Just another day in paradise. . .: Mercedes Marathon

February 13, Abby, Amy and I laced up our running shoes and trekked 13.1 miles through Birmingham for the Mercedes ½ Marathon.

We made a quick weekend of it, going down on Saturday afternoon, Craig and Jeremy in tow. We ate dinner that night at Firebirds- our favorite restaurant in B’ham. If you’ve never been there, it is highly recommended by all of us. We discovered it last year. It’s just behind the Galleria.

We ate early because my sweet husband wanted to be back to the hotel in time to see the race that night. NASCAR is a really big deal in our house and we take it very seriously! ; ) After a pit stop at Publix to get bananas and peanut butter for our pre-race breakfast, and fruit snacks for that night, we were ready to cheer on Junior!

This was Abby’s first half-marathon, so we turned in early- or tried to. None of us could sleep and ended up watching that movie with George Clooney where he travels a lot- UP IN THE AIR, maybe?? It was weird, but one of those movies that kind of sucks you in.

4:30 came VERY early. Abby and I got up and got dressed so we could got downstairs to eat. We were in for a rude awakening when we got downstairs. NO FOOD. WHAT!? Apparently, this place doesn’t serve breakfast until 7am. I’ve never stayed at a hotel that didn’t at least have coffee and toast out before the hot breakfast. We were able to convince the front desk guy to make us some toast and thank goodness we bought the bananas and peanut butter the night before. What a mess.

After waking the boys up, we headed to meet Amy at the start line. It was a cold, but clear morning. The sun was out and it turned out to be perfect running weather.

The course offered us a few more hills than we were expecting. . . but we powered through them. It helped that Craig, Jer-Bear, Robert, and Gayla found us along the course to cheer us on. We ran through The Highlands, which was gorgeous, and through parts of the ghetto, which was. . .interesting. Abby did fantastic for her first ½ marathon.

When we were nearing mile 12, we heard sirens behind us. I was afraid someone had gotten hurt. But no worries, it was just the first finishers of the MARATHON! The police cars came by first, and then the first 2 men in the lead of the marathon. They were flying and looking great to be a mile 25 of the race. It was cool to get to see that. Amy and I kept telling Abby how special it was- and then we laughed at ourselves for getting so excited about it.

At the end, Abby had a burst of energy and our “sisterly competition” kicked in as we neared the finish line. I was NOT letting her get across before me! We all 3 crossed together and found our fans waiting for us. It was a great race with 2 of my favorite girls!