The Half Marathon

THE EVENT

The Training Partner

The Traveling Companions and the Registration

The Spoils of our Pit Stops

The preview of our trail...

The ladies running from Fresno

The Gimpy Supportive Brother in Law

The CLEVER Gimpy Supportive Brother in Law

The Chaos and the hill we walked up just to turn around and run down!

The insanely STEEP MOUNTAIN we climbed between miles 6 and 8

The finishing time

The Exhausted Sisters

The Triumphant Friends

The Dirty Essentials

THE FIRST OF MANY

Hooked!

So here is the deal, all through Jr. High and High School I ran track. Thats just what the Hurds do. Well that's just what the rest of the Hurds did when it wasn't cross country season. It was really helpful for staying in shape for cross country season. Except for me, I never ran cross country and I was so fine with that. I ran the 400, the mile relay sometimes, the 200 sometimes, and I high jumped. Going the distance was not for me!

Fast forward a few years, 4 kids, and let's face it, more than just several pounds later. I had now realized what a great tool running was for weight loss, but it was just that. A tool and really something to be endured for better faster results. After a while, and being a bit competitive, I started playing little games with myself. "Lets see if I can go further than 2 miles" turned into "lets see how fast I can run those four miles", which turned into "how many can I run in an hour". Next thing you know I'm running between 6 and 8 miles at least 4 days a week and I can't get enough.

I had finally experienced the runners high I had heard about. I had a new found passion. Then you all met President Pouter and had to listen to me whine about a leg injury that had me out of running from October until January. I finally had healed and slowly jumped back into things. I decided if I was going to run so many miles I might as well train for something. So I signed up to run the Chesebro Half Marathon on March 28th, in Agoura Hills. It has been voted the best running event in L.A. for the last several years and it looks beautiful!

My sister Tara who really is a distance runner and has a natural gift for it, is going to run with me. A hamstring injury and a few weeks less training time than me have her stuck running at my pace, but I'll enjoy it this once cause next time she'll blow past me! My friends Shelley, Charrisse, Talli and Jamie are all going to run as well. I am really looking forward to it!

Last weekend my friend Kim from High School sent me a facebook message telling me about a 10k (thats 6.1 miles for all you non runners out there) that was happening just 25 minutes from my house. I tried to recruit anyone I could to run this with me, but had no luck! So I headed out and went all by myself.

I had never run in a road race and wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought it would be good to see how I handled running with a bunch of other people before jumping into a half marathon right off the bat. I ended up running faster than I thought I could. I finished in 51:23. I loved it! I loved pushing myself and the competition element involved. I am looking forward to running another road race, and I'm already chipping away at my time.

So what I am trying to say here, is that I am converted. Sold. Addicted. Hooked, and this is just the beginning. I have created a monster, and I love it! I just wonder what else I can do that I never thought I could...Look out world cause here I come!

Glimpses

On Friday we...

are going to..

with...

on a...

and visit all the islands. In Maui we are going to go on a

where we will be exploring sea caves, swimming with sea turtles and dolphins, snorkel at the Molokini crater, and watch for whales since it is one of the best weeks of the year for sightings. We have a day in Hilo hiking the

And then a day in Kona where we will try out

Next we will spend a few days in Kauai where we will go

Then its back to Oahu where we are really going to try this

I am so looking forward to sitting here

instead of here.

And I am excited to trade this

for these, but, for now I'm mostly wearing these

and

because before I get to I'm going to have to decide on one of these

So in the mean time I'll be dining on
instead of

Wish me luck!

Apples Don't Fall Far From The Tree

I remember quite well the day my mom brought home a brand new pair of sewing scissors. I remember her very clearly explaining that these scissors were only for fabric. I couldn't get over the idea that those scissors would only work on fabric and nothing else. I went over to check them out and brought them with me as I got into my bath that night. I decided that I would test out those scissors for my mom. I opened them up as wide as they would go, and snip, cut a huge V shape into the back of my hair.

When the lady at the salon finished evening things out, my hair was quite short. I don't remember having any problem with the 6 or so inches that were cut off, but I do remember the discussion with my mom about how we never, never cut our own hair.

Brynne has been equally fascinated with the scissors at our house. She found a pair of scissors one day and snipped off the ribbons used to tie a cushion to her rocking chair.

Another time she cut the rubber scales and fin off of her mermaid barbie to see what a mermaids legs looked like. She cut the floor length curtains in her room. Just on one side, just for fun she said.

I have yet to replace them.Regardless of hiding all our scissors in all of the highest hiding places, she always manages to come up with a pair.

When Wes called me a week ago while Jeff and I were at a friends house, I could tell he was pretty upset. "Mom I have something really bad to tell you" I braced myself and prepared for the worst. "Mom, Brynne cut her hair..." "How short" was my only reply. "Well it's still long in the back..."

I thanked him for calling and said I'd see him at home in a while. I didn't say anything to any of the 8 other people there about my phone call. Not even Jeff. I wasn't ready to talk about it and I didn't want to give in to my urge to go strait home to see how bad it was. There was nothing I could do about it.

No matter how hard I laughed at Josh and Jeremy doing the train together while playing Wii,

Jason taking his job at the drums so seriously,

Jeff trying to figure out the maracas,

or Tiffany tapping into her rock star,

I just couldn't get Brynne out of my head.

Once we were in the car on our way home I broke the news to Jeff. When we got home we saw the pile of her hair on the kitchen floor.

Then she came into the room. I am not sure how she knew that she has ties to Idaho, but boy did she look like she'd fit right in with the best of them. My daughter had cut herself a mullet!!!

I just sat there breathing in and out for a bit and then took her to the bathroom and worked with what was left of her hair. Desperately trying to figure out just how I could salvage it. I knew I'd want pictures of it later but just couldn't get a great shot showing just how bad it really was. But here are the sides of her head. Notice the small chunk missing from the top left side towards the back...

The next day I still hadn't figured out what to do with her hair, but it was making me grumpy just thinking about it. She was pretty somber as we went in to get her hair cut. Her only concern was them turning her completely into a boy, and having to wear boy clothes, since boys are the only ones who are supposed to have short hair.

This is my only daughter who was bald for more than the first year of her life. It had finally filled in and was getting pretty long. She was starting to let me put it into pony tails and tie ribbons and clip bows into it on occasion. Those days are long gone now...
A few days later I remembered that I was about her age when I had done the same thing. It dawned on me that my hair had been "fixed" just as short as hers. As Tara was going through all of my moms pictures this week she came across this one right after my hair cut.

How do you like them apples?