13.1 of Beauty!

And no, I'm not talking about myself!  I did the Run For the Dream, and I ran the dream, and kicked it right in the butt.

We were early risers Saturday morning. I got a Jillian Michaels DVD in (with some interruptions from the four-year old), showered, finished packing, and we left our home and headed to the Jamestown Settlement. It never fails that we hit some kind of traffic back-up on I-64 no matter where we go.  We got caught in a back-up for about 30 minutes on the other side of New Kent.  There was a two car accident, and traffic had to merge.  Do you know what it's like to have a four-year old in the back seat constantly asking, "Are we there yet?"  I do believe I remember doing the same thing to my parents as a little girl.

We finally got to Williamsburg where we made our first stop at the Woodlands Conference Center .  I picked up the race packet, and back on the road to find Jamestown Settlement.  We ate lunch at the Cafe there.  I have to say, the food was fantastic.  I had a chef's salad, John got a BBQ sandwich, and Matthew had some chicken tenders (his usual).  We then toured the Jamestown Settlement.  The cost was $31 for John and I, Matthew was free. I thought that was a little steep for only being there a couple of hours, but I know the money goes towards a great cause.

After this visit, we left to go to the Yankee Candle Shop.  I have never seen a child more enthusiastic to visit somewhere in my life.  If you could describe it in one word...enchanting.  He really did have this look of awe as he explored the store.  The Christmas Shop was the biggest hit...of course, the most breakable of merchandise was in there.  We experienced the ceiling snowfall as well :)  I loved watching his face while shopping.  They had a section where you could have your child "cast" his or her hand in wax.  However, Matthew's height and age limit did not allow for this. So, we decided to buy him two candles, a dinosaur and a cannon, that he could color.  He loved it.  I now have them hanging in his room. We'll see if they survive the year.

Our next stop on this journey was our check-in at the Embassy Suites Hotel Williamsburg.  This was a free trip for us based upon my Hilton Honor points.  I tried to upgrade our room, but due to the half marathon and other events in the area, our hotel was booked. The staff was absolutely fantastic.  I forgot toothbrushes for Matthew and myself, they gave me two freebies. I forgot a razor....freebie.  We also needed extra blankets and pillows....delivered to our room later that day.  We used the pool, and Matthew had a blast. While the free manager's reception was in full swing, they had a balloon maker for the kids. He was a riot and reminded me so much of Jim Carey. Matthew thought he was hysterically funny.  While I loved our visit, the hotel was not up to the usual Embassy Suites' standards.  The room was mediocre, not as clean as most I have slept at, and the sofa bed...yuck.  Of course, leaving my pillow there has left a bad taste in my mouth as well.  John slept on the sofa bed, while Matthew and I slept in the bedroom. I needed my rest for the half the next morning.

Unfortunately, Matthew thought it would be easier to wake me up at 3:37 a.m. instead of the 5 a.m. I had set on my alarm clock.  He said he was hungry....default being, "I'm scared mommy."  You'd think after all that we had done on Saturday he would be exhausted....nope.  I told him it was not time to eat, Mommy needs her sleep, and it's time to go back to bed.  He fell right back to sleep,  unfortunately, I did not.  I went ahead and got out of bed at 4:45 and sat quietly watching TV and eating my chocolate Pop Tart.

I called the taxi company to meet me for pick up. He promptly picked me up at 6:15, and headed down to William and Mary for the run. There were a lot of runners; 1,441 to be exact.  I made some new friends, partook of the portable potties (gross) and headed for the start line.  We were escorted to our start by Fifes and Drums...very Williamsburg.  We heard some blurbs, then observed our country through the National Anthem, sung by a five-year old.  Too cute.  First to head out were the wounded warriors.  They were on hand-cranked bikes and were given a four minute head-start.  Most of them had served in Iraq and I thanked two of them for their service to our country.  I was in corral #1 and met a nice gal there who eased my worries about the race.  She said all would be fine, and she was right.

The first two to three miles went through Colonial Williamsburg....Duke of Gloucester Street, past the Capitol, and onto Lafeyette Street.  I give the crew credit, there were water stations at almost every mile, and I used every one of them.  Mile 4 took us onto Quarterpath Road, while pretty, it was not too exciting...until we came upon some "off-road" coursing, which included some gravel and dirt running. I wasn't expecting that one. Mile 5 took us into the parking lot of a shopping center.  I think our volunteers in that area were the most fun. Another water stop (really, I never stopped moving...gulped and moved on).  We then hit the Colonial Parkway.  Mind you, we had driven that sucker on Saturday so I knew what was coming...what goes down must come up.  FOUR miles on this...beautiful, absolutely stunning views, including one of the river, where we made a turnaround and had to go back up the hills we had just come down .  

We had to run up the "off" ramp at Mile 11 off of the Colonial Parkway and began making our way back towards William and Mary's campus. We even ran past where the race had started.  I was jamming to my i-Pod the entire race with a playlist entitled "Running Music".  At mile 12, I removed the headphones.  I wanted to hear the crowds.  I came buzzing around the corner heading towards Zable stadium.  There at the corner of the entrance were John and Matthew.  I loved seeing their faces.  Runners then entered the stadium and ran one lap with crowds cheering us on.  As I crossed over the finish line, I saw myself up on the huge screen in the stadium and heard my name announced.  It was an awesome feeling.  If you ever run, do a race, even the smallest, the runner's high is amazing.

Finishing Stats:
669 out of 1,441
37 out of 92 in my age division
Finishing time in 2 hours 10 minutes (7 minutes better than last year)
Pace:  9:56 per mile

I survived and hopefully will be doing the Crawling Crab half in September....job pending :)  Love to all of you for the well wishes.  Enjoy the video!!!