Sunday, March 18, 2012

Alot to Celebrate... My First Half Marathon and St. Joseph!



What a day....it began when my alarm went off at 4:00 AM as I got out of bed to get geared up for my First Half Marathon!  I have been training since late December for the big race today.  I've run several 5K races in the past (3.1 miles), but I always wanted to run a half marathon (13.1 miles). 

The race began at 6:40 AM this morning and I achieved many personal goals: I ran the race in 2:13 without stopping, I crossed the finish line strong, and I did not have to use one of the port o potty bathrooms during the race!  :)

I had a lot of fun and what a great sense of accomplishment I felt when I crossed the finish line!  Here are some pictures that were taken by my husband as he and my family waited at the finish line for me:
Finish line in sight

Almost there!

Just a few more feet to Finish!

Me with the sister trio...I trained with my friend Jen on far left

 My support team at the Finish (and during training). My family with my younger sister and mom...Thanks guys! I love you!

 My younger sister and me

My #1 support, dear hubby...Thanks Anthony!...I know it's been tough sleeping in with the kids while I get up in the wee hours of the morning to run! :)

 All that training, running, lack of sleep for a 13.1 sticker and a T-shirt!  :)

After the race in the afternoon, our homeschool group celebrated our annual St. Joseph's Feast Day celebration. St. Joseph's Feast Day is on March 19, but we celebrated today so all the families and fathers could be with us.  I blogged about our last year's St. Joseph celebration and all its beautiful and rich history  HERE.  Below are pictures from today's St. Joseph festivities!  It was a blessed day and I was happy to enjoy the great company and food after the big race this morning! 

 We were blessed to have Fr. Alex grace us with his presence for the Litany of St. Joseph prayer and the blessing of all the delicious food

Lots of families, fun and fellowship!

No Ordinary Blog Hop

16 comments:

Mom2Seven said...

Tracy! Good for you! That is awesome! (okay, enough exclamation points) Happy feast of St. Joseph. I prayed to St. Joseph several times EVERY day while pregnant with my fifth child (I had two of my miscarriages between baby number 4 and baby number 5, and praying to St. Joseph brought me comfort), and she was born one week early on his feast day. Very special day in our home! (one more exclamation point:)) +JMJ+

Happy Feast of St. Joseph and birthday to your daughter! (exclamation point back at you ;) ) I remember you commenting before about your special connection with St. Joseph during those difficult times! Thanks for sharing again and stopping by! Happy and blessed feast day and birthday! What an incredible story, miracle,and feast day for your family! Enjoy! God bless Annita!

Mary Jo said...

This is so incredibly exciting! Congratulations to you. And St. Joseph? He's pretty special to us, too, since my first born was born on this day. (And he was prayed for for over 6 years...) God Bless.

LeAnn said...

Congratulations; that is an awesome accomplishment. I wish was young enough to tackle this kind of run. Loved the pictures and all of your support. Yes, you did enjoy lots of family, fun and fellowship.

Annie Kate said...

How exciting to run a race like that! It's an amazing accomplishment. I love it when people do big things that they've been dreaming of; it makes other things seem possible too.

Are you planning a full marathon sometime in the future?

Ms.Barbara said...

Hi Tracy,
Congratulations on finishing the race! Makes me tired just looking at the pictures, Ha! Thanks for the pictures of my girls and the beautiful St.Joseph Altar. We missed not being there again.
Love, Ms.Barbara and Mr. Richard

Hi Mary Jo!
What a special day for you to have a child born on St. Joseph's Feast day! I hope you had a blessed day celebrating! Thanks for stopping in to read the post and comment!

Hi LeAnn!
Thanks for the congrats and stopping in to read the post and comment! It was a great weekend to share with family and friends! :)

Hi Annie Kate,
Thanks for your kind words and for reading my post here. Full Marathon? Hmmm...right now I don't have a desire to do one partly because of all the training time it takes to prepare for such a long race, but who knows?

Hi Ms. Barbara and Mr. Richard :)

Thanks for stopping in to read my post about the race and St. Joseph. Your girls did awesome and it was fun to be in the race with them...I still like them too even though they beat me :) St. Joseph celebration was not the same without you, but you were in our thoughts. Hopefully, next year you can join the festivities again! Hope all is well! Thanks for your comments!

Kara Chupp said...

Totally impressed!!! Good job Tracy... :)

And I love the sign on the fava beans :)

Thanks Kara! The bean sign is humorous! :) Hope you are doing well...It's been so difficult to visit all my favorite blogs consistently these days, including yours! Thanks for stopping by and I need to get over your way soon! :)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your accomplishment Tracy!

Thanks Tricia! Thanks too for stopping by my blog post :) God bless!

Grace said...

Hi, Tracy:

I finally saw your comment over at my cookie blog. Thanks for your kind note.:) I often get that about our St. Joseph altar because I disabled comments last Lent so no one is ever able to comment.:( Oh, well. I appreciate the follow. Oh, and if you need any cookies, let us know!;) Hee, hee!!

Great job on the marathon Tracy, so wonderful that you accomplished your goal. i haven't been by lately to comment due to being on holiday.
Are you planning on doing another one:)?

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