198 Miles, 12 People, 1 Team, and 1 Heck of a Mr. Mom

I underestimated how difficult it would be to prepare for Hood to Coast this year. However, I made a commitment to my team and I had been looking forward to HTC for 10 months now so regardless of how prepared I did or didn't feel, I wasn't about the throw in the towel!

The days leading up to HTC, I was pretty emotional.  It would be the first time I would spend an entire night away from Hanley.  Even though it was going to be hard, I knew it was a good thing for everyone. My night away taught me that Hanley can survive without me and it gave him and Cody a chance to spend some special one-on-one time together.

This year, I didn't make any "rookie" mistakes like I did when I ran HTC 2011. I stretched out and re-hydrated properly after each run.  It made a world of a difference and I felt great! I remember being so sore last time, I felt like I couldn't walk for 2 days. After my 17 miles this year, I didn't really feel sore at all. Heck, I was about to go for a run the next day!

I had the extra challenge of pumping in the van every 4 hours. Bless my teammates for being so easy going about it and letting me hog so much space in the cooler!

We got less than 2 hours of "sleep" during the second major exchanges.  By "sleep" I mean laying in a wet, lumpy field as it rained on us at 2am. Despite the lack of sleep, I felt good running my 3rd leg. I guess motherhood has prepared me well to function off little to no sleep!

Since I was in Van 1, we finished early and headed to Astoria for lunch.  After a 36 hour diet of Cliff bars, PB & J sandwiches, water and chocolate milk... a REAL lunch sounded amazing! After lunch we did some sight seeing. Since Whitney flew in from Texas for HTC the team decided to show her around Astoria. We checked out The Goonies house and the school from Kindergarten Cop then made our way to Seaside to run across the finish line as a team!

When I got home, I jumped out of Tyler's truck and RAN across the street and up the driveway to hug my little man.  I missed him so much that tears started rolling down my cheeks.

It turns out Cody is one heck of a Mr. Mom! I came home to a happy little man who slept through the night for Daddy and had another tooth!

I was happy to be home with both my boys but really enjoyed doing something just for myself.

Thanks Team SWIWS for another great year!


Van 1 at Timberline: Me, Courtney, Nicole, Whitney, Tyler, Cord

Meme's Visit

My Mom made arrangements to come spend a week with us.  She arrived on a Friday so she could watch Hanley while I joined the gals from work for our summer office party and Cody went fishing with his buddy Jeff. My poor Mother came up to spend a fun week with Hanley and ended up really taking care of the whole house...

I woke up Monday morning with mastitis AGAIN. I went to work and was miserable all day.  When I got home, I went straight to bed until it was time to get up and put Hanley down for the night. 

I wasn't feeling any better on Tuesday but I went into work anyways.  Since we had a light afternoon schedule, I left at lunchtime. I came home and my Mom made me lunch then she took Hanley and Roxy to the park so I could take a nap.  I was pretty emotional by Tuesday night because I felt like I hadn't spend any time with Hanley at all. When it was time to put him down for bed, I didn't want to let him out of my arms. 

Wednesday morning I was feeling a little better.  I was still sore but at least my fever broke. The day didn't turn out to be any more calmer though.  A routine oil change on the truck turned into a chaotic day of running it around for a second opinion, leaving it with the mechanic for 2 days and a hefty bill. So, it was nice to have my Mom to help with all the running around and to have her extra vehicle!

By Thursday evening I was feeling better which meant our camp out to East Lake was still on.  Cody took Friday off of work and we headed out that morning.  As we pulled out of the drive way Cody said, "It was really a blessing to have your Mom here this week". He couldn't have been more right.