Exciting Stuff...

We had an exciting weekend.  I'll start with the most exciting thing that happened.

Murphy learned how to ride a bike!

 

Look at him go!  At one point he said, "Daddy, let go!"  

Tom found this video showing tips on how to teach a child to ride a bike.  What a difference that made!  Tom lowered the seat so Murphy's feet could comfortably touch the ground.  Then he took the pedals off.  Murphy scooted around on the bike for about 30 minutes or so, learning how to balance.  Then Tom put the pedals back on the bike.  And I am not kidding - this was the first go after the pedals went on...

It was awesome!  

Since I was trying to video Murphy's big moment, Harlie was mad that I wasn't doing whatever she wanted me to do, which is why you can hear her "complaining" in the background.  Then I watched the video when we got home and I can't stop laughing at Harlie.  I never even noticed her standing there with her arms crossed.  

Now, of course, he still needs some practice.  He gets tired pretty quickly.  But, it was about 100 degrees and we were on a blacktop, so that was understandable.  Tom took him back out that evening and he rode up and down our street a few times.  He fell once or twice, but got right back up and rode again.  

Very cool!

Here's what Harlie was doing while Murphy was learning to balance the bike...

Here's Cooper...

Actually, Cooper was throwing mulch while Murphy was learning to balance his bike.  I don't think it's nearly as cute as he does, so I didn't get any pictures.  

It was a very busy day.  Earlier that morning I ran in the Patrick Henry Half Marathon. That's 13.1 miles.  Here's my friend Heather and me when we saw Tom and Murphy out in the middle of nowhere.  

The course was very rural, so there was essentially no cheering for most of the course.  Which was kinda strange, really.  All of the roads were two-lane roads with no shoulder.  So we were surprised to see Tom and Murphy standing there - the only spectators for miles and miles.    

It was pretty weird to be running with corn fields on both sides with no cars to hear (they had one lane open, but few cars passed).  Although it did shock me the first time I heard "CAR UP!" I think we were in the first mile or so.  That's something we hear during our training runs - but not an organized race!  But it was a small race - just over 1,200 runners.  

And there were times when all you could hear was the sound of feet hitting the pavement.  And there was a point that you could see ahead a very good distance, and it was just rolling hills, and runners ahead.  It was actually pretty cool.  There wasn't a lot of conversation, either.  But Heather and I weren't going for personal records (not in that heat!) so we chatted a lot, which was great.  

The finish was in a park and here's me coming in.  

Don't I look so happy?  It's because I could see the finish line and knew I was about to stop running.  I was tired at the end of this one.  I had a very hard time with breakfast that morning - so I ran this one with an empty belly.  Not recommended, that's for sure!  But, I survived and had a great time (thanks to Heather, who finished just ahead of me).  We did it in 2 hours and 7 minutes.  Not too shabby.  

But, since I didn't eat breakfast, I was hurting afterwards.  (Must admit that my sick mind was thinking a feeding tube would come in pretty handy for an occasion such as this!)  So, thinking about the marathon ahead (November 13th - remember, be there or be square!) got me a little nervous to say the least!  It is very hard to imagine doing twice that distance right now.  In two weeks I will run the farthest I've ever run - 15 miles!  While it is scary - it is also very exciting to think of doing something I've never done before.  So, I'm going to try to focus on that for now.  And hopefully that will outshine the scariness of it.  

Thanks for reading!

~Christy