18 Miles...

We did it! We ran 18 miles!! "Just" 8.2 more to complete the 26.2. Wow. I'm still kind of in shock that I can run 18 miles. Of course on mile 1 I could barely breath and thought there was no way I'd ever make it...and negative Nelly was already complaining about the hills we were about to run and blaming me even though we mutually agreed on the route we were going to run that morning. Okay, so I can't really blame him since I was thinking the same thing..."what were we thinking??" I started feeling better during miles 2 and 3 and felt really good by mile 4, thank goodness, because I was told no whining allowed on this 18 mile run! (Note, I'm not typically a whiner on our runs...not sure why he always feels like he has to tell me not to whine...) We took breaks at miles 5 and 13.5. We felt surprisingly good at 13.5 with just 4.5 to go. Mile 17 was tough as there's a rough hill we were going up for the second time that morning. After the hill I was very ready for Len to tell me we were done...right before we were about to go back up a hill we got to stop...yay!

Next Saturday is the Spinx half marathon. This is the first time that I've run the route before a race, so I'm curious to see if it will help or not. I'm thinking it will...but then there's also the problem that I know what hills I have coming, and that's not always fun either. But, I like the route and I'm looking forward to it. Me and my teammates are slightly competitive so of course there will be some friendly competition between us...I'm anxious to see how it all turns out!

After 18 long miles, I went home and got ready as quickly as possible and went to our church to help serve at a lunch. Then as soon as I got home and changed we left to take Jake to the park. Leaving Phil and Jake home alone most of the day = a mess! So I spent the next hour or so after we got home from the park cleaning up. I was very ready to sit down at 7:00! It was a good day, but I was exhausted!

Jake didn't want to take his mittens off to get in the bath (Mema had just given them to him). He's crazy...just like his Daddy, of course.

Jake LOVES trains, so this was pretty exciting...a train just his size!

I just thought this picture was so cute...he looks so little compared to the big steps.

There goes my big boy.