4 on the 4th Race Recap and Festiveness! :0)

Monday morning came bright and early for us!  No sleeping in on my day off!  I had a race to run – the annual “4 on the 4th” – 4 miles on the 4th of July incase you didn’t catch that one! :0)

 

Kayla spent the night at my house the night before!  Two years ago, this was the first race she ever ran.  I remember it well.  That was the LONGEST 4 miles I had ever run and it was HOT.  Halfway into the race, we passed a woman holding her left arm – waiting on an ambulance!  SCARY!  I wasn’t able to run this race last year because I had a broken foot. Sad times.

Anyway, we both ran again this year, and we hoped that the weather would have somewhat improved and it WAS!  Thankfully!!

Off we go!  I felt like I didn’t really get a chance to get ready before the buzzer went off!  My watch wasn’t synced, etc.  Oh well!  Off I went anyway! :0)

I felt really good most of the race!  The lead runners didn’t pass us until a ways after we hit mile 2 so that made me feel good! :0)  I didn’t want to get smoked too bad! 

We ran down by the lake and back – it was hot but not too bad going out.  The breeze was really nice.  We kept awesome pace for the first 2 miles – got water, then turned around to head back and WHAM…the SUN hit us with a FORCE.  It was HOT. Dang hot.  Hard to breathe kind of hot.  After we got water, we stopped to walk a bit and we prayed – Lord get us through this – give us wings to fly and be our strength!  (I also said a little “thank you” every time we ran through shade!) :0)

Here come the lead runners!  They smoked this race! INSANE!

And here come the Superheroes!!!!  I set a goal of 36 minutes for this race and I’m proud to say that I kicked booty and ran it in 35:37.  I even had a little left in me to sprint through the finish – however, I felt as if I was going to throw up after I stopped!  I tore off the bottom of my tag, threw it at the guy, and yelled “I’m gonna throw up!”  Everyone moved out of my way!  HAH!!!

Sprinting through the finish!

(Thankfully, I didn’t throw up!)

Me with my Superhero friends!

Kayla and I felt like throwing up after the race!  The last time we ran this race together, we finished in 53 minutes (I ran it with Kayla since it was her first race)….so that means I got an 18 minute PR!  Not really but ok…. :0)

Look at those guns!!! :0)

Feels great to be ALIVE!!! :0)

My family!  My brother had to work! :0(

After the race, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Cracker Barrell, then we went home and CRASHED!  That afternoon, we BBQ’d for our families!

These were so good!  Jason’s veggie skewers!

Kayla’s fruit and dip!  Really good!

BBQ!  I made turkey burgers for me, Kayla, my mom, and my brother….we are the health conscious ones in the family! :0)

This picture is not to show you my messy kitchen, but to show you how much food was in my house - all three of my counter surfaces were COVERED!  Insane!

Me with Jason’s family! :0)

Jason with my family! :0)

After dinner and spending time with our families, we made our way back to the lake to watch the fireworks!

The Red, White, Blue, and You Celebration!

We got to see the very end of the Community Band’s performance!

Waiting for dark – almost fireworks time! :0)

 

The fireworks were GREAT and they lasted forever!  There was a radio station we could have tuned into for the synchronized music, but I turned on my iPod to Wishes music instead! It was perfect except I needed a castle….. :0)

 

Hope everyone had a FABULOUS 4th of July!!! :0)

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Don’t forget about my Everyday Health Calorie Counter Giveaway!!!  Ends Sunday!  There’s plenty of time to enter and Everyday Health is giving away FOUR Calorie Counter Guides!! :0)