Grapevine, Texas

Spur of the moment (how I like things), we decided to take a drive and spend the weekend in the

Dallas-Fort Worth area and visit Ben's family. It's always a big treat to spend time with
Deann & Norman at their house in Grapevine, TX. 

  The inital spark for the trip was when Laura (long time Zumba friend & recent early morning running buddy) came up to me last week and excitedly asked if I would be interested in "getting out of town and running the Fort Worth ½ Marathon." 

 

At first I was somewhat skeptical since this race was a full month before Dallas (the race that I have been training for) but she brought up several valid points:
 

1. We had just run 10 miles together the previous weekend
(and what's another 3 when you have already run 10!)

2. She was wanting to leave town for her 40th birthday...
and I'm always a sucker for a road trip.

BUT 

3. The clincher was when she informed me that the finisher medal was actually a belt buckle. 

 

Boom! I went home, set the bait, and waited for Ben to get on board with yet another one of my road trip ideas.

Driving east on route 287
(Ben is so good!)

 

 Kaden entertaining himself during the 6-hour drive.
Owen BRIEFLY sleeping... Don't be fooled by this photo; he only slept for about 15 minutes on the drive there.  The normally super-chill Owen was NOT feeling the drive.

 The other HUGE reason for going to Grapevine was to visit with Ben's aunt, uncle & cousins.  We knew that we wouldn't be seeing them anytime soon as we all have different plans for Thanksgiving & Christmas this year. 

Exploring the backyard, playing hide & seek, and trying to stay off the pool cover... yet another close call and important learning opportunity for Kaden.  :)

Kaden & Owen

There was a really nice park, less than ½ mile from Deann & Norman's house that we checked out before dinner.  We will definitely have to make our way back to this park on a future visit!

playing in the living rom

It was unseasonally warm on the morning of the race, and the great thing about running this particular ½ was that our race started a full hour after the full marathon (an extra hour of sleeping) AND the weather turned out to be unseasonably warm while we were running.  About 10 minutes after we crossed the finish line, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped about 15° and it started to rain.  Talk about good timing!  Thankfully, neither of us had to bust out the trash bags we had tied to us.

Laura & Kristin before the start

Although we didn't really have a specific time goal in mind (I wanted to substantially beat my time from this spring), we both had a good time and made personal records.  I will say, however, that I gave it my all.  I was struggling (physically & then mentally) after mile 11 and was DONE by the end.  Seriously, I don't think that I could have run another 100 yards by the time it was over.  Might have to look into ways to fuel up and refuel before the next one...

Finisher!
And yes, I wore it all day (in the car on the drive back).

and I may have even put it on the following day as a reminder that I can do anything...
that I have the strength to be patient with a teething toddler....