Cross off on the ol' bucket list

I guess it's not really my bucket list but it might as well be.  I finally competed and completed my first half marathon.  It has been a long time coming and finally I was able to do it.  My goal was to do it last October however I got runner's knee and was down for a good month.  Sooo I had to wait a year because there weren't any other races after my injury and I wouldn't have been ready.

Originally I wanted to do an Olympic Distance Triathlon however, I got a job and then had to stop training because I didn't have time.  My awesome of a husband, Chris said "well why don't you train for a half marathon... you haven't done that yet." So I did.

Yesterday, October 27th (so I can remember the date later on ... this is pretty much a journal) Chris and I woke up at 5:45a.m. and got ready to drive one hour to Boston, GA.  It's about 10 miles east of Thomasville, GA.  Seriously this is one of the cutest towns I have ever been too.  The downtown it's self was barely a quarter of a mile.  Just think cute old southern town with lots of cows and cotton.  The race started at 8a.m. and went 6.5 miles out and then we turned around and went right back.  It was down Old Highway 84.  Again... lots of cows and cotton.  But it was very pretty, definitely not things I see on my regular runs.

I started off feeling really good and there were only a few hills.  The whole way back I run right beside this one guy.  He was keeping a really good pace that I liked.  When we had been running next to each other for about a mile or two on the way back he said "wow that is some headwind" as we were running up a hill.  I then said that I hope I wasn't slowing him down I just really liked his pace.  He said that I was helping him.  Plus he had a pace watch thing so that was another reason.  But he told me our pace and how well we were doing.

The last mile WAS SO HARD.  I'm not going to lie.  I was really tired by then.  I mean, I had run 12 miles by myself before but in a race it's a lot harder.  My running buddy at the last mile ran a little faster... or I slowed down.  Either way we were separated.  As I came to the finish lie I saw and heard Chris cheering me on.  I had the best cheering section.

My time was 1:48:13 which is about a 8:24 pace.  Not too bad for my first one.  I owe it to my running buddy.

I was the 60th person to finish out of maybe 200 or less runners.  I'm not sure out of how many women but I was in at least the top 15 or 20.

Best cheerleader =)

I placed first in the women's 20-24 age group.  I had NO plan to place I just wanted to finish.

I'm happy I finally accomplished this goal.  Things are about to change in Kendal's work out routine.  Chris and I have been talking lately and we decided that it's best for me to not be running such long distances anymore.  I need to get my body back on track.  To understand what I mean by that go here.  

Chris is so supportive of me.  He has gone and cheered me on for two triathlons and a couple races.  It really means a lot to me that he supports me in these goals and things I want to do.  I'm excited and ready for a work out change.  I truly have noticed how my body is not what it was like even a year ago.  I'm planning on running low milage (3-5 miles) and doing a lot more weight lifting.  Hopefully soon some good news in the Hargrett home. 

Camera Dump!

I haven't uploaded pictures from off my camera in awhile.  But they will help sort of illustrate what's been up.

WOW ummm HELLO Kendal this was like over a month ago.  It's crazy but since then two of the three lovely prego ladies in front have had their beautiful babies, with Tanya in the middle in the hospital going to have baby Nathaniel in three weeks.  PLUS Lovely Lindy second from the right announced earlier this week that she is expecting too!!

I was very proud of my next day Sunday FSU necklace to celebrate my fan-dom and excitement of FSU beating Clemson.  Well that excitement was CRUSHED last weekend with them losing to NC State but oh well... life shall go on.  But come on great looking outfit to still keep with Sunday best clothing. HAHA! Again... umm...HELLO long time ago.

This picture is to show what I really have been doing with my time.  Let's see, there is a laptop, library books, notebooks sprawled open, and they happen to be together.  That means paper writing.  Thankfully this past Thursday I have since finished this paper.  FYI this picture was taken over a week ago. 

Now we come to some more recent pictures.  This past Friday, Chris and I both took off from work and headed down to Orlando to attend the Temple.  We worked the Friday night shift which was wonderfully  awesome.  We started at 4:45p.m. and ended around 9:30p.m.  We got a hotel and so we traveled down a little early and checked in.  It was SOOOO nice leaving Friday night knowing that we were going back to a hotel and not all the way back to Tally.

We slept pretty well except for the 4 or so guys YELLING (Spanish might I add) outside our door for at least 30 minutes.  I prayed "please Heavenly Father have they go away so we can sleep."  They left thankfully.  I guess that's what we kinda get for having our room across from the vending and ice machines.  They were clearly drunk though.  We woke up at 6:30a.m. thinking breakfast at the hotel started then learning that it doesn't start until 7 on the weekends.  So we went back to the room and just chilled until then.  Went to breakfast and then went back to the room to get ready.  Got to the Temple at about 9:30a.m. and went and did some sealings for awhile.  Then headed down for the prayer meeting for Temple workers at 10:30a.m.  It was a BUSY BUSY day.  It was the first Saturday after General Conference so it makes sense but it was great seeing how full it was ALL day.  We even got to meet Elder Zwick of the 70 there inspecting the Temple.  He was awesome just radiated his love of the gospel in his face!

We took a few pictures before we went in, in the morning.  Yes, I did bring two totally different outfits.  

Chris has been sick all this past week.  Usually he is sick for like two days and then he's fine but he's been really sick.  Thankfully he was feeling a lot better this day.  So I like to think of this picture as his, "I'm sick but I'm still trying to look sexy."  Chris likes to pose for all his individual pictures.  I finally learned why (or I like to this this is the reason) his sister Carmen (who is really into modeling herself she modeled for awhile and actually just went for an interview for a modeling job recently) would play being a photographer and would take pictures of Chris when they were little and make him pose in trees and such.  Too funny! There is one picture I'll have to put up one time that is just awesome.  

This is my "I'm running for city council women" pose.  It makes me think of Leslie Knope 

After we were done at 5p.m. we went to Publix for dinner and headed home, listening to the FSU football game the whole way.  Thank goodness for radio.  Except going through Gainesville we lost it for awhile...figures...

Life

I haven't blogged in awhile, frankly because it's not like I have anything great to say.   Plus I feel bad blogging when there aren't any pictures because I don't want to bore you.  However, if you are like me and have time at work, home, school, etc. Then you don't mind reading pictureless posts. 

My heart as been heavy and flying lately.  I have been enjoying my last semester of school even though I feel like I don't have enough time in the week to do the amount of reading and researching I really need to do.  I like my new job and learning a lot, even though the past two Mondays I have cried my eyes out in the morning because I have to much to do for school.  I love love love that my friends are becoming new mothers and seeing them slip into their true role in this life, even though I seem to be crying a lot lately about that too.  I feel so blessed that Chris has a job, even though it's part-time, but it really really stinks not having health insurance when all you want to do is go to the doctor.  I'm excited about my training for my first half marathon, which was suppose to be last year but I got runner's knee.  It's at the end of this month but I can already feel my body breaking down so it can't come slow enough. 

Even though I'm experiencing a little opposition right now I can't help but think of all the wonderful things going on in my life.  I'm not going to lie, I have the best husband FOR ME.  I was thinking about this awhile ago, there are so many wonderful husbands and men out there but there is only one for me and that's Chris.  He truly is a blessing in my life.  Since I work and go to school he has really taken on the role of house husband.  He cleans the house all by himself, does the laundry and folds it all by himself, mows the lawn, fixes things, and even makes dinner.  Just knowing those things are getting done is just a help to me.

Serving as a temple ordinance worker is another blessing.  I just love the feeling of being in the temple and being able to serve those who make the sacrifice to come to the temple is so awesome.  I'm excited for next week because on Friday we're doing the evening shift and then on Saturday we're doing our regular afternoon shift so it's going to be just two full days of awesomeness. 

I have also noticed a lot lately at how much the Lord really loves His daughters.  I just seeing examples in the Temple, through visiting teaching, the Relief Society Broadcast...there is so much love in all these examples from our Heavenly Father.  I know the Savior understands and knows my troubles and it's such a blessing to know that if I just put my trust in Him I can do anything.  He knows my worries and how I stress so easily, so He knows best when my turn will come to become what I really want to become.

Sorry for the rant-a-blog.  I just have nothing else going on that can be remotely interesting.  But to end on a good note... I'm so excited for this show to start up again...

Dean-ya later!