Congratulations Amanda on finishing your first half marathon!! You've trained super hard and you finished well beneath the goal-time you had for yourself. From Saturday 'long runs' of ten milers with your girlfriends to early morning 5AM four milers with Beth, you have earned the right to call yourself one hot mother-runner!! Running is awesome and is a fantastic exercise. It costs nothing. You dont need any silly fancy gear--just sneakers. You can go on your own schedule whenever you want WHEREever you want. It is a meditation. It is a natural motion. I am so glad Amanda has found running. 

The marathon was on a Sunday morning, so on Saturday Sally went down to Portland to stay in a hotel with Beth and Beth's girls. They did dinner, resting, and an early bedtime....Callum, Maira, and I took advantage of some daddy-kid time to head over to Sunset Greenhouses for mums (the kids wanted to get mommy yellow mums as 'flowers' for finishing the race) and a huge pumpkin for our jackolantern....

I dont know too many kids who, even within the excitement of a marathon finish line, would still sit and read books to/with each other.....I brought several in my backpack.....and then got all self conscious when I realized I brought a backpack to a marathon finish line....there were SEVERAL cops with bomb sniffing duogs, etc. Better safe than sorry....

Alicia finished about 10 minutes or so before Amanda and Beth....Amanda and Beth crossed the finish line together holding hands and it was just very sweet. Lisa and Pete also ran the marathon, but as a 'relay' team with a few other people; each person ran a 'leg' of the race. The even in its entirety was a class act; the emcee called each runner's name/hometown when they crossed the finish line! Plus, Amanda got a SwagBag full of amazing goodies like cups, gift certificates, teeshirts, bottles, snacks, etc!

The Usual Suspects...minus Lisa, who was still running the relay. Beth, Amanda, and Alicia did a super job!! Look at those medals!! And space age blankets. And Maira seems to find her way into each picture too.....haha

On Sunday, by the way, Amanda and I did something we had never done before in our 13 years together.......we went running.....together......we had never done that! It was fantastic. Lin and Gorge watched the kids while we ran a nice five miler on the river trail. Hopefully, many more races and runs will follow!