half marathon recap

Some friends and I went to Myrtle Beach this weekend to run the Divas Half Marathon. We left on Friday and spent a couple of days on the beach and getting ready for the race Sunday. We picked up our packets and were shuttled to the expo by men in golf charts.... felt like a total diva...

We dressed in tutus and took goofy pictures...

We fixed a delicious spaghetti dinner for our pre-race meal Saturday night...

We left the condo before sunrise on Sunday morning...

We got to the starting line and took a quick picture...

We headed to our corral and had our picture taken by a drone flying overhead. Then the gun went off and we took off. We had to weave in and out of crowds for at least the first 3 miles. Even the 4th mile was too crowded.

I ran with Kristine and Jessica for the first 3 miles. Jessica pulled away from Kristine and I first and then I caught back up with Jessica later when Kristine stopped to walk through the 4 mile water stop.

I stayed with Jessica in my line of vision until about mile 10 or 11. She pulled way ahead of me then and finished 5 minutes ahead of me.

I walked a lot for the last 5k but mostly during miles 12 and 13. I figured Kristine, Laura, Sherri, or Rachel would come running up on me during one of my walk breaks but I never saw them.

I kept asking myself, "Who walks during the last mile of a half marathon?" and would make myself only walk three or four steps before running again. Still. The last two miles cost me my goal time of 2:20. I finished in 2:22:02

I had three goals: 2:20, 2:28, and 2:30. Despite not making the first one, I am pleased. It's a new PR for me and I realized that I haven't run a flat course besides the Richmond Full Marathon in over two years. It was a beautiful race, but too crowded for my liking and too many newbies that didn't know basic race etiquette like when you walk get over to the right or don't run three people across.

It was a great weekend that we finished off by sitting on the beach and hanging out at Ocean Annie's.

Next race in less than 3 weeks and looking at the elevation map I can tell you right now that my time won't be nearly as good. Even so, I can guarantee that it will be full of fun!

what I wore + a question I need help with

Here are a few of my outfits over the last couple of weeks. I go through spurts where I actually care what I wear and other times when I really don't give a flip. I'm inspired by all of the cute "What I Wore Wednesday" posts I see all over the internet and I decided to document sporadically what I've been wearing. It's actually been making me a little more intentional about choosing better outfits... but admittedly not much. :) And this post makes me pretty uncomfortable so if you leave a comment please be kind.

You can tell khaki pants are my standard go-to for work and I love the color blue. I'm going to work on wearing more dresses and skirts now that the weather is warming up.

Finally, here's what I'm wearing today. My question for you is, would you wear white pants before Memorial Day or is that even a thing anymore? Please help a girl out.

what i love wednesday {plus a giveaway}

If you haven't tried Chick-fil-A's new Frozen Lemonade, you need to get yourself there in a hurry! Mmmmm! It's so good! Many thanks to #ChickfilaMoms for sending me the coupons. I will most certainly be back for this again!

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I picked up The Runner's Devotional from Family Christian the other day. So far it's delightful.

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I won the WBFJ Birthday Bundle a month ago and I received several CDs. My most favorite has quickly become Lauren's Daigle's album How Can It Be. I am in love with the song, "Trust in You" and I play it on repeat in the car most days.

Check out her YouTube stuff here.

I'm also loving the Unspoken album. One of the kids had already gotten this for Christmas and then I got another copy when I won the birthday prize. I'd love to send the copy to one of you that is interested. Just fill out the widget below to enter. I'll choose a winner this weekend.

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I got this dress at the Old Navy Outlet last week in Myrtle Beach. It was only $12 after the coupons I had and the sale that was going on. It's adorable, comfortable, and stylish. I'm average height, not model tall so it comes to the very top of my knee. I love it.

Win a copy of Unspoken's new CD

recipe roundup

These recipes I made recently are both winners! I'm trying to branch out a little bit from our same-old-same-old and these did the trick.

Dragon Noodles from Budget Bytes

Triple the sauce except for the sriracha, add a smidge of peanut butter, scallions, lime juice, and chopped peanuts. If you want, you can add chicken for some protein. My kids don't like spicy, but they will eat this.

my version

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This one I got from a friend's Facebook status and altered a bit to fit our likes/dislikes. I've never had Korean food, but I've smelled the Korean BBQ food truck and these pork tacos are what I would imagine that Korean BBQ tacos taste like. Delicious and so easy!

pork tenderloin
2 Tbsp hoisin
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves chopped fresh garlic
1 inch chopped or grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 - 2 Tbsp garlic chili paste (adjust as needed for heat level)

Dump ingredients in crock pot and cook all day. Serve with soft flour tortillas and slaw.

I'll definitely make both of these again and I encourage you to try them. What good food have you eaten (or better yet, made) lately?

Leave me some comment love!

what's going on at our house

Last week was Spring Break and it was glorious.

I started the week off by running the City of the Arts half marathon with a group of friends. The actual race ended up being canceled because they couldn't get approval from the city for some of the road closures but one of the girls wrote the race director and told him that we were planning to run the course anyway so they came and brought us some of last year's shirts and medals for our efforts. I thought that was pretty nice. We had a group of ten and we all were different ages so we all placed first in our age groups. Very cool. Probably the only time that will ever happen to me.

We followed that up with a lunch with friends at one of my favorite places. Yum!

Julianna and I kicked around together all week not doing a whole lot but still filling the time with plenty of fun.

We redeemed some of the coupons for birthday treats that she had gotten a week earlier.

We ran together and rode bikes together.

We went shopping and bought some of Jonathan's 38 birthday gifts.  And we had lunch at the mall with all the girls.

We drove by my old house and took some stalker pictures.

Then on Friday Jonathan and Josh were off so we got up and drove to the beach for the weekend. It was a quick trip but so nice to get down there even for a couple of days.

Mom, Whit, and I took the kids to an Easter Egg Hunt.

Dad and I ran and took silly pictures at Wings on the giant conch shell.

Then we packed it up and came home in time for Easter lunch at Memama's.

Fun, relaxing, and refreshed... and counting down the days until summer.

What's going on with you guys?