April

The weather started warming a bit and the sun finally started shining!!! All of us do much better when the sun is shining and we can get outside!

My friend, Mary, and I participated in a triathlon on April 4th. This is the triathlon that I did last year. It is organized by ADPi and is a sprint triathlon. This was the first triathlon for Mary and she placed 3rd in her age group! That girl is a natural athlete!

Like I said, this family does much better when the sun shines, and we can be outside. This is the Greenway. It is a paved path that runs along the Stones River. We love to ride our bikes or take the dogs walking. There is even a dog park called the Bark Park. Our dogs love it there!

Speaking of dogs...we had to put our sweet Paty Dog down on April 23rd. She was 14 1/2 and had cancer. We had been struggling with this decision for over 6 months. She was an awesome dog and will be greatly missed! We had her cremated and are going to have a memorial and spread her ashes at the lake. That was her favorite place to go! RIP Paty Dog!

We ended the month with the Country Music Half Marathon. Mo and I both participated. This is a very well organized race but the hills will kick your bootay!

Mo realized how wonderful the ice packs are at the medical tent! (I had already had my knees wrapped up...and it felt awesome!) Neither of us had a PR but we finished!!!

A Disney Princess?

Ok, so this is my selfish post...because it's just about ME!

On February 27th, I ran in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. My friends Patty and Donna flew down with me to FL for this. Donna ran it also. It was so much fun! This is the race that I had actually been training for. Although my chip timing got messed up because the sensor did not pick up me crossing the starting line, I was pleased with my time. However, next year, I will do it much differently.

I feel that the Disney Princess Half should be experienced...not just ran! At each mile marker, there are Disney characters that you can get your picture with.

There were so many groups of ladies in their tutus having a blast...stopping at each mile marker to get pics! That's what I plan to do next year...just get a group of girls and EXPERIENCE the race. I wore my tutu and crown this year...but there were definitely some "interesting" looking characters, like this guy:

We stayed at one of the Disney All-Star Hotels. If you have never stayed at a Disney resort (which I hadn't before now), it's quite an experience. All of the employees were very kind and helpful. These hotels take a theme and run with it...on a grandiose scale! Our hotel was the All- Star Sports Resort. As you can see, GRANDIOSE...

(That's a football helmet)

(These are large tic-tac-toe pieces)
We went to the expo the day before the race to pick up our packets and race bib.

It says "Princess Tamara". (We began to wonder what the race bibs for the guys said..."Princess John"?..."Prince John"?...NOPE...just "John".)

How cool is this? It's a glass running shoe!

This is after the race...these Princess toes were tired! We lounged by the pool and ate LOTS of food! It was a nice time. The race was well-organized, and I definitely plan to do it again. The ONE moment that I had been anticipating from the day I signed up?

Running through the castle at mile 6!!!

And...yes...it was worth the training and the wait!!! See ya next year, Mickey!!!

Frostbite 1/2 Marathon

I am trying to get catch up with our "adventures" so (hopefully) there will be lots of blogs in the upcoming days.

(This is one of my favorite race pictures of us)

This is Mo and I at the Cedars of Lebanon Frostbite Half Marathon on February 12th. It was the first half for both of us...ever! Originally, Mo was doing it alone because I had my "first half" coming up 2 weeks later. On Friday before the race, I decided to join him because I had a 12 mile training run planned for that day. I figured that I would just add an additional 1.1 miles to it.

Wow...if we had have only known how difficult this particular half was going to be, I'm not so sure that we would have done it. For the first 10 miles, it feels like nothing but hills! Neither of us had done any hill training. Now...add compacted snow and ice!!! It was crazy hard...and cold!

But...we did it! Our first half was "out of the way". Mo's time was 2:24 and mine was 2:06. It's nice to have a base number now to work towards a PR (personal record)

Zoo Run Run

Ok...so...I suck! This I know! It is the middle of March, and I have not blogged since January. Well...all I have is today. So that is where I will start...well, actually, I am starting today with a race from January...but you get the point!

This is the fam from the Zoo Run Run. IT. WAS. COLD!!! (Hint: see the snow!) Anywho...we ran this 5K at the Nashville Zoo. It was actually a really neat race. They closed down the zoo for the run, so you kinda felt like you were getting away with something. LOTS of people thought they were!

Mo and I did something a little different and a little scary. We RAN the race and let the girls WALK it together...without us! For those of you that know me in "real life", that is a HUGE accomplishment for me. I am ridiculously protective of my little monkeys. They did gr-8 and had a gr-8 time!

In typical Lexie fashion, she savored the moment, enjoyed the scenery, didn't rush the "ride", and took pictures. LOVE that kid! She has taught me so much about enjoying life! Here's one that she took of Lauren:

Here's another one of an animal...not sure what it is:

I had decided that I wanted to PR this race (for non-runners, I wanted to set a Personal Record). What I didn't realize was how many HILLS this course had. However, I was pleased to see that I did it!!!

Mo HATES hills! No joke...he was raised in flat areas, so these hills kill him. However, he did pretty darn well himself!

The cool part of letting the girls go at it alone...I was able to see this:

What a BEAUTIFUL site!!!

Lauren was so sweet to walk this race with her sister. I asked how it went and she replied: "Lexie talked the ENTIRE way...and I just listened and occasionally said 'Really, wow!'" Thanks, La for being such a good big sister. You make me proud...just for being you!

Shin splints, sunburns, and...the ER!

by Tamara
Well, today is January 1st...and it has been quite a beginning to the new year! When I went for my morning run, I got in about 1.5 miles and had to quit. I had the WORST shin splints of my life! I don't know if it was from running in the sand the other day or what's going on. What I do know is they hurt like crazy! (Guess that I am sidelined for a bit!) I had to walk back the ENTIRE way. During the walk back, it dawned on me that God knows what I need better than I do. By not running and worrying about my "time", I was able to slow down and "smell the roses". Instead of running on the beach, I had decided to run through town. Everything was just starting to wake up. Mostly, it was just the locals doing what locals do...grocery shopping, going to work, grabbing some breakfast, etc. I felt so privileged to be a part of it! Imagine, if I had have been running, I would have missed all of it, especially this sidewalk:

So, the girls got way too much sun today! (I promise that we coated them down with sunscreen NUMEROUS times, Judy!) Anywho, we needed to get out of the sun so we decided to go horseback riding. We were told by the guy at the front desk that the ride consisted of riding into the jungle where we could see monkeys and macaws, and possibly ending on the beach at sunset. Sounds perfect, right? Here are the girls at the beginning of the ride:

Well...about 30 seconds after this picture was taken, we started up the hill into the jungle. The guide sent the girls in front of us all. Some wildlife spooked their horses and BOTH of the girls' horses reared up. Lexie was able to hold on and, by doing so, caused her horse to stop. Lauren didn't have the same luck. She was thrown from her horse!

Now, all of you know that the Ludlams can't go on vacation without visiting the local ER! The only difference this time is that it wasn't Mo in the ER!!! Needlessly to say, 7 hours and THREE hospitals later, this is what she looked like:

Luckily, it was just a broken arm and LOTS of cuts and bruises! Lauren was such a trooper. She was in a lot of pain until the 1st hospital put a splint on her arm. Mostly, she was scared! I can't blame her. The poor baby was injured in a foreign country! By the way, that is her doctor that she is standing with (and he is THAT tall!). He was so cool that I think we ALL had a crush on him (even the hubby)! I mean he was just cool...drove in from the beach on his motorcycle just to set my girl's arm! Hmmm...a long haired doc with a motorcycle that lives on the beach in Costa Rica!!! Sounds like PERFECT son-in-law material...I really hope he has a son!!!

Ok, all joking aside! Many of you that REALLY know me understand my new obsession with pennies. Basically, I pick up EVERY penny that I find (even if it's tails up). Every time that I find a penny, I say a little pray. I feel that this is God's way of sending angels to remind me to count my blessings and pray for those in my life that are having difficulties. I am also becoming a little superstitious in feeling like they bring me good luck. The picture above is of Costa Rican coins. The small silver coins are 10 colones. I compare them to our pennies. I picked these two up on my run/walk this morning. At the time, I didn't feel very lucky. After the short horseback ride, I feel that we are the luckiest people alive! I felt God's arms of protection ALL around us. There are SOOOOOO many "what ifs" that have gone through our minds. My daughter (possibly even daughters) could have been seriously injured today. However, God protected us! Our trip is going to dramatically changed from here, and we will adjust! I'll take a broken arm any day over "what could have been"!!! Thank you, our wonderful Lord above!

Sun, Surf, and Shopping

Yesterday, when the hubby got back from surfing, we decided to just hang out on the beach. While the kiddos and he were playing in the ocean, I decided to go for a run. The entire beach is about 1.5 miles long. That's it in the picture above. Running on the beach is much harder than I thought but how cool is it to say that I ran 3 miles on a beach in Costa Rica. I likey! Also, I rewarded myself with one of these afterward:

We went into town for lunch and a little bit of shopping. For those of you that don't like "Mexican style" food, there are franchise restaurants down here, like Subway and KFC. We ate a local restaurant. The food was really good. Here's a pic of the girls outside of the restaurant:

While we were eating, locals would walk into the restaurant off the streets selling stuff. The restaurant owners didn't say anything to them. In the states, they would be ran right out of the restaurant and the cops called! Anywho, this one guy was selling these really cool whistles. The girls both bought one. Here's a pic of the girls playing their whistles with the guy selling them (I was LOVING the Billy Ray Cyrus hair!!!):

Of course, after eating lunch, we needed a dessert. We had ice cream from a place called Pops. If you ever come to Jaco, you HAVE to have a milkshake from Pops! Braums and Baskin Robbins (even Reeves-Sain for all of you 'Boro folks) can't even compete with Pops!!!

The girls did a little more shopping. They found these cute little coconut monkey purses. They brought some of their Christmas money on the trip and it was burning a hole in their pockets. Here's a pic of their "finds" for the day:

The rest of the day was just a relaxing hang by the beach and pool day. We didn't do anything super exciting. However, this is what we saw at the end of the day:

A girl could get used to this very quickly!!!

(P.S. Hubby is surfing again this morning. Hopefully, he can blog something later.)