the beckham family

Pure self-satisfaction

I know that for some stupid reason you sometimes can't enlarge the pictures on my blog, but I hope that you can see the refried beans smeared ALL OVER HIS FACE. His eyebrows were loaded with beans! This is a look of dismay because he rubbed it in his eyes "Um, hello, Mom? Help me get the beans out of my eyes instead of taking a picture of it!"


And here he is, mid-clap, sitting on the edge of a basket I made (Yes, I took basket-weaving in college. No, it wasn't underwater. Yes, I actually really liked it. Who wouldn't like a 3-credit hour, once a week class, where you learn how to make basket? I had to take a certain amount of credit to keep a scholarship, and this was better than loading on a hard class!)

I don't have tons of pictures. When I turned on our camera, it said, "no memory card." Are you serious?? I left it in our computer back home. So I had a back-up that let us take 10 in total. Fortunately I can use some of Tara's pictures.

We started and finished at the local high school track, which was the definition of podunk. We ran partly on dirt roads and on a one-lane-each-way highway through farmland. It really was beautiful. Everything was green and there were wildflowers all along the road.

For part of the course we were running through the Davy Crockett National Forest on a dirt road. I didn't think that Texas could look like this, but it was a pleasant surprise. The weather was

P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

Of all days to forget my heart rate monitor/stop watch at home, this was NOT the time to do it, but it happened. So I had no way to pace myself. And this was not a sophisticated race with clocks throughout the course. So I completely over-ran the first half, doing it in exactly 2 hours (shaving 15 minutes off my Cowtown time). So I was really tired and spent for the second half, especially the last few miles. But I finished in 4:25. I was happy just to be done!!

I ran a couple of miles with a 68 year-old man named Tom who was running his 90th marathon! Wow! He said, "Oh, I'm nothing. There are some people here today who have run over 300!" Um, I don't know what to say! 15 months ago, after finishing a half, he had a blood clot and almost lost his leg. He had to be air-flighted out of the race and here he was, running beside me, on a leg that no longer had feeling and was completely numb while he ran. He didn't start running until he was 40. He quit his 2-packs a day smoking habit and starting running instead. He said he has tried to quit running, but can't! "Harder than quitting smoking," he says!

My family was awesome and made the 3.5 hour drive down to Groveton to support me. It was so nice to have the support throughout the race and to see them. X and G were out at the turn-around point and it was hard to not stop and have them drive me back! Chris and Kristy camped the night before in the Davy Crockett Forest. So Cool!

It wouldn't be right if I didn't take the time (here's my Oscar speech) to thank the people who helped me train. They deserve the shout-outs! First and foremost, my hubby, for telling me I could do it, for believing in me, for encouraging me, for running with me, for working on muscles, and for being a single parents many nights while I was gone!

My baby, the little man, for accompanying me on many, many miles of road while he comfortably chilled in his stroller as I struggled to push him.

My fam for coming and supporting me (and baby-sitting a few times).

And to Stephanie, who was there with me through many of the long runs and for making the miles go by quicker!