4th Semi-Annual Hornberger Runs

Now that the Smiths have moved back, it was time to resurrect the Hornberger Runs.

We had (again) planned for a kids run, but it was a cool rainy Spring morning, so (again) the kids' run was cancelled.

But the adults pressed on!

The fearless runners:

Tony, Rebecca, Me and Jody

The brave bikers:

Jeremy, Cace, Stan, Jared, Meredith

We changed our location this year to the Lake Fayetteville Trail, approximately 5.6 miles for the runners.

The guys decided to be tough and ride the dirt trail (even though it was extremely muddy).  Meredith was the wise one who took the paved trail (go Meredith!) :-)

You can see the results of their ride:

 Nice legs Stan!

Meredith and Jared came in first for the bikers! 

It rained off and on the whole time, though luckily it was never too heavy.

The Smiths

The runners after:

And for the runners' results...

 I won!!!

I was extremely motivated to best my sister Jody.  Maybe it was my recent half-marathon that gave me a confidence boost, but I did it!  With a time of 53:05 (9:47 miles) I set a personal record for a long run.  Jody and I have run together since our child hood and though we keep a good pace together, she could always beat me in the end.  So this was a personal best for several reasons.

(who took this picture, come on, it's blurry!)

 Until next Fall, keep on training (or for some this is their semi-annual exercise program :-)

Garden Fun

Some guys golf or work on cars.

Stan likes to garden.

Thankfully, for me, it's a mutually beneficial hobby.

At our previous home, Stan had finally, after 5 years, gotten the garden where he wanted it.

Now that we moved into our new home,he had to start over.  But he wasn't going to wait 5 years this time to get it where he wanted.

He's been working hard planning and building 8 raised garden beds.

Unfortunately I never remember to snap a picture of him actually working on it.

Saturday we spent the morning shopping and pricing plants, trees and bushes.

That af

ternoon we planted everything.  (Note the beautiful dirt mixture.  It's SO soft!)

Raspberry and blackberry bushes.

I left to make a quick Wal-Mart run (for the third time that day, ugh).  I came back to Stan bathing the girls.  I was a little surprised that he had gone ahead and brought them inside before I got back.  I think he didn't want me to come home and see this:

Apparently they were helping him mix the dirt.

Thankfully he took a few pictures.  Is it any wonder these girls love spending time with their Daddy?

Bentonville Running Festival

I did it, again.

The last few months I trained for another half-marathon.  I decided I should take advantage of the one hosted in my own hometown this time.

We ran into a friend at the packet pick-up and the girls made posters for their mommies.

It was a beautiful morning.  

Temperature in the 60s and overcast.  You can't ask for better weather for a run.

Bless his heart, Stan was trying to chase after Eliza while attempting to get a good shot of me running.  Here I was trying to get Miriam's attention because she was playing at the dog park.  She never did look up.

They did get another chance at the end, this time Miriam saw me.  She asked me afterwards, "why did you go running, Mommy?"

How do you explain to a 3-year old that you do something as crazy as run 13.1 miles, get blisters on your feet and crazy sore muscles so that you can feel a sense of accomplishment?  I just simplified and said "mommy wanted to."  

And I did,crazy as it is.

But so did 1468 other people.  I must not be that crazy.

My goal was to do better than my last half-marathon.

Unfortunately, due to eating some things before the race that caused me to not feel well the first 6 miles and to take a pit stop in the middle of the run, I didn't make that goal.  

My official time was 2:24:14.

1062 out of 1468 runners.

452 out of 739 females.

My time that I timed (minus the pit stop

) was 2:20:34.  Only a minute more than last year, so that wasn't so bad.

The run really did feel good and it was nice to run on familiar territory (even if it did have a monster hill at the end).

Once Eliza got a taste of my smoothie, she couldn't stop to share.

It was a great day, and I'm sure I'll do it again!