All American Marathon!

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. 

I am excited to recap a pretty awesome weekend with you all. On Wednesday, my Dad arrived from Florida. He is pretty rad and drove 10 hours to visit and to also watch E for us while we ran this weekend. We are so thankful for him!

We kicked off the fun with pedicures on Thursday. My Dad loves them and it's always fun to have that time together. 

On Friday, we mostly hung around the house and just relaxed. I had a dentist appointment that afternoon so E got plenty of time with papa. I had to spend some time at the race expo later that evening to get packets. 

The weather was absolutely beautiful all weekend so we spent a lot of time outside. 

Saturday was spent running a few errands for the race (getting cheap jackets we could ditch on the course) and parking a car on post for the end of the race. We ended the night with take out Chinese and it awesome haha.

Sunday morning we were up at 5am for the All American Marathon and Mike to Mike Half Marathon!!!! We were out the door by 5:20am and parked by 5:45am. Thankfully the start line was downtown and really close to our house. We met up with our friends from SLAM we missed a few at the start line though. I'm not a picture taker when it comes to races so I stole a few from friends haha.

We had 6 moms running the half, 1 running the 5k (that started and finished on Fort Bragg), and 2 running the full. We also had 4 SLADS (Dads) running the half. It was such an awesome turnout for us. 

Since Kyle was running the half, I told him to go off ahead of me because I knew I had to keep a slower pace since I had twice the distance to cover. We kissed, said good luck to each other, and off we went. I'm not going to lie it was a little emotional knowing we were doing different distances and wouldn't be at the finish line together. 

We started in downtown and made our way up a very long road to the All American Highway that leads to Fort Bragg. I ran the first 9 miles with my friend Caralee who was running the half. She definitely helped me keep at a moderate pace and it was nice having someone to chat with because it made those miles fly by. Once we entered post, she went right, and I went left. At that moment, my mind instantly went to Kyle because I knew he was close to being finished by that point and I was just knew that he was going to PR his half time. 

I'm not going to lie the next 16.2 miles were hard. I buckled down though and took them one at a time. It helped tremendously having the volunteers be so encouraging and supportive. As well as the other runners. You don't realize how much you rely on that positivity and support. The running community is absolutely phenomenal and it's about lifting each other up for sure. 

I saw a few friends on the course including some of my fellow ambassadors which was nice. I made it to mile 17 and I sent Kyle a quick text. He was done and was headed back to the house to pick up my Dad and Emersyn so they could be at the finish line as well. 

I made it to mile 24 and I hit the proverbial wall. I did not want to move but I knew I was so close and there was a possibility that I could PR this full. That was absolutely not my intention as this simply a training run for my 50k but it really did fuel me.

I slowed down and was very deliberate with my steps and I rounded a corner and finally saw the tents at the parade field. I saw mile marker 26 and knew that in .2 miles I would be done. I could see the finish line! I scanned the crowd and immediately found Kyle, E, my Dad, and some of the my sweet SLAM sisters that stuck around. I was going to do this!

I looked at the clock and I PR'd it! 4:24:08! I rushed to find Kyle and he told me that he PR'd his half with a time of 1:52:18! I was so darn proud of him! This also happened to be our 160th race, it couldn't have been more awesome.

Kyle and I have worked really hard to be consistent with our running and this race really paid off for the both of us. It was amazing sharing that experience together.

As an ambassador for this event I am SO proud! Between all three events we had 3,816 runners which exceeded previous years. It was a stellar event and one that we will continue to participate in as long as we are here. If you ever find yourself here please run (or walk) this event, it's outstanding!

Oh! The medals and finisher gift aren't bad either haha!

We are already looking forward to next year!

Overall, it was an amazing weekend. We are so glad my Dad was able to come up and we enjoyed having that time with him.