Country Music Marathon Weekend

Two weeks ago was the CMMarathon here in Nashville. This was Marisa's first year to do the kids marathon. We ran 25.2 miles the weeks before the marathon. The last week alone she ran something like 15 miles!!! We didn't plan as well as we should have, but she was a trooper and got the mileage in. She and I ran several afternoons over at the park and my mom helped by taking her over to the local high school and let her run on the track. I think one of the last runs she told me that she would NOT be doing this next year. I was like OK, we'll see =)

So after her last mile run on the actual course and crossing the finish line and shaking Jeff Fisher's hand, she excitedly told me that she WILL do this next year. I told her we will make a schedule and stick to it.

I wish I had timed her last mile because one minute she started the race and by the time I could get to the finish line, there she was!! We know for sure she had made some progress on her time. The first mile she ran was right under 12 minutes (11:50 I believe). One of the next runs was under 11:30, then 11:00. I would bet she did her final run in ~10:00!

Now onto me....here I am super excited about my marathon, hoping to beat my time from last year! Let me just inform you that my last training run had been 2 weeks prior to race day and was 51 degrees, I had worn a long sleeve shirt even. At the start of the race it was already 70 degrees, at mile 1 I overhead a lady comment that is was 73 degrees!!! One other thing I should mention, my runner's knee had been hurting so I knew I might have problems there as well. So I started at 7:35 and was feeling really good, I was staying with the 4:45 pace team. I was even ahead of them for a few miles. So feeling good all the way up until mile 9 when I stopped to eat part of a bar, get water, pop some more tylenol, and make a port a potty stop. Got back on course and I could REALLY feel the heat(it ended up getting to 85 degress that day). My body was not ready for that! My knee was hurting and I as I hit mile 10, next 11 I could tell I was majorly slowing down and I was NOT going to get the time I was hoping for so I made a hard decision and split off with the half marathoners. I know I made the right decision at the time, but I often look back and wonder if I gave it my all. I finished in not even my best half time, but I finished!!

I am not sure if another full marathon is in my future or not. My knee may not let that happen, but there will be more halfs and now I plan on working on that time.

Zoo Day

Each year we go to the Nashville Zoo during "Z" week at the preschool. This year the weather was beautiful, in fact it was hot! Alex really enjoyed the animals, he constantly talked about seeing the giraffes from the moment we arrived. We packed our lunches and before leaving the kids played on the giant playground. It was just a good day!

At one point, Alex and my Mom got seperated from me. She took him to see a panda and told Alex what it was and this is what he did (pic below). Mom was cracking up, she wasn't sure why he did this but it was funny (actually I didn't know at the time either what he was doing). So any of you that have seen Kung Fu Panda, does this look familiar? I was told that this is from the movies. We own the movie, but I've never seen it (yet), but Carlos and Alex have and when I told Carlos about this he was laughing as well. Anyways, still not exactly sure what it means, but if you have seen the movie then maybe you will get a laugh out of this as well =) Marisa came with us for the day (she played hooky for the day). I can remember taking her to the zoo when she was Alex's age.

The elephants were carrying big sticks...not sure what else to say about this.

And finally, one of the last stops before calling it a day...the giraffes!!

Mom and Alex looking at the giraffes.

Chances are we will be back to the zoo again this summer at some point when Carlos can come with us.

David's Birthday and Easter...I am a bit behind..

...these last few weeks or month really have been super busy for us. Marisa is playing soccer and softball along with doing dance one day during the week. Alex isn't into sports yet, but he always keeps us busy. So I suppose that was my apology to you guys...sorry! Didn't mean to neglect the blog and keep you out of the loop.

So my brother's birthday (as well as my dear friend Laura) was a month ago on April 9th. We had dinner over my Dad and Kris' house one night and we brought the birthday boy a few presents. Alex loves helping people open presents. Here he is giving David a hand with the gifts. Easter was fun as always. We went over to our friend Vicki's house and had a wonderful brunch. After we stuffed ourselves, the kids had an Easter egg hunt. Vicki's nieces and good friends of Marisa's are Lauren and Tori and our good friends Justin & Britney and their little boy Jaxon were among the kids that hunted for eggs. The kids hated us taking this picture because it is taken on the front porch of Vicki's house and several of the eggs were in view and they were dying to go hunt. This was one of the better pictures.

Marisa stopped for a brief second so that I could get a picure. She ended up with 2 baskets of eggs!

Do I really even have to explain?! Alex did much better this year. He actually hunted for several eggs before he stopped mid-hunt to open an egg and eat the candy.

The whole Chapman/Ballesteros Family (left to right): David, Mom, Beth, Adidas, Marisa, Alex, Carlos, and myself. Happy Easter! Ok so that is so belated just count it towards next year =)

I realize I have several more pictures I want to post. I have to go get pumpkin bread out of the oven that Alex and I baked, but I plan on putting up another post tonight. Who knows, maybe I will totally catch up by the end of the weekend!