"It's Not a Party, Crissy!"

this was my very favorite quote of the weekend,

spoken by pat, crissy's mom, when crissy and i couldn't stop giggling and she was trying to help us get it together the night before the race. it was probably at the height of our anxiety. we had had a day of rylin's soccer game, sitting in traffic for HOURS trying to get our race packets, being intimidated by other racers, carbo loading chips in the car b/c we didn't have time to eat, finally making time to eat only to miss picking up jill (crissy's sister) at the airport, and feeling overwhelmed by all the marathon dos and don'ts. we all headed to bed early sat. night, anxious about the 5am alarm and the race ahead. we got to the alamo on time (thank you, dustin!) and stood out in the COLD for 30 minutes. the gun went off, and off we went. pat was our pacer (she's a machine!), and we all kept up for about 7 miles, but then i started to lag behind a bit. in the end, though, we ran through all 13 miles! it was about the best feeling ever. the weather was absolutely perfect, too. the finish line was in the alamodome, so we got to run in like superstars with fans cheering on either side of us. it ended up being a surprisingly emotional moment. now crissy and i walk like little old ladies b/c our legs don't seem to work right anymore, but it was totally worth it! would do it again in a heartbeat. i think i finished in a little under 3 hours (yes, am pokey) but official times & pics will be on the sa marathon site later this week. will get you that link later... and if i can get mushy, i am humbled by everyone's encouragement, so thank you for your words & prayers. they meant a lot. here's me, pat & crissy with our medals and post-marathon glow, and a couple of pics of crissy's kids for ya...oh yeah, and rylin's head smells like cheese, too.