Humdinger.

I am a tad behind on my blogging, it takes so much more time to upload my pictures and edit them now that I have a decent camera.  The files are huge!  What used to take a short amount of time now takes me hours and hours.

I will update working backwards.

We told Lilly it was time for Family Home Evening.  This is how the conversation went:

Lilly:  Oh! Can we play a game??
Jim: Yeah, the game is called clean up the entire house.
Lilly: Mom, really?
Me: Umm.....does that sound like a fun game for you?
Lilly: Yes!
Me: Then yes! That is our game tonight.
Lilly: Okay! We can clean every room as a team, we all work together in each room until it's clean.

How sweet!  It didn't exactly work out like that, but I sure did appreciate her enthusiasm to clean AND work as a team.

On Saturday I ran the half Humdinger race here in Danville.  This is the first year that they offered a half-dinger, which was 4.2 miles as opposed to the 7.1 miles through the mud and mountains.  I was pretty annoyed that they called it a half, when it was NOT a half. A half would have been 3.55 miles, I really would like more credit than "half."  Jim was hard core and ran the entire race for the third year in a row. He would not be shamed by competing in a half-dinger.

The race started out running through uneven corn fields. It's as painful as it sounds. (Photo from race site, I have permission to use it.)

The race was horrible as expected.  People kept losing shoes in the mud, the terrain was uneven and physically painful to run on, lots of obstacles, creeks to cross, logs to balance on, and a pig barn to scale. Some people find this "fun" I find it horrible.  Yet it is my second year competing.

You start running through this cornfield and work your way up into the hill you see in the background.

Not very many people raced in the half-dinger, only 25 women of the 450 racers ran the half-dinger.  I came in with the top runners who ran 7.1 miles, it was so much fun to have a crowd and be cheered on!  At the end  of the race you have to scale a pig barn then jump out the window and slide into the finish line.

I chose the easiest way to scale the pig barn by climbing the hay stacks.  Although you have to scale three cement walls to get to the hay stacks.  They really discourage wimps in this race.  The options were a rock climbing wall, a rope, a rope ladder, and hay stacks.

Yes, I paused to smile for the camera because I was so thrilled that there was a camera to witness me finishing!

This race is not for amateur runners, which I am.  The slowest runners pace 10 minute miles or less in this race. Last year the only reason I didn't come in dead last was because the two women ahead of me got lost in the woods so I crossed the finish line right before them.  To say it was humiliating would be an understatement.  When I crossed the finish line they were already taking down the race, there was no food left, and my husband and friend had circled back to find me.  I am sure they thought I was lying dead in the woods.  Suffice it to say I was overjoyed to finish the race when people were still around to cheer me into the finish line and to eat the food provided!

My friends keep talking about how they want to finish the full race next year.  From the girl who was always picked last in gym class, I LOVED finishing at a decent time.  Even though everyone figured out very quickly that I was a half finisher, I couldn't care less! It was a great few minutes!

My little piano student was there with her mom and they didn't know I was running, she was so excited to see me.  Although today during lessons she did ask me if I had run the half, when I told her I had she said "Oh, that's why you finished so fast."  See, I fooled nobody, but I did get a really good meatball sandwich!

I am totally a poser pretending to be a top finisher, but it was great! So now that I have no more dignity and have sold myself out for a few minutes of fake glory, it's back to training for me.