Santa Visit 2012

Reese figured out last year that she could ask Santa for different things at mom and dad's house....smart little stinker! Every year in the summer when she wants something I start telling her to put it on her birthday list. As her birthday comes around we start the Christmas list. This year she must have said 5000 times when we were at the store..."I want to put this on my birthday or Christmas list". Most of those were random impulse "wants" and by the time Christmas rolled around she really only had 2 little things on her list. So the day before we were going to see Santa I started trying to help her figure out what she wanted to ask Santa for. She looked through many catalogs and narrowed it down to makeup, a locket and bracelets. She even took the catalog to show Santa what makeup she wanted...

My girl is becoming a pretty little lady...sniff sniff!

The Dallas Marathon 2012

This year the White Rock Marathon changed it's name to the Dallas Marathon. While it was basically the same race and similar course the biggest difference from last year was the heat and humidity. Last year it poured down rain the entire 26.2 miles! While that was miserable, the warm temperatures were almost as miserable. After doing the exact same training with the Frisco Running Club as I did last year I felt stronger and better prepared this year, until I got sick. Three weeks before the race I got bronchitis and immediately went to Care Now and got antibiotics. A week later after the antibiotics were gone I was still sick and getting worse. I went back to Care Now and they said I had walking pneumonia. I cried..literally. Three days before the race I am a little better but still nowhere near 100%. I finally get in with my primary care doctor who happens to be a runner. He said, "I'm not going to tell you not to run, because you won't listen!" Ha! He gave me cough medicine and two inhalers and lots of good stuff to get through the race and he said I was going to feel like S$*T the next day. My mom had been trying to talk me into not running all week and had started working on getting Jeff to convince me not to run...she's crafty like that!:) Apparently he told her he would wait until the day before and see how I was before deciding to try and persuade me either way. The day before the race I laid in bed and coughed my head off. He came over and quietly said, "maybe you shouldn't run." I had invested way too much time and energy and heart training for this race...I was running and I agreed to turn back with the half marathoners if I wasn't feeling well. Haha yeah right! On race day I felt pretty good and the cough medicine was helping. It was so hot and miserable that people were dropping out right and left. Really good runners from the running club were stopping to walk. Kim was feeling the heat and started slowing down around mile 9. I was still feeling pretty good and I was afraid if I slowed down that early I would never finish. I pressed on by myself.

Fortunately Jeff was following me on the course and I was able to see him around every 3 miles. He carried Kleenex and cough pills and inhalers and by the end I stopped to take something almost every time I saw him. He said other runners were asking to borrow medicine and wondering what all he had in the bag..ha! This picture was a few feet from the finish line...yikes I was tired!

The hard earned and highly sought after finishers medal:)

Kim and I after the race. So HAPPY to not be running:)

Next year we are running the Chicago marathon....so stay tuned...