2011 is a big year for me or to put it another way I had a big birthday this year.  Last fall when I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my birthday, I decided I wanted to do something big, something hard, something that I hadn't done before.

I decided I wanted to run a half-marathon and thinking that my birthday is in March and that Ohio winters last forever, wouldn't it be nice to go someplace warm with some people that I love to run?  Good idea, right?

So I invited my favorite women..

...my mom,

my lovely sisters, Erin and Melissa,

 my sister-in-law Joy,

and my sister-in-law, Rachael. (Sorry Rachael, this is the only picture I could find of you!)

I looked and looked for big races (i love the energy of a big crowd of people running), in  a warm place, that wasn't on a Sunday.  I mean, if I am going to pray for protection while I do this, I am going to try not to do it on the sabbath, right?  Ultimately I couldn't find one so I settled on one in Columbus in May that promised to be flat.  And Ohio is nice in the spring.

Somewhere around Christmas time (I think) my sister Melissa announced that she was pregnant and due in June.  Not likely she would want to participate in this race 30 some weeks pregnant. 

Then, in January, my sister Erin announced that she too is pregnant and due in August.  I told them both, if they didn't want to run, all they had to do was say so, they didn't have to get pregnant!   (But really I am so thrilled for both of them!)

Then three weeks before race day when Rachael and I were doing a long run, her leg started to hurt really bad.  After an appointment with her doctor (Marc) she was diagnosed with a stress fracture and told she would not be running any races for a while.

Mom was always planning on participating but would be walking a quarter marathon instead.

So that just left Joy and I.  And thank heaven for her.  She came (from California), she ran with me, we finished, and had fun.

We were pretty sore and tired after, but so proud of ourselves.  I love to do things like this.  Just because I am getting older, doesn't mean I have to slow down and that I can't push my body to do things I haven't done before.  I feel so strong and able when I think about what we did.

Thanks ladies for a great day!

(Mel and Erin, I am there when you want to do one after those babies!)