Vacation part 2

I left off Halloween night in part 1. I realized that I forgot about our family get together on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun.  We made our own ice cream Sundays while blindfolded.  It was fun.

Here is Josh trying to scoop his ice cream.  I say try because people kept moving the ice cream on him.  It was a lot of fun.

Can you tell that she doesn't feel good yet.  She wasn't too happy still.  Her favorite spot was on the blanket to the left.

The three of them spent the entire time playing in that room together.

 I don't remember exactly what we did Tuesday.  We hung out at the house, cleaned, fixed, oh now I remember.  We (Josh, my father in law and myself) went fishing.  Let me tell you it was cold.  The wind was blowing making it worse.  I had 2 pairs of pants on and 2 shirts, 1 sweat shirt and a coat on.  Plus I took a blanket.  Who do you think caught any fish?  Well if you guess the guys then you are wrong.  I caught the only fish this time.  I'm sure we would have caught more but we were freezing.

Wednesday we went to the valley for doctor's visits.  Four of us went to the chiropractor's.  That felt great.  I think every bone in my body popped back in place.  There were other appointments and shopping that got done.  I registered for my half marathon.

Thursday we took my in laws down to the airport.  That was hard. We hate saying goodbye.  On our way back we went the scenic way and stopped at Mesa falls.

 Josh and Yana on the walkway.

Me and the girls.  Aren't they cute.

Friday we did things around the house.  Some family members came up and had dinner with us.  It was fun to visit and see how they were doing.  As they were leaving we noticed that it was snowing.  That made life fun.

Saturday my first alarm didn't go off which had me really nervous.  We had a 2.5 hour drive to make and it snowed a lot during the night.  I think we had almost 6 inches when we left.  It took us almost an hour to get down the hill which normally takes us about 30 minutes.  I was sure we were going to be late to Pocatello.

Driving was slow.  We were more concerned with safety than anything.  The girls were in the back.  Well we made it.  I say we made it but it was barely in time.  We pulled up to the finish line and I carefully walked (the parking lot was iced over) in to get my packet.  Then I went back to the car and grabbed my shoes, and a bag and found the closest bus.

The bus took us up to the top of the mountain.  Once there we used the porta potties.  I took off my sweats and put on my running shoes.  I also put on the shirt that we got in our packets....(I realized later that I had run the entire race with my shirt on backwards).  Did I mention earlier that it was cold?  It was windy, the ground was covered with snow and ice and it was still cloudy.  They had two bonfires to help keep us warm but they only helped so much.  There were after all almost 500 people waiting at the top of the hill.  The race was supposed to start at 10:13 but there were a couple of buses that were delayed so it didn't start for almost another 20 minutes.

When it came time to start we all walked carefully over to the starting line.  The gun went off and we all carefully started jogging.  It was slow at first.  It was downhill on ice.  I just took it as it came.  The first 2 miles flew by.  It was amazing at how fast that first aid station came....and went.  I didn't stop.  The 4.5 mile aid station came...it seemed like it took a little longer.  I was doing good keeping my pace.  I did stop for the bathroom and to get a drink of Gatorade and then I got going again.

Then the 7 mile one came a long and my stomach was aching.  I needed to use the bathroom again.  When I stopped to walk to the bathroom my left leg was almost not there.  That was the feeling.  I'm sure I looked really funny.  It was weird for me.  I ran 8 miles with no problems and at mile 7 I could tell the last miles were going to be harder than I thought.

I kept going and the next aid station was at mile 11.  They warned us that they would have stuff at that aid station that no human should ever consume and they were right.  The first thing I heard when getting close was someone asking if I wanted a swig of whiskey.  I just looked at him not quite believing what I heard.  I took some water and turned down everything else.

I was hurting.  My ankle ached, my knees ached and my shoulders were sore already.  This wasn't going to be good.  My goal was to finish no matter what but I did want to run the entire way.  That didn't quite happen.  By mile 12 I stopped and walked a few yards and then ran again.  From there that is the way it was.  I ran as far as I could and then walked for a short time.  Thankfully I don't think I walked more than 1/2 a mile out of the 13 but I did walk some.  I don't regret it though.  I did finish.  I did it.  I thought I could do it and I did.  Would I do it again?  Yes.  I don't think I'll do a full marathon any time soon.  I realized that I'm not quite ready for that yet.

My husband took some pictures near the finish line.

 The lady next to me and I played leap frog the entire way.  Towards the end we ran together cheering each other on.  It was also her first half marathon.  It was nice.  It helped me forget the way my body felt and concentrate on the task at hand.

To the right of us is the finish line.  We crossed it and my official time was 2 hours and 56 minutes and some odd seconds.  I don't remember them off the top of my head.  My goal was 2.5 hours but I finished and that was my main goal.

After the race I grabbed my close bag and a roll and left with my family.  We headed back up to Island Park and had dinner with my parents.  Then we sat and visited.  It was nice.

Yesterday we got up and got packed.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed down the hill.  It had snowed more over night so we left earlier than we normally would need to.  It took about the same amount of time to get down the hill as it did on Saturday.  We picked up my sister in law and headed to the airport.  We said goodbye to her and headed inside to get checked in.  My brother and his daughter came over to say goodbye.  It was so nice to see him.  We never like leaving our home.  Owasso has become our home away from home and I like it here but nothing will ever take the place of our home in Idaho.

We got home safely and unpacked.  It is good to be home.