The Olsen's: Mama's Better Half

I finished my second and personal record for a half marathon this last weekend at the Oktoberfest Leavenworth Marathon! What a fun weekend away! I left on Friday with a little sigh of knowing I would miss the kids over the next two nights but also a little sense of freedom I rarely get.

Jania and I challenged ourselves to do a half marathon mostly for the sense of accomplishment and I must admit to kick that last little bit of baby weight. Aunt Pam and Teri were already in (as usual... They were doing their 5th and 6th half marathons.. what an inspiration these gals are for us)

It wasn't the most "relaxing" weekend due to not being in the best accommodations (we booked a little late and the website was a bit misleading!! gotta love Deb's), the nerves surrounding getting up at the crack of dawn to run 13.1 miles in the smoke and cold and then heading out to the festivities of Oktoberfest... but it was a blast and after a bit of a nap on Sunday evening this Mama was nearly back to 100%.

As for the race details... we were a little nervous all week that the race would be canceled due to the smoke and honestly, I am still a little surprised they didn't. My last half marathon was right before I found out I was pregnant with Annie at the Capital City Half Marathon last year and I finished it in a 10:28 mile average in 2:17 minutes. So I heard the Leavenworth was a bit more difficult and with the combination of the smoke I was anxious about beating my time.

We started out in the freezing cold and it took a while to get warmed up... but by mile 4 I was feeling great and knew I was pacing between 9:15 and 9:30... unfortunately this only lasted so long and when the last two miles rolled around and it was in dirt I had a bit of a rough time and knew I was killing my average. But when I came over the last stretch and saw that my time was around 2:12 I was very very happy with that. In the end I had an average of 10:09 mile which was a little bit faster than my goal and with the dream of an Oktoberfest brew in my very near future I was one happy mama.

Thank you to Aunt Pam and Teri for being such a great inspiration for us and just being fun to be around :) Thanks to Uncle Paul and Denny for putting up with all our girl shenanigans and helping us with so much this weekend... and a special thanks to my friend Jania for a fun weekend and just being you! love ya!

ready... set...

This was not fog... it was smoke... stinky!

I am glad that they got those girls in the picture... I was following those two gals the whole race and they were happily chatting away as I was in agony just trying to keep up... I wouldnt have actually tripped them but the thought crossed my mind (kidding mostly)