Early Birthday Present

Summer has been very determined to ride her bike without training wheels and she has made it happen. She's doing better with using her brakes instead of using the grass to slow down, but we're still working on it.

We told her that we'd get her a new bike for her birthday once she learned to ride it without the training wheels since she was using Noah's old "boy" one that was passed down from my nephew and it was also getting a little small for her. She just happened to be with me when I had stopped at Often Running the other day and there it was. A used Trek bike in great condition staring us in the face! How could I say no?!

So she got her birthday gift a little early (birthday is July 25). There she is above and is super excited to be on her new "girly" bike! 

And another of her riding her new bike. It's all she wants to do anymore when we're at home. She just can't get enough of it. 

Below is a short video of her riding her old bike and all the siblings watching her accomplishment.

I had another video of her on her new bike, but I'm having issues uploading at the present time. Oh well. Maybe I'll get it figured out later. Until then, way to go Summer!!!

Dam to Dam 20K

I have to say, I was dreading this race because I knew I didn't get the training in that I should've before hand. I signed up for the Dam to Dam back in April because my sister and I decided to do it together. My training was almost non existent during the junior high track season, but I was able to pick it up enough afterwards to help myself out.

Sean, the kids and I drove to Des Moines Friday afternoon/evening and met up with my sister at the hotel. We ate a little something there and then tried hitting the hay as Jessica and I had to get up around 4:40 to get ready and get to one of the bus pickup locations. 

This is our view as we waited in line to get on a bus to take us out to Saylorville Dam. So many people all waiting to go run 12.4 miles from the dam to downtown Des Moines. 

Here we are out at the dam. Everyone was walking to the sign that had their estimated pace on it to help from faster runners being stuck behind us slower runners :) Some crazy runners were warming up on the huge hill to the right of us, right Jess? It was a beautiful morning to be out with 8,000 other runners! I should've gotten some more pictures with my phone but I was too busy soaking up the experience and visiting with Jess before the race. 

If you like to see maps and race routes, here's a link to the course map. I think it's fun to see it on paper. 

The only thing we didn't enjoy about this huge race was getting stuck in the crowd at the beginning. Our first mile was about 20 seconds or more slower than we wanted it to be. After a couple miles, we were able to weave much easier, though. The miles seemed to go quickly with all the distractions of other runners, spectators and music playing along the way. Oh, and did I mention all the guys running over to the tree lines to relieve themselves?! Hilarious!

We decided to pick up the pace for the last couple miles or so because after seeing where we were for time, I realized it was possible to hit two hours for overall time. It was tough, hurt a bit and the finish didn't come quite quick enough, but when it was all done and over with, I hit the finish line at 1:58:11! That gave me a 9:31/mile average pace. Pretty happy, but now I want to run something similar and try to run it faster :)

Me and my kiddos after the race.

My sister, Jessica, only finished 18 seconds behind me and did awesome for her first 20K as well!

And here we are with our finisher medals around our neck! It was such a great experience that I think we may make this a tradition every year if it works out. Now we just need to recruit more of our family members to join us!