Silver Strand Half Marathon for Amazing Amelia

Yay! I don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited to write a post before.

I’m so humbled, thankful, overjoyed and blessed (not to mention tired, sore, and counting down the hours until pizza and wine tonight). But…….. this is about Amelia and our little STUFT family contribution towards Amelia’s Hope for Hearing.

Today we used our gift of running to Race for Amelia to help get her one step closer towards the gift of hearing.

Let’s start with last night, shall we?

After continuous rain ALL day yesterday we were a little nervous about the weather this morning. The boys and I were ready though, rain or shine.

(That was us yesterday picking up our race bib.)

Last night I made sure all our special outfits

and signs were ready (thanks Print World),

and got all of our gear (diapers, wipes, snacks, sippies, sunscreen, GU, water, etc.) packed. (And just in case you’re wondering, it’s not fun packing everything up for all of us to race. Ha ha!)

Then it was time to load up on some carbs. Dinner was whole wheat spaghetti, broccoli, chicken and tempeh with marinara sauce. I put it all together and stuck it in the oven.

Yes. A little too long. No surprise.

It was good anyway. I stayed away from my chili peppers in hopes of avoiding any incidents like America’s Finest City Half Marathon. (Crisis averted. Thank goodness.)

This morning I was up early. I had to give myself some time to try to take my own picture before the boys were up.

And to try to take a picture of the back of my shirt for our fabulous sponsors Flatout and SunButter.

Ummm….. they’re probably not going to be impressed with that picture. Oops. (Nice tag sticking out.)

Grandma D and Papap arrived about 5:45 am and got the car all packed up.

The boys were champs that early. Thank goodness.

It must have been their winter pajamas they still had on and their snow hats. (Yes, we live in sunny Southern California).

We were off!

Only one pit stop later (so I wouldn’t have to use those disgusting race porta potties) we were at our destination.

A quick sidewalk wardrobe (and diaper) change

and a couple of quick “before” pictures

and we headed to the Silver Strand Half Marathon starting line (with about 7 minutes to go).

I tried to push my way close to the start line.That’s how we roll stroll.

Andrew managed to get one action shot at the beginning. Can you find us?

All in all the race went well.

I felt good. The boys were quiet. No emergency stops (for me or the boys).

As always…..

some noteworthy comments along the way from others:

“The sun’s in their face.” (Thanks Mom. I have 13 miles to go.)

“You go Mama.” (I love those.)

“What do you have in there?” (Come on. No comment.)

“One is asleep.” (Yes, I know. It’s always like that.)

“Whoa, that’s humbling.” (Want to help push for awhile?)

“Is it snack time yet?” (For who, me?)

“It’s just like pushing a sail now.” (Really dude? At mile 11? You should try it. And just for the record, we passed him about a minute after he said that. I can’t help it. I have a competitive problem.)

The last 2 miles were brutal. Luckily Joaquin had his shaker egg for a little extra motivation. I’m sure no one found it annoying.

  When we got really close to the finish line all the cheers were awesome.

(Oops. Sorry guy who got in Andrew’s shot. Hope you don’t mind me posting your face on the internet.)

The fact that we were going to see Amelia’s smiling face as soon as we crossed kept us going.

I’m pretty sure we were the first stroller across the finish line. I wish they had a special stroller division. THAT would be awesome.

But, that didn’t matter for THIS race.

THIS race was for Amelia.

After a few pictures it was time to find Grandma D and Papap.

Yep. That’s where everyone was while we were running 13.1 miles.

Must be nice.

(Side note- Andrew told me he was EXHAUSTED on the way home. Funny guy.)

After two more failed attempts to get a good photo of our sponsors on the back of my special lululemon shirt

(Note to self. Do NOT give camera to Andrew. He as a thing for these pictures.)

we decided to take a walk on the pier. (Thanks to Amelia’s sister Sienna for the suggestion.)

We made our way back through the crowd, took a few more pictures along the way,

and made it to the pier.

We decided to call it a day morning.

“Awww done.”

Time to go home (tag sticking out again and all).

Our signs even survived.

Yay!

Once we got home I had to check out how we placed.

I got a better time than the girl listed ahead of me. So I should be 35th (out of 350). Sorry. I can’t help myself.

We even did better than we did last year.

And this year I was pushing two 30 pound toddlers (rather than two 18 pound babies) and the 35 pound BOB stroller. I’m sure it’s because we had some extra motivation from Amelia.

This may have been our last race together.

It was a good one to end on.

A giant THANK YOU to our sponsors at Flatout and SunButter and to ALL of you who donated money to Amelia’s Benefit Account for our run.

We are truly grateful for each and every one of you and are so overwhelmed by your willingness to help such a great cause.

Thank you for supporting us and for making a difference in young girl’s life. Together we made over $1500 for Amelia.

To the Heston family:

Thank you for letting us be a small part of your journey. We know you still have a long way to go. You will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers every day.

Amelia-

You

Are

AMAZING.