Capitola Half Marathon

 It's been a crazy couple of months. Haven't blogged in awhile because...well...my father in law passed away. It just seemed so weird to blog about running and healthy eating while we were dealing with such a serious, heartbreaking and personal issue. He passed away 2 weeks ago of pancreatic cancer and we had the service on Wednesday.   I might talk more about my thoughts on everything in a future post. But let me also catch you up on the latest. 

While we were helping with my father in law, fitness was very difficult to fit in. Chaos was the norm for about 2 months. We did try to run and hit the gym as much as we could.

This was along the Truckee River in Reno. Very pretty.

And this is on Mother's Day- 6 miles with my sweetie.

I had the crazy idea a couple of months ago to sign up for a half marathon to take my mind off things and have a healthy outlet for everything. So I signed up for the Capitola Half Marathon.   Well....things got worse with my father in law and the training really didn't happen. This past week was really very heart wrenching with his funeral on Wednesday and then our pastors funeral on Saturday. Ugh. Very draining. 

So against our better judgement, my friend and I decided to go ahead and do the half marathon anyway. No training, no fueling, no tapering. Even had wine the night before. It would be a beautiful day and if we wanted to walk, we would walk. What the heck. 

We left for Capitola at 5:15 and found parking easily. It's a pretty small race ( too lazy to check how many people were in it...sorry not sorry) and the crowd seemed small when we got there. As we were waiting for the start I recognized Skinny Runner! OMG!!! The race was about to start any second so I quickly went over there and got a pic with her.

(Now cursing that I didn't put some make up on.  She's so pretty!) 

Then I went over and grabbed my buddy Maribel who follows her blog as well and got another picture.

SR was so sweet and encouraging and it was fun to chat with her.  (Of course I now refer to her around my house as my new BFF, with my husband rolling his eyes.)

As it turned out it was really a beautiful day. Perfect weather, run along the ocean, time to chat and catch up with a friend. It was just what I needed. Maribel's foot has been bothering her and I hadn't trained much at all so we walked a bit. ( I was a little embarrassed when my new BFF saw us walking as she passed us on her way back) 

Here are some pictures from the route.

If there is ever a race in Santa Cruz or Monterey/Carmel I will run it because it is so gorgeous over there. I will definitely do this race again. It was a bit hilly so I don't think I would do the full over there but I would do the half again. 

A few other announcements in a pictorial:

My daughter turned 21 and we made her a "drunk Barbie" cake. This is her with my 16 year old:)

My son and daughter in law welcomed my second granddaughter (yes I'm a grandma).

Braelynn Hope was born May 11 and she is perfect.

Here is her big sister Abilene .....

One more of little Braelynn. Life is precious.