LA and Huntington Beach

In January, Damon and I went to LA and met our great friends Erika and Josh. Fun times! Although it is so hard for us to leave our kids, it was so worth the break. We both needed it. We had so much fun. Josh works for Expedia.com and was able to get us amazing hotel rooms, and tons of tourist things for free. We went to Universal Studios, The Magic Castle (where I saw Neil Patrick Harris aka Doogie Howser), The Queen Mary, The aquarium right by the Queen Mary, and Medieval Times. I am 99.9% sure we were the only sober ones at Medieval Times. And I am 100% sure we were having the most fun. Anyone who knows Damon well knows of his passion for competition of any kind. He was pretty much out of control, but it was hillarious. We also spent some time at the beach. It was so beautiful. We were sad to leave the warm weather, but we missed our girls, so back to Washington we went!






Fortunately, I had another trip planned for Huntington Beach a week and a half later. My friend Erin is an amazing runner and is always doing marathons. About six months ago, she emailed me and invited me down to do the Pacific Shoreline Marathon with her. I figured since I was only just barely getting back into running, I would be a much better candidate for the half marathon, which I trained for for about five months. I absolutley loved the training. My sister Mamie and I have a running club. There are two members, me . . . . . and Mamie! It is so much more fun to have a running partner. She was unable to come do the actual race with me, because her husband who had been in Iraq for a year was coming home that weekend, so my friend Denise came and ran it with me.

I did it! It was so amazing. The course was beautiful. It was right along the ocean. There were so many people there cheering you on. There were 11,000 people running the half marathon and my only goal for my first big race was not to come in last. At about 7 miles I took a good look in front of me and was thinking . . . Dang, there are so many people in front of me . . . . I better speed it up a little bit so I don't come in last. But then I took a quick look behind me and there were just as many people behind me as there were in front. I was okay with that. I pretty much came in right in the middle of the pack! Not bad for my first time. Its only going to get better. I feel like running has helped me to have so much more confidence in myself. If I can push myself to run thirteen miles, I can do ANYTHING! I can't wait til I do 26.2 . . . . very soon!