Essex and the three day weekend

The family and I had a great 3 day weekend. Saturday was spent catching up on homework and having some fun with the kids! We took them to the Fun Plex where we rode go carts, played in the jungle gym thing and ate ice cream! The best part was the go carts! Reed rode with Sam and I - after riding with me he tells Sam "mom is the worst driver ever!" - well gee thanks Reed! On Monday Sam and I ran in another race. I guess it must be the time of year because there seems to be alot around here lately. This one was in Essex Iowa and was a spur of the moment type thing. Sam and I checked out the route on Saturday - much to my dismay it was full of hills! This is not something I have worked on yet - but since I was already signed up and my good friend from town was doing it as well - there was no backing out! Sam is still nursing his ankle so he did the 2 mile along with my good friend Jodee (this was her first race). Sarah and I did the 10k. Once we started the race I was about 1 mile into it and wanted to give up so badly. It was so windy and I knew the large hills were coming up. Mile 2 came and I was REALLY wanting to give up but by now the hills were right there and there was no turning back. I went for it and made it through all 8 hills, never walked them one and let the wind carry me up the hills! All in all it worked out - I got my personal best time of 1:04 and finished - that was all that mattered! My friend Sarah finished in 52:33 (she's so fast and is my inspiration in all this!) - Sam did 2 miles in 18:35 and took first in his age group - Jodee (first race) took 2nd in her age group with a time of 18:19 - (she beat Sam). I am so proud of her - I hope she comes again with us! - After the race we all came home and crashed for the rest of the day! It was a great weekend!