Thanksgiving weekend

Wow, what a couple of weeks. Thanksgiving was great! So much to be grateful for, but I will write about that later. Here's the wrap-up:

- I woke up early on Thursday morning, got Malone ready, tried to eat a healthy breakfast (what do you eat for a death race?) and put on my running shoes. As we drove through Tacoma, going up hills...high hills, my stomach sank. I kept on telling people beforehand that I will be lucky if I finished, but really didn't believe I was that bad of a runner. UNTIL, we started going up the hills. I got nervous. I met my amazing friend, Melanie and we picked up our numbers. Number 771. That was my number. Here's Melanie and I getting ready.

We stood in line in the freezing cold (yeah, 38 degrees is awesome for my asthma and arthritis building up in my decrepit knee, should I keep the excuses coming?). We were still chatting away when I thought we were getting shot at...No, it was just the start gun. I'm not going to lie, I had flashes of Compton and drive-by shootings going through my mind and my racing heart. We started running. Look how excited I am? Its nervous energy. Oh and this was right before someone bumped into me, knocked my iPod off of my arm, someone else stepped on it and I ran to its safety, only to just about cause the largest human running accident in history. No worries, the iPod is fine.

I finished. No tears. No drama. I just finished. As I was running up the last hill (did I mention the hills were a little more than I bargained for?), I saw the three mile marker. Oh sweet relief!! The last little bit was downhill and I was able to run the fastest across the finish line...except for the lady dragging herself across the finish line right in front of me, walking. How did she finish ahead of me? Here's the crowd on the hill coming toward the finish line.
Here I am running the last few feet. I don't look very victorious. I look like I'm saying, "hey, babe" or "hi mom".

Malone fell asleep while Cameron was waiting for me to finish. Oh yes, and my finishing time was 34.40 minutes. Nothing spectacular. I guess I can only get better from here, right?

We spent the rest of Thursday just relaxing. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday when our friends

James and Sara Martin arrived from Colorado. We had such a wonderful weekend with them. Malone, of course, fell in love with Sara and when she had to say goodbye to Sara, I just about cried.

Here's a few highlights of the weekend.