So, I’ve officially got another Half Marathon under my belt!! As of this morning, that makes 3 Half Marathons and one (and only one!!!) Full Marathon. But who’s counting, right? Um, me. TOTALLY me. ‘Cuz they’re freakin’ hard and I can’t even believe that I – chubby Jenny – am capable of running 1 mile let alone 13.1 (and once – and only once! – 26.2). It’s just crazy talk. Who does that? I’ll tell you who: 27000+ crazy people at the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll Marathon this morning!, that’s who.

And I’m very happy to say that I “PR-ed” (running lingo for Personal Record). My best previous Half was my first one in June, 2007. I finished 13.1 miles in 2hrs.5mins. with a 9:44/mile average. I was REALLY hoping to get UNDER two hours today, and I was SO close. I finished in 2hrs.1min.44sec. with a 9:18/mile average. Darn it! Guess this just means I’ll have to run AT LEAST one more Half to try to shave off that 1min.44.  I’m proud of myself though and so glad it’s done!

Mikey and the boys were at mile 8.5 to cheer me on and snap a few pictures. Unfortunately ‘cuz I was SUCH a blur of fastness (yeah, right), Mike was only able to get one picture of me and my eyes are closed!! I promise I didn’t run the whole thing with my eyes closed…just some of it…you know, I needed an extra challenge. (Sorry to all the people I bumped into and knocked outta my way). Just kidding.

Mike really is the one that deserves a medal though. Apparently, keeping track of the boys on the sidelines of a huge race is not easy work. And, I’m very sad to report, that at one point my children were “those kids.” You know, they were those kids that are doing something so lame and not cool that typically when I see that behavior I think, “Those poor parents. Thank goodness MY children would never do something so awful.” Um, yeah, for some reason the boys decided to just ever so nonchalantly fling just a bit ‘o sand on some of the people running by. Yeah, because that’s normal! And a great idea! Sheesh! Again, I apologize to the runners.

The boys have definitely been keeping me plenty busy this first week of summer vacation. We need a sign like those seen at warehouse stores/work places, “Injury free for ____ days.” So, far, with three consecutive days of bike riding we’ve had three days of pretty bad injury. Matthew was on for days 1 & 2. He wiped out both times in the exact same spot – exiting my neighbors’ driveway. He scraped up his hand the first day. Day 2, he scraped up his hand worse and added one knee and a really badly scraped elbow. Poor kiddo. That cry was loud enough that a couple of neighbors checked to make sure that everything was OK. Zachary, did a creative spill for Day 3. And Mike’s sister and brother-in-law (who’d been in town briefly from Coeur d’Alene) got to see it. Zach did some sort of fall situation where he managed to hit his eye on the handlebars. He’s rockin’ a shiner and a couple of scratches really close to his eyeball.

We’re getting into a summer groove though. The boys and I have a schedule for everyday. And most days from 8:30ish or 9ish ‘til 9:30 or 10ish or so we do “work time.” (As in school-type work, work time). Matthew, we were told, does not need glasses, but he definitely needs some help academically. I have a neighbor/friend who teaches Kindergarten and is a tutor. They live just a few streets over and have two kiddos that we’ve done playdates with. She’ll work with Matthew from 9-10 twice a week for six weeks. I’m SO thankful that we’ll be able to get him some help. Hopefully to just get him feeling more confident and caught up for first grade, but also, Megan will be able to tell us if it will be worth the time and money to get him tested for learning disabilities. We’ll see…

I take Zachary in this afternoon (on a Saturday! Go figure!) to see the Pediatric Urologist to determine if he (Zach, not the doctor) needs surgery for his hernia. Our Pediatrician seemed fairly confident that that will be our outcome. I’ll keep ya posted!

And now, if you'd excuse me, I need to go ice my legs. Where’s my masseuse?? Pool boy? Umbrella drink? I did get spoiled though. I came home to pictures drawn by the boys (and the sign they held at the race), a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of wine (which I’ll save for later) and some chocolate!! Well done, Michael. Well, done. He really does deserve a medal.