Half Marathon and American Girl

The weekends before Christmas were total whirlwinds! 

 I tried hard every day in December to slow down and be thankful and enjoy each moment of this Christmas season. We had tons and tons of activities planned and I have such a hard time saying no. But, I didn't want us to just run from one event to another with our heads spinning. 

 After the Dallas Marathon was cancelled I was super sad about it. It wasn't anything earth-shattering or anything but felt like such a loss to me after training for months. Leslie, Stacee and Donna have been training for a 1/2 also on a race day that I can't attend so they all felt so sad that I wouldn't get to run mine. They all texted immediately telling me to find a new race and that they wanted to pay my race fee. 

 Then Leslie texted me about this little race at Bachman Lake in Dallas the next weekend. It was a tiny little race that typically only takes about 50 people and no one had ever heard of it. 

 But, it is a Boston Marathon qualifying race...and there are bib numbers and medals and t-shirts...so, it had to be legit. 

 Now, this race is by no means anything close to a hyped up huge race environment like others I have been to or heard about...but, it was such an answered prayer for me. I had worked for a couple months to be able to run the Dallas 1/2 Marathon. Alison and I were going to run together and had done a couple long training runs but, she wasn't going to be able to run the next weekend with me. It is just so amazing how God unexpectedly provides. He had been preparing me for this without even my knowing it. Leslie and I have been running or working out together multiple times a week for months. 

 What are the chances that there is ANOTHER 1/2 marathon, the next week, in town, on a Saturday? 

 (let me tell you....extremely rare!) 

 It was just such a crazy thing that Leslie decided to run it with me! It just felt right after running all those miles together to do our first 1/2 marathon together....but, I really missed having Alison there with me too. I love our talks on long runs. The path was a little repetitive going around the lake multiple times...but, it was just so fun that I completely forgot about it. It ended up being the perfect race for Ben and the kids and my parents to come to. It was super small and easy to find and navigate and park. They drove around the path multiple times to cheer us on and they were basically the only people at the finish line. It was so much better than trying to find them amidst the 30,000 runners that would have been at the Dallas Marathon. 

 Overall, it was a memory I will never forget and a great first race to run. 

 Before the race...

   

We had such support from our sweet friends who dropped of goodies before and after the race and texted us the whole time while we were running. 

 It was so sweet! 

Great little cheerleaders! 

We both did great on our time and met our time goals and beat all our practice long runs.
After!
 

 Right after we finished the race, Kinley and I jumped in the car with my mom and a little dry shampoo, makeup and an outfit change later, we were at American Girl at the Galleria for Kinley's Christmas present from Honey. We had brunch at the Bistro with a borrowed doll that Kinley named "Sassy" because she thought she looked like Sawyer.

 It took all that was in me not to grab this outfit for her new doll on race day.
 Maybe next time :)
 
 And then she picked out her own doll that she named Lyla.
 
Then we walked around the Galleria a bit and looked watched the ice skaters and looked at the "biggest Christmas tree Ever!"

Kinley got some pajamas to match Lyla too and she is loving it.
It was a wonderful, exhausting day! Not sure when I will race again but, I definitely got the race bug!