A Few Pictures from Our RACE Weekend!

Hello there friends and happy Monday to all my favorite readers. I hope you are popping on the blog this morning, feeling refreshed and ready for another week. I am excited about a new week, but since our weekend passed so quickly, I feel like today should be Sunday, not Monday…

Our weekend was such a fun one, between family time, an amazing expo, and a AWESOME half marathon on Sunday, it really couldn’t have gotten much better. Don’t you just love weekends like that?!

Let’s rewind to a few highlights from this weekend…

Saturday

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Since we didn’t have soccer or a long run in the morning, we all took advantage of the unusually slow Saturday morning with family snuggles and a big breakfast. I whipped up a batch of oat flour waffles and scrambled eggs, while Benaiah and Landon hung out in the living room.

After filling up our stomachs with fluffy waffles and cheesy eggs, with lounged around while Benaiah took his morning nap. I normally love to be an ‘on the go’ person, but curling up on the couch with a good book on Saturday morning felt really, really nice.

Benaiah woke up just in time for lunch and we enjoyed big bowls of quinoa, grilled chicken and avocado before heading out to the race expo!

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Carb loading done right.

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The race expo was about an hour away and after driving around in circles trying to find the parking spot, we finally made it in! The race expo was HUGE! The Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon expo was definitely the biggest I’ve ever been too. I LOVED seeing all the people and checking out all the newest gear and technology for runners.

Basically, the expo was a runner’s haven.

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My phone and camera BOTH decided to die before I could get any decent pictures of the expo or our bib numbers and gear, so instead of snap a thousand pictures, I decided to enjoy the expo without looking through a lenses and focus on my family.

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I did, however, get this photo! Benaiah was quite the trooper through the entire trip and expo.

Once we got home, I whipped up an easy, carb filled dinner of chicken basil pasta. Right around dinner time, Landon’s sister in law’s came over to hang out and watch Benaiah the next morning. Since we had to leave around 4 am, they slept over. 😉

Landon and I spent the rest of the evening getting everything laid out for our race and went to bed super early, since we had to leave by 4:30 am. Ouch.

Sunday – RACE DAY

Sunday morning was RACE DAY! I got up early Sunday morning (3:45 am) drank a cup of coffee, ate a toasted bagel, and jumped into all my gear. Once Landon got up and we finally found the pins for our bib numbers (that was a scare!) Landon and I left right around 4 am and made it to Chicago with enough time to spare. The race was HUGE (approximately 20k runners!)

I was super bummed because my phone died on me (phone issues…) and I wasn’t able to snag any pictures….sorry in advance about that.

We had enough time to run to get our gear checked, warm up a little and get into our corral. I felt really good once we started going and enjoyed the entire experience. Chicago, you did not disappoint.

Kristen and Bethany

I bumped into my blogger/run coach friend, Kristen who got this picture for me! She did AMAZING on her half and rocked a PR! Landon and I so enjoyed running together and sharing our first half marathon race as a couple! I will fill you guys in on ALL THE DETAILS tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

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After we finished (with a time of 1:52:50 – a PR for Landon!) we downed some race fuel that was provided (the chocolate milk was heavenly!) and left for home to pick up my sister – in – law’s and Benaiah for church.

Once we were home, I showered, got ready and we made it to church only a half an hour late! We were pretty impressed with ourselves 😉 We spent the rest of the day hanging out with family and then headed home for an afternoon of relaxation.

Landon and I made dinner together, which was homemade macaroni and cheese, homemade chicken nuggets (with a flax seed coating) and roasted broccoli.

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Basically, we are still kids at heart.

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Landon was pretty excited about dinner.

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And I was pretty excited about beating Landon at Dutch Blitz after dinner. We ended our evening with the rest of a Star Wars movie we had left unfinished an bowls of ice cream. It was perfect.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I will be sharing a full recap of our Half Marathon, tomorrow, so make sure to tune in for that if you want all the details 😉

Happy Monday!

Questions of the Day 

  1. What was your favorite part of the weekend?
  2. Did anyone else have a race or long run?
  3. Have you ever run a half marathon before?