My Birthday 10k

Time continues to press on and I just keep getting older.  For my birthday yesterday I decided to celebrate by starting the day with the Barber to Boise 10k.  This is one of my local favorites.  The course is lovely, running along the Boise River for 6 miles and ending up at the football stadium at Boise State.  I ran it last year as my final 10k before shortening my distance due to my pregnancy.  It was great to have the same race be my first 10k back since Gideon was born.  It wasn't record time for me, but it was a good performance and I loved it.  The best part, I didn't go alone!  Tyson took the day off work and brought the kids along so everyone was there as I crossed the finish line.  Lily was terribly disappointed that I didn't get a medal though.

 I also got to meet up with a few friends from my running club afterwards.

 Another reason this race rocked was because I got to do it with my good friend Dave.  We have been friends since high school and he has been on an amazing journey to fitness.  In April, when I was 8.5 months pregnant, I ran the Beat Coach Pete 5k with him.  He asked a couple of months ago if I planned to do Barber to Boise, I told him that I would be running the 10k and told him to run it with me, AND HE DID!  I'm super proud of this guy!

 After the race Tyson took me shoe shopping.  I can hardly wait to put some miles on these awesome things!

FitOne 9k

This morning I ran the FitOne 9k with several friends from my running club, Moms RUN This Town.  If you are a woman and you like to run, look it up, there are clubs nationwide!

I've been working really hard to get back into my old running shape.  While I ran...ahem...shuffled...my way through my pregnancy it has still been a lot of work to get myself back to the point where I can handle the long distance runs again.  Before Gideon was born I registered myself for the FitOne 9k, knowing that it would force me to get back to training after he was born.  I was excited when they added the 9k option to this 21-year-old 5k and I was even more excited when I saw the course.  It started up at the Old State penitentiary and moved down to the greenbelt where it met up with the standard race course up Capital Blvd and across Americana to end in Ann Morrison Park.  I love a good point to point race, especially in this cooler fall-like weather.

There were 7 people from our local MRTT chapter running the 9k this morning and I started out with 2 of them.  We barely made it to the starting corral in time!

We stayed together for the first mile and then met up again at the finish line.  The after race fare was AWESOME!  The bagged breakfast was fine, but in addition to that there was Chobani Greek yogurt and CHOCOLATE MILK!  In case you don't know, chocolate milk is the perfect post-race fuel out there.

 Eventually we were able to meet up with most of our Moms Run This Town group for a fun group photo.  We had gotten together earlier in the week to make our shirts and skirts for the race.  A perk that I hadn't anticipated, it was so easy to spot everyone after the race because of the bright, sparkly skirts.

It was so fun for me to get to run with these friends here.  They are my fellow playgroup moms.  Our children are all so close and behave like siblings and I'm beyond excited that they have all chosen to take up running!

 Tyson met me at the park with our children since I wasn't going to make it home in time for him to go to work.  It was a rough night, they were all up a lot and early and I was only able to get about 3-1/2 hours of sleep.  I was a little excited when we got home and they were all asleep, I thought that I might just get a little nap.  But that wasn't to be.  The girls stayed asleep as I moved them into the house, but Gideon did not.

  The best part about the race, other than an instant PR because I've never run a 9k before (though I missed my time goal by 24 seconds) was the great medal!  I love getting racing medals.  If you really want to know what I am working my way back to half marathon shape, this is it.  I want to earn more medals for my collection.

My next race is in two weeks, on my birthday!  It was my last 10k before I dropped down to shorter races for my pregnancy and my first 10k coming back.

Locks of Love

I have always insisted that I would not cut my hair after having a baby. I just can't bear to fit stereotypes. However, I have been thinking about doing it for a while now, and then the other day my friend Kendra mentioned cutting her hair off to donate it to Locks of Love. That kind of pushed me just the last little bit and so this afternoon I went and had 12 inches cut off! I've got this braid in an envelope all ready to go to the post office on Monday.

I figured, I have lots of hair and it grows back so fast, why not. I had only planned to cut about 6-8 inches off, but for Locks of Love it has to be 10 inches and we decided to go with a full 12. I don't think that I have ever cut this much off at a time before. I think that my hair just might be shorter than Liz's now. Scary thought.

I forgot to take a before picture, but here is my new hair cut!

Finally Home!

We are finally home and we are just loving it! I just thought that I would share a few more pictures.
This is mommy and Lily getting ready to head for home. My goodness, I didn't realize how tired I looked.Lily in her car seat ready to leave. The afghan was made for her by my Grandma Harper.
Finally home and resting! She loves that silly pacifier. It would concern me, but she feeds like a champ.Oscar is trying to figure out who this is.Just chilling and taking a nap.I took this picture 2 hours ago and nothing has changed. Lily loves to cuddle with her daddy.