The Hospital Hustle: Race Day

The Fannings got their groove back today!!! We have been looking forward to getting out and running a race again...man, it's been a long time. The prep for this race was just like any other....we go to bed nervous and wake up nervous. We force down food because we are so nervous and we talk about how nervous we are all day.....you see the trend. So when we made it to the race 75 minutes early it left us plenty of time to do what else but....BE NERVOUS. We packed the day with busyness to keep our minds off of running later in the evening. Hallie must have got the memo that we needed some extra rest and the angel slept in until 9:30! Unheard of around here! She spent the morning eating a race day breakfast, playing and then napping while I finally got to watch Black Swan. Good thing she was sleeping during this movie....Hallie Grace, you are not allowed to watch this movie until you are 27. K? K. We decided to have our pre-race lunch at the park so we stopped for my famous race day ritual...a turkey sub. We loved relaxing in the shade on such a beautiful day for some lunch followed by some swinging of course....and for two whole precious peaceful seconds, I actually forgot about the race. ;)

Breakfast of champions

Breakfast of mini-champs

"Why did mom bring prune juice to a picnic? So not cool!"

Ok, so the last time I checked this was called a "fun run." Psshh, I wish. So I chewed my nails for 45 minutes, peed for 30 minutes, and watched as Riley paced around aimlessly until it was finally time to head to the start line. I was looking around for my #1 fan who was going to be coming to cheer us on with Aunt Kylie....when right at the last second I saw her coming toward us. I ran back to get a good luck kiss from my girl and she gave me a big goodbye wave....what a sweetie. That was the exact type of motivation I needed right at that moment.

"Why are we doing this again?"

"Could it be any hotter?"

Our cheering section

Did I mention that it was 92 degrees outside? Because it was. Every bit of 92 degrees. And did I also mention that it felt like the earth was melting it was so hot? Well, because it did. Sheesh, by the time we made it around the first curve I had to talk myself out of running into the trees and hiding. There were a few times during the race where Riley and I got to cross paths and give each other some encouragement. Riley led for half of the race but got a bad case of the dry mouth and had to slow down a bit. But that didn't keep him from finishing great! My man got 3rd overall! I came in a couple minutes later as 2nd place female with cheers from Hallie, Riley and Kylie to help me finish strong since I had someone right on my heels. The heat was just a bit much too handle....let's just say I was about two seconds from reliving my high school track days of throwing up during every race. After the race, we both looked at each other and simultaneously said "why did we do that?"

She is some pretty awesome motivation

Hydrating!

1st place age division, 3rd place male

1st place age division, 2nd place female

What a great feeling to know that we aren't as old as we feel! Although today's conditions weren't ideal and it more of a challenge than we anticipated, we plan on doing another race very soon. There was mention of the Marine Corp Marathon in October....we shall see. ;)