Country Music Half Marathon

At the end of April, I ran the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, with my sister, Michelle, and friend, Lauren.  We had such a great time!  What a fun girls weekend!

We left on a Friday afternoon.  Here we are at my house before our road trip!

(There was no phone call before we met to decide what to wear!  The three of us just happened to all pick jeans and a white shirt to wear for the day!  haha)

We made it to the Convention Center around 4:00/4:30pm and picked up our race packets.  We then left there and went to Maggiano's to eat a yummy pasta dinner, then headed to Mt. Juliet, where we were staying the night.  

We had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning to get ready and head out the door to catch our shuttle which ran from 4-6am.  We were just trying to make it by 6.  But we got caught in terrible traffic and worried that we wouldn't make the last shuttle.  Then we looked out our car window on the interstate, in our stand-still traffic, and realized how many cars around us had "runners" in them.  So we worried less knowing we weren't the only ones running behind!

The race began at 7am, although our corral didn't cross the start until nearly 7:45.  The Nashville half is a great race and the three of us girls stayed together the majority of the time.  Michelle and I walked a bit, and Lauren kept running because walking hurt her knees.  But somehow Lauren managed to run ahead of us, then back to us (yes, that would mean she ran over the 13 miles), and ended up finishing with us!  We all crossed the finish in about 3 1/2 hours.  

Here we are back at the house after the race (a little sun burned!)

So much fun!

And when I got home, I found James' letters put up on the wall in his room (which I have been wanting to do for months).  While Justin watched the kids Friday night and Saturday, he managed to do a little something that he knew would be meaningful to me.  :)  Thanks Justin :)