Soooo Friday I was off work. We were getting ready to head over to Seattle for the big Expo for the Marathon! But first we picked Jeromy up from work, he just left his truck there over night. But on the way to the ferry he had to change out of his work clothes, but where? In the back of the car of course...
On the ferry, I was so excited! I'm saying "I'm #1!!", might have to add a few zeros after that one after I was done with the race, but I was having fun...
The cute kiddos...
And now at the Expo.... woo-hoo, "over-priced-items-I-gotta-have" here I come...
They had some of the funniest T-shirts ever! I took a picture of a few, I'll show some pictures of the ones I actually bought later in the post, but these ones were super funny, too....
Here I am already pre-registering for next years run in June 2012, it's only $55, as opposed to $95-$125ish waiting till next year! I'm so excited can ya tell??? Huh, can ya can ya???
Here we have all the official Half Marathon runners: Katie Laura Kyle
Laura and her family got to the Expo a little later than we did, so we went ahead and checked into our hotel while they finished checking out the stuff.... the kids were tired, they both layed down as soon as we got in the room. This hotel was alot nicer and bigger than the one we had last year...
But no rest for the weary, we were going to go meet the Smiths for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Seattle! So while Laura was checking into their hotel room we got an early start in the waiting line. You know over 25,000 people were coming to this event to run. So every restaurant in town was packed. We ate at the Spaghetti Factory last year, too, and we had to wait over an hour. But for some reason we only had a 30 minute wait, that was pretty awesome!
This picture is funny... 5 of were on our phones texting at the same time, Jeromy took a picture. I mean we all know it's kinda rude to text while your at dinner with company, but we all understood, it was so funny. For the record mine was work related.... mostly :o)
Mmmmmm spaghetti and meat sauce- loading up on my carbs and protein for the big run tomorrow...
After dinner we were all exhausted... well, at least I was. So back to our hotel room for the night. But wait, look who our neighbors were...
We were both on the 12th floor at the Inn at the WAC (Washington Athletic Club). What a coincidence huh? Well, actually we booked both rooms at the same time several months ago. So funny...
The plan was to meet right out side our doors at 5am to go catch one of the many shuttle buses dropping off 25,000 runners to the starting line. Only runners with numbers could get on the buses, cause they were closing alot of roads in Seattle for the run. I think we even ran over a stretch of I-5, correct me if I'm wrong Laura! But I think we did! Here's my timing chip attached to my shoe. It's pretty cool, it's hard to know when your time starts when you're running with so many people. So when I run across the starting line strip on the ground, this little plastic thing reads the time, and it reads it 2 other times during the race and then again when I cross the finish line... technology is amazing...
So I have to admit I had a pretty restless night of sleep, I think my nerves were just shot with all the excitement. I couldn't get to sleep till close to 2am, and I had to get up at 4:30am. It was brutal folks, but adrenaline set in again, and I was all excited. Here's my sweet little babies sleeping in.
Jeromy walked Laura, Kyle and I to one of the shuttle locations. It was funny, at the crack of dawn, here come all these runners with numbers on their shirts just streaming out of all the hotels in Seattle! Laura and I enjoying a small cut of coffee, compliments from the hotel, just what we needed! 
Ok, so then I run 13.1 miles. The whole way. With out stopping... Yes, I can't believe it either, but I've been training for 12 weeks. It's kinda weird like an out of body experience. I can't believe that I could possibly run that far, but I have pictures to prove it, so I know I did it, it's just crazy. Jeromy and the kids were close to the finish line and got this picture of me. And that is not my leg out in front of me. It just looks really weird like it might be my leg, but it's not I was wearing black pants. 
So, remember my time last year was 2:29:33, well this year I DID improve!!! I got 2:15:07!!!! I cut it down by over 14 minutes! I averaged a 10 minute 19 second mile during my run. Awesome!!! My cousin Laura got 2:11: and I forgot how many second. And my cousin Kyle? Forget about it, the kid can run circles around me, he ran it in 1:19: and some seconds. Amazing!!!
I was also pretty excited that after the run, we were able to catch the 11:10am ferry back home! Here Jeromy and I am, I just got out of my nasty dripping wet running clothes into some dry clothes, but still needed a shower! It's crazy how running for so long, and sweating so long, you actually sweat out the salt in your body. Kyle and I had white flakes on our face- salt! So I had to make sure to replenish my salt. They actually have salt packets they hand out at the race. I ate one... felt like a real marathoner!
Kyle also came back with us to hang out for a while... this cracks me up... all 3 kids with their DS's...
After we got home I was feeling pretty exhausted. Jade made us spaghetti again with lots of salt added, yum! Here's the stuff I bought. I did buy a couple of shirts, but Kyle and I both thought the selection last year was alot better...
This shirt just cracked me up! Laura also got the same shirt but in a different color...
This shirt was actually the Seattle Marathon official merchandise... what does that mean? Basically it just costs more. But I did think this shirt was cute...Live, Love, Run...
And this was the shirt that all the runners got for free for being in the run...
Also got some cool stickers, and the other 13.1 is a magnet...
A cool pin and key chain...
And my medals! The one on the left is lasts years, and the one on the right is this years. I'm glad they change them year to year!
Hey looks what's on the back of my dirty car... woo-hoo!!!! Love it! Remember 13.1 is a half marathon, and 26.2 is the whole thing. My goal, for now, is to do another half next year, sprinkled with all the shorter runs I do, then in 2013 if my legs can handle it.... drum roll... I want to run a full Marathon!!! Ok, I said it, don't be scared knees, we can do it!
So after lunch, Jeromy and I took about a 2 hour nap, the poor guy he was so exhausted! But our day wasn't over yet! The "Fathom of Fun" parade was going on today in Port Orchard. And our church has a spot in the parade. Every year, for the past 7 I think they said, several people from church come to walk along side the trailer in the parade and pass out gospel tracks and candy. We all get a cool free shirt with our church's logo on it. So I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it. Walking another couple of miles after the half and all. But I think that 2 hour nap really helped. Was still pretty sore, but the parade is soo fun!
Here we are all decked out in our new shirts...
Here's the group from church who all walked in the parade, that's our church trailer... all decked out in theme of the 4th of July and treasures under the sea...
Look who else showed up... some trig kids!!!
While walking thur the parade, my sister spotted me! I conveniently had my camera so I snapped a picture of her and Jessica!!! 
I also got a picture of all their kids on the side walk! And I didn't notice until later, see Laura and Jason in the far right corner? With Hannah and Alyssa in the wagon. And Shane in the middle of the picture towards the left... and then all the kids on the curb, well that first kid is Max, then Kelsey, Mason and Denny. The other kids: Abby and Theron are Jessica's kids, got all that?? Got alot of people I know in that picture....
OK, so after the parade we went home and seriously crashed.
So Sunday, we had church. Awesome as usual... Bible prophesy's coming true...
Well, we were invited to Phillip's 18th birthday party. He was having it at a local park in Port Orchard, they were going to play ultimate frisbee and have pizza! It was a pretty good turn out. Phillip loves peanut butter, and I love that about him! So we found out his favorite PB and taped a $20 to it, then Jeromy thought it would be funny to wrap it about 10 times in syran wrap, well I thought it was pretty funny, too!
Some party peeps...
Amazing sky....
Amazing pizza...
Kent enjoying some rays... like mother like son...
I don't know if Jade was entertaining Isaac or if Isaac was entertaining Jade, they were so cute!
So now we are home again... and yes, I am tired... my legs feel a little better than they did yesterday... Laura- I might be going running tomorrow.
