Another season of soccer complete

One of the nice things about my kids being part of the Air Force Base's soccer teams is that there is an abundance of young airmen without families around, so I don't have to pretend to know how to coach. Win-win all around.

Steven did another round of "smart start" soccer. The age range is from 3-5, and I'm pretty sure he was the oldest kid on his team. They spent most weeks doing drill and then played a game the last day. It was pretty funny, because Steven's competitive spirit finally showed. He dominated! He made so many goals that a dad on the opposing team started blocking his advances and we had to tell him to sit out so the other kids could have a chance. We encouraged him at first because he doesn't normally get engaged, and then I felt guilty because the other parents probably thought we were crazy soccer parents. (we weren't, I promise. We just said, "get the ball and make a goal" and he did) He had a lot of fun and is proud of his growing assortment of trophies.

Sarah didn't plan on playing, but she saw her friends playing and insisted on being signed up. Sarah really liked playing goalie and did really well at the position. We had to take her to Chik-fil-a because she made a deal to block X# of kicks. 

Tennessee with the family

Mike and the kids came on Saturday to support me after I finished the race. We thought it would be fun to tour Tennessee while we had the chance. Since I was tired and sore on Saturday we took it easy at the hotel. The kids didn't mind, because for them hotel=swimming pool. Seeing me was just a bonus. :) I should have sent the camera to the pool with Mike, but I was too busy sleeping.

On Sunday we went to the local ward (congregation) and met a guy that told us of some fun places to visit while there. One was Percy Warner park that was nearby. His wife had enjoyed running there so much that they named their fifth child Warner.

While a member of my team was running his last leg he ran past a mansion that had the most amazing barn. I wanted to show it to Mike, so we went on a wild goose chase. There was a rock wall that ran along the street and it was so nice I didn't think it could be too common. Well, it was. I didn't have a course map handy so after two hours of wandering around Nashville/Bell Meade we gave up. The next day we downloaded the map and found it quickly. Isn't that barn amazing! (for you Mom!)

On Monday we tried to visit the Parthenon, which is a full size replica of the real thing, but it was closed on Monday's. I was disappointed, because my kids really like Greek mythology.

We also visited the Adventure Science Center and wore the kids out exploring.

The kids got to experience a tornado while we were in the south. :)

My daughter is SO strong!

Mike pretended to feed Adam to the t-rex and he thought it was much funnier than Adam. 

This is supposed to show you how you'd look if you were a smoker, but I don't think I'm more worried at my normal face at 72. ;)

I think we succeeded in wearing them out for the trip home. 

I'm glad Mike and the kids were able to come support me. We're trying to fit in as many mini trips as we can while we live here since we don't know when we'll get another opportunity.

Tennessee Ragnar Relay

On November 9-10th I participated in the Ragnar Relay in Tennessee. It was a 194 mile team relay race from Chattanooga to Nashville Tennessee. My friend Lindsey put our team together. Six of us lived on base, four of us went to church together and the others were friends/family of our team captain, Lindsey. I had one of the shortest sets at 14 miles. It was a beautiful run and I'm glad we did hills training, because Tennessee is full of lovely rolling hills.

Before signing up for the race I wasn't much of a runner, (I'm still not) but I welcomed the challenge. I soon found out another wonderful thing about Mississippi...LOW ALTITUDE! I knew it was lower here, but I didn't realize how well my body would respond to it. I can run. Longer than two miles. And not die. MIRACLE! Seriously, I used to run two 5k's/year and last year I ran one 10K. I could run for 30 minutes and I'd be sucking air. Down here it's my body that needs me to slow down sometimes.

Anyways, the training began and we had fun. We ran together, we did hills together and I finally started to enjoy running. I ran before as a form of exercise, but I actually enjoy it now. (go figure)

Lindsey took care of all the planning. Our team was split into two groups of six and we had two minivans. When we arrived in Chattannooga we settled in and decorated the vans. Vikki had hung two posters on the garages of those of us that lived on base, so we took a picture with the posters.

Then went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. 

The other team started before us, so we went got to sleep in a little. Here are the runners in van two before we started the race. Josh, Grant, Lindsey, Me, Melinda and Rachel.

Miranda was the first runner in our van, so here she is getting the hand off from Megan starting our first of three legs. The running order was Melinda, Josh, Grant, Lindsey, Me and Rachel.

We took pictures before and after each leg. Here is my leg one, 5.3 miles in the early afternoon. For my own record, I'm going to include my time. (since I don't journal) :) My time was 46 minutes.

We had to be escorted across the road with flags by a teammate. 

 Handing off to Rachel. 

Leg one done! 

Leg two was in the middle of the night. I think I ran around 2 AM. Running in the dark on a road with practically no shoulder is good motivation to run a little faster. My leg was 4.2 miles and I ran it in 38:16. I only have an after picture of this leg. Do I look tired enough?

Leg three was fun and challenging. It was running through a city with street lights and stop signs, so I'd run and then have to stop, run, stop, run, stop. :) It was exciting almost being done. 4.2 miles 35:53. Here I am before.

 In case you were wondering, Mike did not appreciate my cool tattoo. ;)

And the after shot

Here is our team after the race. Good job team "Certifiably Insane"!

Here is our team t-shirt we wore to cross the finish line. (modeled by the lovely Miss Starley)

The best part of the race was the team aspect. We all had a lot of fun supporting each other. Grant brought a cow bell, so we could always know when our van was approaching. Lots of noise, lots of yelling, and lots of arms waving. 

Grants wife and newborn

 Melinda carried on Vikki's tradition of push-ups after running, so she dropped and did 50 after running ~7 miles. (or more, I forget)

There are a lot more pictures I plan on adding when I have time, but I have to download them first. I wanted to get this posted so I can move on to other posts in my quest to catch up. :)