries there.”

So, off the four of us went to the hospital.  (Did I mention that Jeff had left for Thailand on Monday morning?) 

This is a home school field trip at its best.

We got to the ER around 9:45 and were very fortunate to find it nearly deserted.  Jeremy went to triage right away, where the nurse determined that, yes, he did need stitches.  Within minutes, the nurse, doctor, and admission personnel had all visited.  I put Jeremy in a gown, and the nurse put a big bandage with numbing liquid on his chin.  The doctor said she’d be back in about 15 minutes to stitch him up.

Well, 15 minutes was more like 45, but Jeremy managed to entertain himself while we waited.  Please excuse the fingers in some of the pictures; I’m still getting used using my phone as a camera!

He tried to relocate the medical waste basket.

He thought the light switches made wonderful playthings.

He wondered why everyone thinks stickers are such great things.

He tried to break something else by climbing up and down on the bed.

Every once in awhile, he let someone hold him.  But that wasn’t as interesting as trying to tear up the room.

The doctor eventually got back around to us, and the real fun began.  We strapped Jeremy into a baby immobilizer, which absolutely infuriated him.  He screamed and screamed and then screamed more all during the stitching process.  His chin was completely numb, but, each time the nurse held his head so that the doctor could stitch, he just more and more angry.  It took three of us to hold him down and still.

The doctor ended up putting in five stitches.  The cut was deeper than she had originally thought, and she was trying to minimize scarring.  So this was a noisy, tiring, 20-minute ordeal. And that was just for the adults!

Finally, it was done.  Jeremy had gotten so angry that he was flushed red from the top of his head all the way down to his chest.

But, less than two hours after we arrived, Jeremy was discharged.  I think we have some sort of a record for getting in and out of an ER!

And I took this photo of his wound later on at home.  Jeremy has a pretty big abrasion around the stitched area, but it’s healing pretty well.  He will occasionally point to his chin and sign “hurt,” but he mostly doesn’t seem to notice it.

Poor baby!

On Friday, we made up all the school that missed during this crazy week, and then I dropped Charlotte off at church for a junior high youth group retreat.  Elijah, Jeremy, and I proceeded to sit around all day on Saturday, waiting for Jeff to get home and recovering from this crazy week.  It was nice having a clear calendar!

Today, we went to church, retrieved Charlotte, and enjoyed another afternoon with nothing on the calendar.  We got some finishing touches put on our upcoming vacation and watched about six innings of Game 4 of the World Series.

And that’s our week.  Hope that yours was a bit less eventful, with no trips to the emergency room!

These I Love

Because time just seems to accelerate toward Christmas once October hits, I decided to beat the rush and have our yearly photos taken last Thursday.  The upside?  No crowds, laid-back photographers, and plenty of time to pick what I liked.  The only downside (and this is an iffy downside) is that the “Christmas” backgrounds were not yet available.

The upside wins!  I am very pleased with what we got.  Allow me to share a few of my favorites.

Since we had our Halloween costumes, I decided to get a few of the kids in their costumes.  I posted my favorite earlier, but these are pretty cute, too!

Jeremy had a love/hate relationship with the rooms at Portrait Innovations.  Fortunately, we got a quite a few more “love” shots than “hate” ones, but this picture is pretty funny!

Have a good one!

A Week of Bigs

Here are the highlights from a very eventful week.

Big Games:  Elijah scored his first goal of the season a week ago Saturday.  His team lost 6-4, but he played his best game ever.  Yesterday, his team played its last game and won 5-1.  It was a terrific way to end the season.

Big Injury:  On Monday afternoon, Charlotte sprained her ankle at a soccer clinic at a local university.  The people putting on the clinic told us that the kids didn’t need shin guards or even cleats.  However, they then had the kids playing a game of keep-away, in which Charlotte was kicked very hard by another child, who was wearing cleats.  I took her to Prompt Care on Tuesday morning; nothing is broken, but she is on restricted activity until her doctor clears her otherwise.  Bottom line?  One broken leg + one sprained ankle = soccer is not Charlotte’s friend.  The Mama says, “No more.”

Big Appointment:  On Tuesday afternoon, the kids both had eye check-ups.  Charlotte found out she is far-sighted and needs glasses.  We will pick them up later this week.  She’s not overly happy about this.  As she told me, “At least, braces come off.  Glasses are forever.”

Which leads to…

Big Money:  On Wednesday, Charlotte had a consult with the orthodontist.  Braces are also on the near horizon.

Have I mentioned that it hasn’t been a banner week for my daughter?!

Big Leap:  Into the 21st century, that is.  I got my first smartphone on Friday.  With the release of the new iPhone, the next version down was on sale, so Jeff and I both replaced our phones.  While it was a rather large pain manually transferring all of my numbers off my old slider phone and all of my important data off of my iPod, it’s done, and, I must admit, I’m loving it!

Big Taste:  As Jeff’s parents visited this weekend, Jeff and I had the chance to go out on a date.  We went to a place called Sushi PoPo, and I tried, as you might guess, sushi for the first time.  Jeff has been eating it for years, but I never could get on board with the whole raw fish thing.  However, Jeff made our selections, and we were brought the most beautiful food.  I loved it!  I remarked that, after 16 years of marriage, there aren’t many culinary experiences that we have not both shared.  Sushi was one such thing, and I think that Jeff rather enjoyed introducing me to the ins and outs of this Japanese delicacy.

It has been a mad, mad, mad, mad week. 

This week brings a big more madness, as we start out the week with Jeff leaving for Thailand again and my seeing a doctor about lingering pain in my knee.  I haven’t been able to run over four miles for the last two weeks without stopping due to sharp pain in my left knee.  I figure that I might as well get it checked out now before I manage to do any further damage.  As you might guess, this a bit demoralizing after running a marathon, but I’m hopeful that the orthopedist can help me.

And that’s that.  Sometimes, you just have to put your head down and repeat after Dory from Finding Nemo:  “Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming.”

Have a good one!

Hee Hee!

I took the kids to Portrait Innovations on Thursday for Christmas pictures.  We took a few Halloween-costume shots, too.

Here is the definite highlight!

Have a great Saturday!

Baby Update

Jeremy turned 18 months old on October 2.  At his checkup, he got two shots, was in the 98th percentile for height, and was in the 71st percentile for weight.  He is meeting all of his milestones with flying colors, and I even learned a new word to explain all of the nonsensical babble that regularly streams forth:  jargoning.

But those are just numbers.  Let me catch you up on this little bundle of energy that has taken our house by storm.

Jeremy can climb on just about anything.  For awhile, I kept the diaper bag and my purse in the middle of our bed because he kept raiding them when I kept them on the floor.  That didn’t work long.  Here he is, up on the bed, eating some puffs scavenged from his diaper bag…right before he dumped the entire thing in the middle of our bed.  Sigh.

He also likes to climb up behind his sister while she’s trying to do her school work.  On this particular occasion, he started out by gently patting her shoulder and hugging her neck.  He ended by taking giant handfuls of her hair and giving it a good yank.  He thought it was pretty funny when she hollered, “Ow!”

And, as with all children his age, he loves big people’s shoes.  He was trying on his Halloween costume (more on why he’s a toddler policeman in a later post) and thought that walking around in Elijah’s shoes was a good idea.  He could certainly find worse shoes to fill!

Jeremy is also the most stubborn of our three kids.  He still hates holding my hand in a parking lot, which means he gets carried a lot.  If I try to force him to hold my hand, he sits down, so I can either drag him or carry him.  I’d probably get in trouble if I dragged an 18-month-old across a parking lot, so up he goes.

He is constantly into things that are just bad news…pencils, markers, breakable objects, my Kindle.  When he gets caught, he throws whatever is in his hand before someone can take it away from him.  This isn’t such a big deal with, say, a pencil, but I don’t like it much when he pitches, say, my Kindle. 

Jeremy’s also been known to fish things out of the trash can that catch his fancy.  The worst, thus far?  Some moldy grapes that he thought looked delicious.  I walked out of the room for 30 seconds and came back to find the trash can cabinet open and Jeremy’s cheeks bulging.  He spit the grapes right out, but holy smokes!  Can you say, “Choking hazard”?  I cut some good grapes up into eighths, and he happily munched on them.  Sheesh.

He’s also an incredibly picky eater, although he still does like weird things.  He eats better when I let him feed himself, but not much.  Often, just to get him to try things, I hold his mouth open and force it in.  About half the time, he likes it and doesn’t spit it out.  But that’s no guarantee he’ll eat it the next time I offer it.

The pediatrician suggested I keep offering him a variety, after which he told Jeremy, “I’m not much for the vegetables yet, either.” 

Thanks, Doc!

But, I’ll tell you, something changed in Jeremy when he hit 18 months.  Our baby, who cried EVERY SINGLE TIME we dropped in the church or co-op nursery, suddenly turned into a toddler who walked in to both smiling, happy as can be. 

This makes my heart both happy and sad.  I’m glad that he’s no longer totally miserable for the few hours a week that he is away from me.  But it’s still a bit sad how quickly my baby is growing up.

I wouldn’t trade this little boy for anything in the world!

Funny Face

This year, science at Travelers’ Academy (which is what Charlotte dubbed our home school after we returned from France) is Human Anatomy.  A couple of weeks ago, we were studying the muscular system, and one bit of reading was about how many muscles are in the face.

The lesson plan suggested that I take pictures of the kids using their facial muscles in ways that communicate emotion.  Of course, this degenerated into a silly-face fest, but it’s been a long time since I’ve taken pictures of the kids just being silly, and I’d forgotten how much fun it is!

So, without further ado, here is a glimpse of the serious educating that goes on at our house…

I asked for the goofiest face possible here.  What really cracked us all up is that Jeremy seemed to understand the emotion for which I was asking and happily participated!

These were the sad faces. 

These were the scared faces.  Or something like that.

I love home schooling.  And I really love these three kids that make it possible!

Welcome, Fall!

How about a post that has nothing to do with running?!

The Friday before my marathon, my dad came to visit.  It was a rare free Friday…no co-op, only a makeup guitar lesson later in the afternoon, and Jeff not arriving home from Thailand until later that evening.  The kids had been asking to go to Tanner’s Orchard, a veritable fall institution up here.  So, as soon as my dad walked in the door at 8:30 Friday morning, we asked if he would like to go to Tanner’s with us.  He was game, so we loaded up and headed to Speer, Illinois, a 45-minute drive from our place.

Tanner’s boasts a huge market with the best cider and apple cider donuts in the area, a sprawling playground, goats and llamas to feed, and a gargantuan corn maze.  Last year during peak Tanner’s season, Charlotte had a broken leg, so the corn maze was out.  But this year?  Well, why not?!

So that’s where we started.  The corn maze is in the shape of a train this year and is actually two separate mazes.  It has 12 checkpoints, six of which are “clues” to solve a “crime.”  We got maps and punch cards when we paid, and we were off.

For the first maze, we pushed Jeremy in the stroller.  The ground was hard-packed, but it was definitely not smooth enough to make that a good idea.  We parked it before we headed into the second maze.

Here are my dad and the two older kids at the first checkpoint.

And here’s stroller boy.

And here they are after Jeremy was liberated from the stroller.  We’re probably lucky we didn’t lose him in the cornfield.

Despite my misgivings about navigating this thing without Jeff, we did pretty decently.  Charlotte only got us lost three times, but we were able to get back to the starting point.  We did eventually get all 12 checkpoints punched, and we solved the crime of which animal did away with Farmer Joe.  (Spoiler Alert:  It was the llama with a stick in the barn.)

We spent 90 minutes in the maze, which was plenty of time for all of us.  Next stop:  the goats and llamas.  Then:  the playground.

Charlotte and Elijah absolutely love the Tanner’s playground.  It has tetherball, several large play sets, a big hill for running and rolling down, a hay maze, and, best of all, on this particular day, friends.  Two other families from our homeschool co-op were visiting Tanner’s, so Charlotte and Elijah each had other boys and girls with whom to play.

This was Jeremy’s first Tanner’s experience.  He wasn’t nuts about the animals, but he did love the slides.  He went up and down this one at least 10 times in a row.  I got tired of it before he did!

We ended up staying at Tanner’s for something like four hours.  I was completely unprepared, so we all ended up having donuts and sample cups of cider for lunch.  (Once again, I win Mom of the Year.)  The kids kept asking if they could stay just a little longer, so we did.  Finally, as we had to get back home and grab the guitars for lessons, I rounded them up, and, after a few last pictures, we headed home.

I had great hopes that I could get a cute fall picture of my three little angels.  Eh, not so much!  Oh, well!

Have a good one!

If Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body…

…then I’m going to be a superhero by the time I recover from this marathon!

I saw a lady during the marathon wearing a shirt with the “Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body” slogan on it.  It’s crossed my mind more than a few times in these post-marathon days.  It’s better than thinking something like “pain is what you feel right before you die” or something equally cheery.

I will preface this post by saying that I don’t have a great deal of experience with pain, especially the severe variety.  I had a difficult recovery from Charlotte’s birth and had Jeremy naturally, but I think that childbirth is a different kind of pain.  I’ve also had a couple of uncomfortable outpatient surgical procedures, but that pain cleared up with ibuprofen and a few days’ time.

And by Wednesday, my body was feeling significantly recovered enough that I was considering running again.  But, boy, those 48 hours immediately following the race were brutal!

Initially, the damage to my person seemed minimal.  My left knee ached but not too badly.  My right calf was very sore, and I had some unexpected blisters from running eight miles in wet shoes and socks.  I hadn’t appeared to do any additional damage to my toenails, which is an ongoing problem of mine when I run long distances.  So, I enjoyed my hot shower after the race, we loaded up our stuff, and we headed home.

The discomfort started on the two-hour car ride home.  I started to stiffen up, and my knee started throbbing in earnest.  I had taken ibuprofen both before the race and in the hotel after, but I was already counting down to when I could take some more!

On Sunday night, I was so stiff that I could hardly move around or stand up from a seated position.  I took some more ibuprofen before bed but woke up around midnight because of pain in my knee.  I hobbled out to the kitchen and put ice packs on both my knees for about 20 minutes before falling back into bed.

At 4:00 a.m., I woke up again.  My knee had gone from hurting when I bent it to hurting when I moved it.  Even rolling over in bed sent nauseating waves of pain through my whole body.  I staggered into the bathroom to try to get some more ibuprofen and nearly fainted.  I staggered back to bed and woke Jeff up.

I’m very blessed to have the husband that I do.  Not only did he watch the kids during the hours I spent running and racing, but he also took very good care of me on this particular night!  He brought me the ibuprofen that I had spilled in the bathroom and prepared more ice packs for my knees.  I moaned at one point, “Why would anyone ever do this more than once?” and Jeff reminded me that I didn’t have to!  He also reminded me that it was probably normal to be feeling this bad and that I would be OK.

I finally fell back asleep.

Jeff took Monday off work, at my request, because I knew that I would probably not be moving very well.  I was right, and I was mighty glad to have him at home that day!

Monday was a stiff and painful day.  While Sunday was the day of joint and toe pain, Monday was when the muscle pain kicked in.  My back, my abs, my arms, my legs…nearly every muscle in my body hurt.  The older two kids and I had dental appointments that afternoon, and the dentist’s chair was almost too much!  I kept on the ibuprofen, which helped with swelling and pain, and on the ice, which just felt nice.

On Tuesday, my knee still hurt but nothing as it had on Sunday and Monday.  Stairs were still a challenge, but I could finally bend my left leg without seeing stars.  I cut back on the ibuprofen and actually felt OK.

On Wednesday, I woke up with barely a twinge in my knee.  I still felt it when I walked, but it was more like the “regular” knee pain I had after my long training runs.  And by Thursday, I knew it was time to get back in the saddle, so I took a 3.5-mile run.

So, what’s the point of this post?  I have a few observations!

1.  The human body is an amazing piece of God’s work and has an even more amazing capacity to heal itself.  On Sunday night, I swore to myself that I would never run another marathon, and I wasn’t certain that I would ever run again, period.  While I’m still non-committal about the marathon, I believe that running shorter distances is back in my future!

2.  Perhaps running a marathon and childbirth are somewhat alike.  You have to forget the pain before you sign up to do it again!  I also find the human body amazing in the way that it can forget pain.  It’s a wonderful survival mechanism.

3.  Today, I would have to say that the pain is worth the accomplishment.  I don’t know how much I believed that at 4:00 Monday morning, but I do believe it now.

Woo-hoo!  I did it!

Mission: Accomplished (Afterword)

Both of our families were waiting at the finish line, and we spent a few minutes celebrating.

We got the thermal blankets as soon as we finished.  The race volunteers were literally tearing them off of what looked like giant boxes of aluminum foil.  After a few minutes, I was mighty glad to have it in my rain- and sweat-soaked clothes.  It was maybe in the mid-fifties at the end of the race.

I grabbed some free food to start replacing the 3000-plus calories that I burned during the race.  I would later eat a bowlful of pad thai noodles, a salad, a Steak-n-Shake guacamole burger, and a bowl of spaghetti before I went to bed that night.

And, then, since I was shivering and body pain had begun setting in, we walked (well, I hobbled) back to the car to return to the hotel for my hot shower.  After lunch at a great little place called Noodles, we headed back home.

The Quad Cities Marathon was in the books!

I would like to say a few more words about this marathon, as a few of you out there might be interested in running it one day.

1.  It’s a very well-done race.  There were water and Gatorade aid stations at least every two miles, and there were four GU stops, which made it nice as far as what I needed to carry with me.  Spaced out further along in the race, there were candy and fruit, Vaseline, a wet sponge, and a dry towel.  The volunteers were terrific.

2.  The hardest part of the race, aside from the rain which is not always going to happen, was running up on to the bridges.  The inclines are steep, and a couple of them are fairly lengthy.  The ones early in the race are not terrible, but the one crossing off Arsenal Island between Miles 19 and 20 is like a bad joke.  And the inclines back down off the bridges are hard on the knees.

3.  It’s a fairly easy race for family members to navigate.  Jeff decided to meet us in two places, mostly because lugging two kids and a toddler around alone is not fun, but he had mapped out a couple more that would have worked, too.  As none of the bridges close during the race, it’s not bad scooting back and forth around the course.

4.  There are lots of clocks on the course, and mats mark the first 10K, the half, the 20-mile, and the last 10K, which are kind of cool splits to have.

All in all, if you are looking for a smaller, well-done marathon, on a relatively quick, flat course, the QC Marathon would suit you just fine!

Mission: Accomplished (Part Two)

I think I ended my last post with “…and we were off!”

That might be overstating the case a bit.  This is what the starting area looked like forward from where we were standing.  (By the way, I have to thank Mike Fiedler for many of these pictures.  He carried a camera during the race and snapped away while he ran.)

We were all jam-packed in a very narrow space.  Right before the cannon boomed, a woman muttering something about not being lined up in the right spot elbowed her way past me and anyone else who got in her way.  Normally, runners are very polite and friendly, at least those back where I tend to line up.  I was tempted to yell after her, “Hey, it’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention and couldn’t get your butt in the right spot,” but I refrained.

When we did hear the boom of the cannon, we all sort of lurched forward.  But we walked for about two minutes and were finally able to break into a nice easy jog when we crossed the starting line to fire up our timing chips. 

I know that it’s nothing like, say, the Chicago Marathon, when it often take 20 minutes to a half hour to cross the start, but it is a bit deflating.  It’s even more deflating when the friendly announcer reports, “I thought you all might like to know that the leader has just reached the half-mile mark!”

Thanks, buddy.  That’s exactly what I want to know when I’m just now turning on my watch!   But here’s a picture of the leader, a Kenyan gentleman named Jynocel Basweti, when he passed Jeff around Mile 3.  This guy finished the marathon in 2:18:40, which averages out to a 5:18/mile pace.  Holy smokes!  We caught a glimpse of him and the police car that he was following across the Mississippi River when we were about Mile 9.  Incredible!

In any case, we were finally off, and, thankfully, the road widened for a bit, so we weren’t stepping on people’s heels.  However, within a mile of the start, we ran up our first bridge, which happened to be the Interstate-74 suspension bridge that crosses the river.  The road was not closed to traffic; runners were crammed into one lane, while cars were still using the other lane.  Only a line of orange cones separated us.

Originally, I had thought I’d rather be on the car side of the swinging bridge than the water side, but I changed my mind and stuck to the outside of the lane!  Of course, some moronic runners were trying to pass on the bridge and were darting out onto the traffic side of the cones.  I’m really surprised that I didn’t hear a single car horn blown the entire time I was on the bridge.  I’d’ve been tempted to honk at some people.

By the time we reached the other side of the bridge, it was swinging pretty well.  I was glad to be back on solid ground.

Just after Mile 2, we ran the first, last, and only hill on this course.  I don’t know if it was because it was early in the race or because our training runs had hills much worse than this, but we handily sped up it and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.  In retrospect, it’s a little funny how proud I was of this only two miles into the race!

At the top of the hill, Jeff, Charlotte, Elijah, and Jeremy were waiting for us.  Jeff snapped these pictures of me as I ran by.  Mike is in the yellow shirt with the camera!

We kept a pretty steady sub-10-minute-mile pace for about the first fourteen miles.  Jeff, the kids, and my dad caught up with us again between Miles 9 and 10, right before we ran up the second bridge to cross back over into Rock Island, Illinois.

Just after Mile 13, we crossed over to Arsenal Island, where we would spend the next seven miles.  Between Miles 14 and 15, the rain started.  Gentle sprinkles turned into a gully washer, during which time Mike took no pictures (!), and we got absolutely soaked…clothes, hair, shoes, socks.  Ick, and ick again.

My visor kept water from running down my face, but that was the only saving grace during the rain and windy chill that dogged us until Mile 21, when Mike started taking pictures again.  Our fastest mile after the rain started was a 10:06, and most hovered closer to 10:30.

To make matters worse, around Mile 11, Mike spiked a really bad headache, almost migraine in its intensity.  Needless to say, this race was absolutely merciless for him.  He had 15 miles of misery, but he kept at it anyway, mile after miserable mile.

When we finally got off the island, we were at Mile 20.  The good news was that we only had a 10K left to run.  The bad news was that we only had a 10K left to run.  Mile 20 and Mile 26 intersect at the end of the bridge back to the mainland.

Yep.  We were watching people sprint toward the finish when we still had at least an hour’s worth of running to do!  On top of that, the final 10K is an out-and-back, which means that every step of the first half, save one quarter mile turnaround loop, we were watching people pass the other way who were literally miles ahead of us!

Just before Mile 23, we hit the Wall.  Har, har.  A little distance runner’s humor come to life.

And then, WE were the ones running toward the finish and passing people going the other way who were miles behind US!  I think I even managed to smile at a few of them.

And, then, we passed Mile 25.

And, then, Mile 26!

At this point, I was so excited to be this close to the finish line that I just took off.  The closer I got to the finish line, the bigger the crowds got, and they were all cheering.  I ran off and left Mike (not very nice, I know), who was still snapping pictures, and I managed to sprint to the finish.  I was the only person crossing the line, so the announcer even said my name!

It was totally awesome.  I can’t even begin to describe what it felt like to cross that finish line.

Mike came in about 20 seconds later, an incredible example of gutting it out.  This race about killed him, but he finished!

Mission:  Accomplished!