Seaside

Last weekend was the longest I have been away since our family grew from three to five! Jake and his parents took care of my little ladies so I could go join a few sweet friends for a great weekend.

On Friday afternoon, I drove down to Auburn and joined Holly, Scarlotte, and Casey for the remainder of our travel to Destin. Holly and Scarlotte are dear friends from our post-college, newlywed years in Auburn, and Casey is a new friend (to me!) whose family moved to Auburn in the time since we have been gone.

We were going down for the Seaside 1/2 marathon, so it didn't bother us that the weather looked like this (looked fabulously surf-able- not typical for the Gulf)...

as beach time was not our main objective!

Between the four of us, we represented nine children, so just being with other moms on our own was such an amazing treat! We had lots delightful adult conversation without being interrupted, went out to eat without cutting anyone's food for them or wiping down high chairs, got in a little shopping, and had some plain downtime in Scarlotte's family's lovely condo when the weather did not permit being outdoors! One great surprise on Saturday was that my precious friend Whitney was in Destin at a retreat and we got to see each other for a few minutes! What a blessing!

Did I mention that we had some delicious meals? And that breakfast is my favorite meal to go out for? Saturday morning at Another Broken Egg...

Holly and Scarlotte at breakfast. Because this is my blog, I don't have to post the pic of Casey and I at breakfast- she looks great, I don't do morning pics well. :)

Before going out for our pre- race meal at Graffiti, during which that torrential crazy band of weather came through...

Race day dawned cloudy, windy, and 50. Here we are before the race!

I have to tell the story of my time, because it was a little crazy. On my daily runs, I consistently run 12 min miles. This post-twins pace is the slowest I have ever been. But when I try to do speedwork or pick it up, old knee injuries flare. I'd rather run slowly than not run at all. Running is my free therapy!

For the 1/2 I ran in November, I ran approx 10 min miles and finished at 2:13. To show how my times have varied in my life: I ran several 1/2's that were around 1:50 in high school and college. With my current daily pace, a long run consistently takes me over 2:30 to finish! I thought I'd aim for that 10 min pace I had in November for this race, as it was mostly flat, with just a few good hills. If it didn't happen, I wouldn't be crushed.

I started out well, and noticed my times were just under 10 minutes. Then at the 1/2-way point, my time was 1:02. I thought, "Oh my goodness, I could just shave off 2 min and hit 2 hours!"

I know, the math on that was wrong, but that didn't dawn on me until a few minutes later of calculations.

The second half was the most I've pushed myself in a really long time. Every mile was under 9 minutes (remember, this is NOT normal for me!!), and I hit an 8 min mile, and one or two 8:10's somewhere in there. I finished at 2:01:18 (so close to 2 hours!), and it was such an awesome feeling of being absolutely completely expended at the end. It felt great. Granted, I was still over 10 minutes slower than I used to run the same distance in slightly younger days, but it is 10 years and three kids later, so I'm ok with that! :)

Here's the after shot. It was all three of the other girls' first 1/2 ever, so it was an absolutely amazing accomplishment for them. Scarlotte has been running for a while, but Holly ran her first mile last May, and the longest race Casey had done before Sunday was a 5K! Awesome. Looking at the four of us in this pic, I realize that we encompass four basically different running backgrounds, and everyone was able to complete the race well. If you have never run, don't think you could, don't think you want to bother with long runs, etc., be inspired by my friends to give these a shot. The "after" is so worth allllll your effort!

The ocean we left was much calmer than the one that greeted us.

I arrived home late Sunday night to a tidied home full of happy, sleeping children and this drawing courtesy of Jake and all three girls, according to him.

As much as I enjoyed our time away, I was so glad to be home with my babies and my wonderful man. They had gone to Cartersville to get to be somewhere fun during all that nasty weather, so everyone in the Gross household had a great weekend! I have to brag and say that when Jake decided to spend the night up there and was packing the girls up, he did it perfectly, right down to Abby Jane having a dress, tights, and a bow to wear to help Mimi at the welcoming desk at church on Sunday! I sure am thankful for my beyond- wonderful man, who makes such a confident, capable, fabulous dad.