We finished...!

...and I'm officially on running vacation. :) We had a great time at this weekend's Country Music Marathon in Nashville with our friends and other friendly members of the Haase family. Friday's trip down was a balmy 81 degrees add Indiana humidity, and the radar was telling us that we were in for a Saturday of thunderstorms. Turns out radar was right.

We woke up to thunder and lighting Saturday morning around 5am to catch our 5:45 shuttle to the start line. Being the excellent planners that we all are, we hadn’t packed a lick of waterproof anything, but mascara. Will said that he had a thought, disappeared and returned with as many black trash bags as he could get. We each shamelessly turned them into ponchos and stomped through puddles to our shuttle, wondering why this sounded like such a good idea 3 months ago :) The start was pouring and busy with our 30,000 running buddies. Will and I separated so that Ashley and I could hit the Porta-Potty one last time. He started in our #14 corral while Ash and I got kicked to #20 due to a very long line. Just as our corral was released (about 47 mins after the initial gun start), the rain stopped, and we enjoyed a DRY, and ultimately gorgeous day!

Due to the rain, I opted not to carry any electronics so I didn’t take any pics. You can see some, however, by clicking here http://www.cmmarathon.com/elite/galleries/cmm/2008/index.html

Will finished great and met his goal coming in at 1:58. Ash and I came in at 2:23 with one potty stop around the 5K. Dave, Ashley’s husband, finished the half at 1:39 and circled back to join his sister, Amy, in completing her first marathon at 3:32 (amazing!). Dave’s younger sister, Hollie, and her boyfriend, Brian, finished the full as well in 4:45. What a day!

By the time we made it back to our Hilton Hotel, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and we spent a sore but relieved afternoon trolling for cowboy boots, eating some BBQ, and tasting a few of the 72 beers on tap at Broadway Tavern. We even stayed out at Tootsies for some live country music until (gasp) Midnight! My body is paying for it today and so is Will’s (even though he denies it), but a couple sore "hami's" are well worth the adventure we had. :)

Thanks to all for tracking us along the way—we are grateful for all the great motivating energy you gave us. It worked!