26.2 miles...what could go wrong?

Well, I did it!  Last weekend, my friend and I finished our very first marathon!  26.2 miles.  It was so hard, and so wonderful at the same time!

The day before we went to the expo and bought some great new shirts to run in.  Mine said, "26.2 Miles....what could go wrong?" and on the back it listed all the things that could go go wrong.  My friend's said. "26.2 miles cuz I am full of crazy!"  I had to get that sticker, as well.

The day of the race was beautiful! They had registered about 8,000 runners for the half and full marathon that day!  Energy was super high!

We ran without walking at all for the first 20 miles!  It was awesome!   That is basically where we hit the wall.  Luckily we had peeps waiting with food right there.

The rest of the way was pretty tough.  We'd walk and run for the last 6, but right around 23 miles I did something to my foot.  It was pretty painful, but there was no way I was going to quit there!  I was able to run across the finish!

I made it to Hayward Field!  I promise this is me running...but lifting the legs very high at this point is basically impossible.  The legs (and my foot) are on fire!  But I made it!

Woohoo!  I could not look at the crowd, because I thought I'd cry!  I finished at 5 hours and 50 mins...that was about 13.24mins per mile.  I thought that was pretty darn good for our first time!

Here is our celebrating after pics....

We did it!  This is us "cheers-ing" our medals. :)

My hubby and I after the race.

So the bad news....you know how I said I hurt my foot?  Well here it was a few hours after the race...

And the next morn....

Needless to say, it was time for a trip to the doc.  3 hours later, I was told that I likely broke one of the small metacarpal bones in my foot.  Oops!  I got this awesome shoe to wear, though. :P

It is healing, but sadly I can't run for at least 2 weeks.  Bummer!  But it was totally worth it!

Take care and happy mothers day to all out there!

Ash

Acck! It has been a month already!

Oh no!  I can't believe that it has been a month since I have posted!

So quick run down of the last month....

1) Got to go to the Capitol to lobby our legislators on important issues in Oregon!  It was a ton of fun! (You can see what OLCV has been working on here at www.olcv.org)

2) I got to go to our awesome annual celebration and fundraiser with my hubby!  It was nuts!  There were over 1,200 people there.  You can see photos on our facebook page here.  And if you wonder what I do for a living, or why I do the work I do, check out this awesome video that we played at the dinner!



Also, I made my dress for the dinner!  What do you think?  I love vintage patterns!

(I also love my new program to play with photos...lol.)

3) My family was here!  I was happy to see mom and dad and great to have some time (never as much as I want) to just hang out with them!  

4) Earth Day and Earth Week!  I worked super hard all this month in prep for Earth Week.  We tabled in some of my counties, and did other great event.  But I am glad that it is done....whew!  And it was beautiful outside!

(This is a photo of our a capella band, On the Rocks behind our UO Earth Day table.)

5) Lot's of celebrating of birthdays!  There have been several April birthdays, including my hubby's!  We got to go to the roller derby over the weekend to celebrate a few b-day's....

And then a whole weekend of parties!

6) Playing with new baby chickens, big girls and my garden.  There is a ton of work to do, but it is going well so far.  And my new girls are getting big!

Pretty daffodils in our front yard!

This is robot...she is a Jersey Giant, so she will be huge!

Killface...our crazy Wyandotte.

Kiltro (a great movie, btw) our baby Welsummer.

This is Ji Rou....I actually can't remember what she is.  She is going to turn black and white, tho!

And, of course I can't leave out my big girls!  I thought this was cute. 

7) Training for the marathon!  This weekend, on May Day, my friend and I are going to run the FULL marathon!  I am not sure that we will survive, but we will try!

Here is the video of our course....

2011 Eugene Marathon Course from Brian Flindt on Vimeo.

I will make sure to get pics up of the run!

Have a great rest of your week!

Ash

My 100 Mile Running Challenge

So my friend has been challenging herself to running 100 miles in a 1 month period.  I told her I needed something like that, and we can up with my 100 mile challenge.

I will run 100 miles before the marathon in May.  So basically 50 miles per month, which breaks down to about 2.5 miles 5 days a week. And I started yesterday with running 5.25 miles!!  Yay!  I can't believe it!

Follow my challenge by checking out my calendar on the side!

Happy trails!

Ash