I have no excuse...

I know, I know, I know...don't even say it...we're still alive...so don't worry.

Let's see...

It was November when we last posted. What happened since then...

My brother got married in Michigan...gorgeous. Jason and I flew up to Michigan a week before Christmas and helped with preparations and participated in the wedding. Jason played the music and I was merely the beautiful sister of the groom. We love love love our new sister-in-law Elise!! No pictures...sorry. I only have time to upload so many. If you would like to see some pictures of the wedding, let me know and I'll put a few up. Maybe I will anyway in a later post this month. Or check them out on Jason's facebook page.

We had christmas in Arkansas as always. We spent a few days with my family in Fort Smith and then headed down to Searcy to be with Jason's family. There were plenty of pictures from that too but as you may have noticed, this post has a theme. If you hadn't notice yet, notice now!

We had a superbowl party with our friends here at our house. This was the 2nd annual and now I think it will have to be a yearly tradition-so much fun!!!

So now...the running. As many of you know, I've decided I want to run a marathon. I'm aiming for 2010. I've joined the New York Road Runners, the group that organizes the marathon. If you are a member and run 9 of their other races during the year prior to the marathon (and volunteer at one), you are automatically qualified. I thought this was brilliant since I will probably not be able to run a qualifying time:)

I started running last fall and it's pretty slow going. I'm training with a friend of mine, Neal. He's a personal trainer at a gym and is very busy. Combine this with my schedule and you get a trainer and his trainee who don't get to see each other very often. Still, it's going well. I do the work outs he gives me until we can meet again, which is sometimes not for a month.

I ran my first race in December-the holiday 4-mile. I was extremely nervous but once I got there, I started to loosen up. It was in Central Park and it was 13 degrees. I had to do some jumping jacks and some pushups to warm myself up. We ran a loop around the reservoir in the middle of the park (this is where Charlotte runs in "Sex in the City") When you sign in at the race, you are given a little yellow chip to attach to your shoe. This is a computerized chip that starts your own personal clock when you cross the start line and stops it automatically when you cross the finish. Then you go home and go to a website that tells you your results that same day; pretty cool I think.

I finished in 54 minutes and 9 seconds in 4,703rd place. My pace was about a 15 minute mile. There were LOTS of children in my time corral. A couple of public schools and young kids teams. It was good to see that it wasn't about finishing first (the people who did win finished in about 19 minutes) but about finishing at all for your own goals and having a good time.

This is me at the beginning making my way to the starting line.

And me coming across the finish

Yay!! I did it and didn't collapse!!

Jason was there to take pictures and be my cheerleader (which he did quite well!) Then he took me out for a big breakfast and a double feature at a movie theatre down the street from our house (after a nap of course).

It was really early in the morning. I thanked him over and over for coming out with me. Doesn't he look like he's having fun?!?! This was approximately 7:15AM and 13 degrees.
Last weekend I ran my 2nd race-a 5K in Washington Heights. It was a little warmer-30 degrees and a light snow was falling. This was the Coogan's: Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks run. There were live bands and performance groups scattered along the route to keep the runners entertained. I had a good time and didn't need to listen to my ipod. The neighborhood was quite nice too.

Coming up on these races can tend to look a little like street fair. There are lots of port-o-potties and street vendors and balloons and street barricades. Its a very festive environment.

This time I finished 3.1 miles in a little under 40 minutes. I came in 4,496th and I bettered my mile pace to about 13 1/2 minutes. Jason came again to be my support and we had a nice big breakfast again afterwards. We went and saw a movie again too. I'm thinking this will become a tradition. Big breakfasts and movies!! Nothing better!!

I'm running another race in a couple of weeks in Central Park again. This one is for Colon Cancer, a 4-mile, and this time I'm not running alone. Jason will be with me along with our friends, Jamie and Rachel who are coming to visit from Arkansas. I couldn't be more excited to have people to run with me. It's going to be awesome and then we can ALL enjoy a big breakfast and a movie!!! And a nap!!

I'll post again soon I promise. I just wanted to share about the running because I'm pretty proud of it.