Lil Ole Me

Chapter one
    I was born and raised in the small town of Tom Bean, Texas.  Population 941.  I went to Tom Bean elementary school, Tom Bean middle school and then graduated in a class of 48 from Tom Bean high school.  I know a few folks in that town.

Chapter Two
    Toward the end of my junior year I started dating another graduate of good ole TBISD.  We dated off and on for over 4 years.  On Elvis's birthday (we didn't know that until after the fact) we said our vows and honeymooned in, pre-murder capital, Mexico.

Chapter Three
    Life moved pretty quickly after marriage.  Married in '05, first home in '06, first kid in '07. (I'm on the right)

Alaurie (Pronounced like Mallory or Vallerie) was born.

Chapter Four
    In '08, when Alaurie was a little over a year old and I was about 3 months pregnant we moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Then we had Braden.

Chapter 5 

    After Braden was born things seemed to slow down.  I had settled into my role as a housewife, but really wanted a hobby that was all mine.  I also wanted to lose all those extra pounds I had packed on after having two kids.  I decided, of all things, that I would run a marathon and I wanted to do it before my son turned 1.  Until this point my athleticism ended with softball.  I played all through elementary school, started pitching lessons in middle school...

 played all through high school...

and then one semester at a crap ass community college in Oklahoma.  

I accomplished my goal of running a marathon.  My first 26 at 26 years old and my son was only 10 months old.  I ran Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon on a 34 degree day in 5 hours 17 minutes which I was totally thrilled with.

A little less than a year later I ran the Chicago Marathon with a friend of mine.  After the success of Thunder Road I had lost all motivation for another round of training.  I no longer had fear driving me.  My longest long run prior to Chicago was a mere 8 miles.  I barely finished in under 6 hours and it was awful.  AWFUL.  Lesson learned.

On a higher note, in March of 2011 I ran the Dallas R&R half marathon with my dad and it was my best race yet.  I didn't want him to beat me and he didn't want me beating him.  We ran it in 2:11 and that's when I learned that PR's are made of two people in pain but unwilling to admit it.

I'm getting better about keeping my motivation although I still struggle with it.  I'm even getting a little faster (very little).  Writing this blog every once in a while definitely helps.  So if I want to keep writing, I'll have to keep running.

As of late, we are back in Texas with a new baby, Oliver.  Also, my oldest started kindergarten and with my husband traveling for work all the time, getting in a run has become more and more difficult.