Noses, Thoughts, Feet = Running

Who knew . . . what would be running through my mind at mile 10 during the half marathon I ran this weekend?

Don't drop the kleenex, because what if my nose starts running?

Well that wasn't all that I thought about as I ran for 1 hour and 54 minutes this past Saturday morning during the Suntrust National Half Marathon in Washington D.C..  But for some odd reason I grabbed this kleenex on the way out the door at 5 am that morning and held it in my hand the entire race for no other reason then chane I might need it and I just didn't have any pockets to put it in (yea I know that is what t-shirt sleeves are for).  The ironic part is that if you know me at all you would know that I always need kleenex but never have any yet I didn't need it and I had it just in case.  The disgusting part is that I kept it after the race so I could take a picture of it :)

This weekend a group of about 12 people from my ward traveled down to D.C.  Some went to run the race, others went to see the cherry blossoms in bloom, and everyone went for a good time.  All in all the weekend was a huge success for many reasons:

1) even though I didn't train for this race (unless you count one 6 mile run and a few step classes at the gym a training program) I ran my fastest race and received my personal best time. trust me I am paying for it now as I can barely walk.

2) the group of friends turned out to be the ideal travel group and everyone got along really well.

3) the cherry blossom festival and the kite festival were taking place while we were there.  That would make the third flower show that I have been to in 3 weeks and I have recently developed a love for kites so both were timed perfectly with our trip which was a real treat. (possibly more on this later)

4) chad and his family were incredibly hospitable and housed and fed the entire group.  It was nice to be in a home for a while rather then a tiny old apartment.

5) several people in the group ran a half marathon for the first time and didn't die, including my roommate Kirsten.  I would be incredibly sad if she died because she would be really hard to replace.

6) and who could over look the fact that we had hamburgers for every other meal while we were traveling?  Yum, like I said earlier, it was the ideal travel group.

Here are a few more pictures of one of the best weekends and definitely a weekend never to be forgotten.

Keila (who could run circles around us all), me, Kirsten (with her very first medal)

Kirsten and Jake take the best candid shots, this is just one of the many I snapped on the trip

Speaking of great shots, this is me in front of the White House with no idea that Jake decided he wanted to be in the picture too.  This picture makes me laugh really hard.

The Cherry Blossom trees were gorgeous

The Cherry Blossoms up close

The Washington Monument with hundreds of kits flying around (the little specs are kites and you can barely see about 1/2 of them, they were every where)