Thursday, November 11, 2010

Womens Half Marathon.. Tempe, Az

Let me start off by saying that was the longest shortest trip to Az ever!!! It was a whirlwind of travel. I hate that is was so short and I didn't get to see my friends (SO SORRY KRIS!!!!!). But I will be back for sure!!
I got to Phoenix Friday afternoon and picked up my rental car.





From there, I went to the Az Mills mall to visit my most favorite jewelry store ever-- FOREVER 21!
Then I drove over to Scottsdale to pickup my race packet and shirt and visit the expo. That was nutty- too small an area for all that was going on. But I got through in an hr and away I drove the 3hr drive to Safford.
Why did I want to get there so fast??

First to visit the cemetary (only 1 pic came out)






And then....

To see.... DUE WEST!







Yes my friends- I went from Nashville to Safford to see Nashville people perform. But it was a great show and fun to see my friends from one home be at the other.

Saturday my mom and family put on a little birthday party for me (yes I'm now 31!) and I gave makeovers to my mom and grandma. Hotties!!!


(for some reason, she will pose however I tell her too... remember lasts yrs flipping me off pic?)


Then mom and I drove back to Mesa late Saturday afternoon to stay at Mistis house.
There's nothing like Az sunsets!!


Sunday, Karissa and I got up at 5:30 to be in Scottsdale by 6:30 for the race that started at 7. I was nervous as hell because of how I felt after the last half marathon. I made sure I taped my feet and stayed away from the Swiftwick socks because those guaranteed to not blister socks tore me up!!! Of course I wore my cute skirt:)

We're supposed to look scared but ended up more like a line-up.




Ready to run!!!
We had this on the back of our legs for the race.

Quite the crowd!
Karissas first 1/2 marathon.. definately not the last!
Getting closer to the starting line!!
This seemed appropriate since we were running for our dad Earl.






I honestly don't remember much of the marathon other than we ran the first mile and everything else went by so fast! I speed walked and Karissa jogged and we stayed together and kept a pretty good pace for non runners. We talked and joked and before you know it, we were getting to mile 13!! No pain, no complaints, nothing! So different than before!



We finished before our family even got to the finish line to see us come in! I beat my last time by exactly 30minutes!!! Who the freak knew!?! And after it was over, I was still able to walk. I felt great and I was and am so proud of Karissa for doing so amazing on her first 1/2 ever!!!








Who smiles after this?!?!?




Pictures above showed K's boy Quentin.. this is the baby Avery.

We now have a whole group of family that want to come to Nashville in April to do the country music 1/2... I guess if this phatty can do it, anyone can!! But seriously- Karissa and Jeremy, Chad and Kammi, Cody, me and Jon and maybe even Amber are going to do it! Then again it costs money and we're all poor so we'll see. It's nice to think about though:).

After the race, I hung out at Mistis for awhile and then drove over to Chads in Phoenix.
Lazy A Chad!
Jade learned to love me... (cuz of my phone)
My sunglasses are for everyone!!!
He took me out to dinner and what did we see? Non other than the Ghostbusters and Austin Powers vehicles!


I was so exhausted by this time that I went to bed at around 8:30. Then the next day I spent getting home to my families awaiting arms! I was homesick and they were mommysick so I was glad to be back! Especially after a successfully achieving another goal!


4 comments:

Kenningtons said...

Awesome Shannon!! I wish I could make it back to Safford more often. And you are right, there is never enough time to see everyone.

Hyder Ali said...

You're pretty amazing!

Kris said...

I have to say, I've been harboring some resentment that we didn't get together (but not too much, since I was stuck flat in bed on bedrest). But now that you've apologized publicly, I forgive you. I'm so happy that it was such a great experience for you.

Love you!

Anonymous said...

I love that you guys had fun while running and stopped to get pictures with the signs.