are you ready to rumble?

Tom can officially check a half marathon trail run off his running to do list.

The trip to the Uwharrie Rumble wasn't quite as an adventure as the last uhwarrie run thankfully, we got there with a half hour to spare, just as planned!

It took us a about 5 minutes to hike to the campsite where the race start was. Not too bad, but it feels like a lot longer with 2 kids and all their gear to keep them entertained for the 2 hours daddy would be running.

waiting for daddy (8k finishers in the background)

two very spoiled children...

It was a nice day thankfully cool in the morning, though it did get warmer as the race went on.

After their snack, the kiddos had a whole lotta fun running around and playing in the old fire pit I accidentally put all our stuff next to, so they of course got good and dirty toward the

end.

3 juice boxes

2 bags of cheese cubesand

100 goldfish later

daddy crosses the 8 mile mark

He still had 5 to run after this! The kids started to get really anxious about this point, Jonas still a little jealous that he wasn't running, Hayley getting increasingly dirty, hot, and tired.But about 40ish minutes later..

the very very dirty miss hayley

what happens when a very sweaty sticky daddy gets hugged by the sooty 4 year

old

13.1 miles worth of trail and dust

13.1 miles of rocky, hilly, dusty, trail and all in 1:50:49

14th over all and 2nd in his age group

after her baby wipes bath

Hayley didn't even make it out of the campsite before she fell asleep.

Even though I'm not the one running (yet!) I enjoy trail running spectating more than road running spectating. Sure there is more to do when while waiting during the races that are in towns, but with trail running there is more to see. The kids get to play outside in the dirt and no one gives chastising looks to the mom who is letting her kids play in the dirt. The time in the outdoors is great. It's so much quieter and not nearly as competitive. Runners encourage each other as others pass them. It's all around a friendlier sport.

Back track to saturday..

Saturday, Tom and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We didn't do too much, which was fine, we know sunday was going to be a very long day so we didn't want to do it over do it.

Tom worked on his wagoneer and thankfully he and our neighbor got the problems in it worked out, so we hope. The big test will be when tom attempts to start it tonight.

They had put in a new alternator but it still wasn't working, at it turns out the 'new' alternator they had picked up was just as bad as the old one. Then they fixed the 2 bad wires, hopefully this will keep the battery from draining and dying every day. They also noticed that it was missing it's choke, meaning no gas was getting to the carborater, so they put in a manual choke last night, and it started right up!

My jeep should be getting it new engine put in next week. Thank the Lord for neighbors that weld! Then if we can get the Chief figured out, we'll be sitting pretty.

For those that don't know, the Chief is our newly acquired '79 cherokee chief. Tom got it so that he could have a car that actually drove while they were figuring out the wagoneer's electrical problems, but now Chief is having problems.

But, I'm confident that Tom and Justin can figure out whats up.

yes, I am confident..

one of many: A Race Day Adventure

Last Saturday started of much earlier than any of us are used to. Tom was going to run is first trail race and it was about an hour away in the Uwharrie National Forest.

We got up a little before 6 and were ready to leave at 7.

A quick swing by starbucks and we were ready to be on our way.

The first hour of the trip was uneventful, Hayley and Jonas slept and Tom and I talked. Then we made a turn, that was in the directions, that we never should have taken. The race was to start at 9, so we still had time and so we stopped and asked for directions. The wom

en who gave us directions sent us to a neighborhood with the same name as the trail that the race was on. This neighborhood was in the opposite direction. Fun. So we turn around and I type into the trusty GPS the name of the road that we were supposed to turn on, the nonexistent Tower Rd. It took us down this dirt road that would have b

een much more suited for one of our 4 wheel drive jeeps, and not th

e buick century we were in. We get closer and closer to race time, and seemingly further and further into the wilderness, yet we have NO idea where the race actually is. We found a church with some men doing some lands

caping and asked them if they had any idea where the race was. They gave us simple directions and in 5 minutes we were there. We got there at 9am on the dot. There are still people walking around with their numbers pinned to them talking leisurely. I had prayed then entire time that maybe the start would be delayed and it indeed was. There was an accident

on the way to the race from Raleigh, that was holding up about 10 racers. We are fairly certain they were waiting on the team from Duke (ew) to get there. I felt a little bad that

I had prayed for a dela

y and there had been an accident though. Trail racing is much more laid back than road racing thankfully so them delaying the race 15 minutes is not a big to any of the runners. I was a little worried for Tom, he didn't really have time to eat his pre race waf

fles, or drink his cliff drink, plus he was getting over a cold.

Tom was an instant celebrity at the race because of his shoes. Honestly we thought there would be more people in the vibrams, but he was the only one, go figure.

Jonas was very upset that he could not run the race with daddy.

He had run the 2 races with Tom, But this race did not have a fun run for him to participate in.

He did eventually let Tom go so he could join the starting line.

I knew we would have at least an hour before he would cross the finish line, so the kids and i trekked back to the car. I got them a snack and they watched part of a movie. We head back to the 'camp site' since I wanted to see more than just Tom finish. The kids played around till the runners started to come in. Jonas wanted to go into the forest to look for lions and tigers. I told him that lions and tigers did not live in the forest. He assured me there were mountain lions and that we needed to find them. We didn't find any.

Tom Finished 11th overall. That seems pretty par for the course. If they had done the age groups in 5 year increments, like most races, instead of 10 he would have been 2nd in his group. The Duke Road Runners swept the 19-29 year group. Jonas even got a medal! He and Hayley were the only kids there, and when the director saw Jonas was so upset that he didn't get to run, at the end of the race he gave Jonas one of the leftover medals. It was very nice of him.

Jonas was very happy when daddy finished!

The trip home was a lot easier than the ride up. Apparently if we had not made just one turn. and stayed straight instead we would have never gotten lost. But now we know for the half marathon in May.

I couldn' t get the campfire smell out of my hair for 2 days. I do like the smell of campfire though, so it wasn't too bad. And even though we were only there for 3 hours, when we got home I felt as if I had gone camping the whole weekend.

It was a good and very busy weekend.

Saturday was a gorgeous day.

We went to coldstones and toted the ice cream to starbucks were we ate it while Tom and I shared a french press of coffee out on the patio.

Still very tired on Sunday

No rest for the weary.

I still had to do grocery shopping and a few other errands.

I got it all done, as tired and as sore as I was, I still got all my running around done.

I didn't want to by any means, but we needed food. Haha

Most unorganized of any of my grocery trips.

But I did still manage to save over 60 bucks!

YAY ME!