26.2

We recently had a fun, quick trip to Santa Barbara to support my husband in running his first marathon. It was a completely crazy trip, but luckily my mom offered to watch Baby C and Miss R for us. Thank heavens!!!

G trained hard for his race, spending many, many hours running. This was his first race to exceed a 5K, so it was a pretty big jump for him.

We had the opportunity to meet him at the 18 mile marker to cheer him on. The girls made a cute sign for him. When he ran by, everyone around us was cheering, "Go Daddy!" It was really cute!

It was cold, so the girls wore Gma's jacket.

All of us waiting at mile 18.

And there he goes.....

For the first 22 miles, G was running at an awesome pace...and he expected to reach his goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. However, at mile 23 he became severely dehydrated and all of his muscles locked up. He had to walk (hobble is probably more like it) for a while, and then was able to run the last mile or so (thanks to his sister who went and found him and cheered him on). He was very discouraged when he crossed the finished line, but I cannot even begin to tell you how proud I was. It was so amazing to watch him accomplish something so challenging. It was pretty dang cool!

FINISHED!!!!

Wiped out.

Ouch. Yes, those are blood blisters.

Getting iced up.

After the marathon, G could barely walk for 2 days. But now he has fully recovered and is actively looking at a spring marathon. I've been told marathons can be addictive, and it looks like my husband has succumbed to the temptation! :D

THANK YOU

First off---I want to say thanks to all of you who responded to my last post. It made such a difference in my morale---SERIOUSLY! And you all had great ideas too! Thank you so, so, so much!

I am feeling much better this week. I think part of it was your encouragement and part of it was giving the South Beach Diet "da boot!" Why? Well, I ran into a friend last week who also started the South Beach Diet a few weeks after me. She told me that she became violently ill. After we talked about it, I came home and did some research. Hmmm....seems nausea is a common side effect of the diet. And I have definitely felt nauseated the last couple of months. I kept wondering if I was pregnant or something because about 3 days a week I felt like someone had kicked me in the gut. So I decided to give up South Beach and start Weight Watchers again (informally--on my own). This week went really well. I am happy to report that I've lost 2 of the 3 pounds that I had gained. So I'm back on track and hoping for an even greater loss next week (since it really has only been 4 days since I started WW again).

Thanks again for your help!!!