Whew......

Sorry for the lack of a blog update last week.  I was running short on time and then I ended up getting Aubrey's cold mid-week.  At least, I guess it was a cold.  I never had a fever, but I felt miserable and had no endurance Wednesday through Friday.  Every evening ended with me crashing in bed by around 8:00 and Sean putting the kids to bed.  On Friday I began taking olive leaf extract based on the advice of several people.  It does not taste very good, but I just took a shot of it several times a day (quickly followed by a chaser of water).  I was willing to try anything; I knew I had a big weekend ahead.  Luckily, I did start to feel better on Saturday, so maybe it helped!

Saturday we volunteered at the Manly Relay for Life with our neighbors.  In the past year I have had some friends diagnosed with cancer.  When it happens you feel so helpless. It feels good to try to do SOMETHING when you can't directly help your loved ones.  Plus, it was a really fun environment.  The kids had a great time.  Our neighbor, Tori, put together a great team.  Our Team name was "Friends for a Cause" and it had a circus theme.  

Aubrey getting her face painted

Carter getting his face painted

Carter showing off his face painting

Aubrey waiting in line for the bounce house

Aubrey was taking notes while watching some older girls dancing.  

Aubrey dressed up as a clown

Sunday was the day of the big race for me, the Blackmore's Running Festival.  I did the 9km Body and Soul Harbour Bridge Run.  This was the very first race that I have ever entered.  I thought my first race would be a 5K.  However, my friend, Emma, talked me into doing this race.  I mainly entered the race because I had made a promise to myself when we moved to Sydney:  to take advantage of every opportunity for new experiences granted to me.  As it turned out, Emma got sick and had to have surgery a couple of weeks ago.  She was going to run the race for a charity very dear to her heart, Tay-Sachs Disease.  I remember learning about Tay-Sachs Disease when going through physical therapy school.  It is a horrible genetic disease where a child begins a neurological decline starting around the age of 6 months until the child passes away usually by the age of 4 to 6 years old.  I remember thinking how unfair and awful the disease was when I was a young college student with no children.  Now, as a parent, I could not even fathom how unbearable it would be to watch it destroy your beautiful child.  Anyway, Emma asked me to wear the vest for her charity for the run since she was unable to run the race herself.  Needless to say, I was honored to do so.

On Sunday morning I got up ready to go.  Then, I missed my bus down to the race.  (The bus had been early!)  I then had to swallow my pride and ask Sean to drive me down there.  Once I got to the starting point of the race, the mood was amazing.  Over 16,000 people were signed up for the 9km race.  Everywhere you looked, there was a sea of people.  The day was absolutely perfect for running.  The overall high of the day was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  So, when we started at 9:00 am, it was probably about 60 degrees and sunny.

There were so many people in the race that I did not even get to the actual start line until 9:10 and then there were still thousands of people behind me.  There was such an adrenaline rush at first and I was just trying to avoid getting tripped up with so many people moving at such different speeds around me.  I was looking mainly at the people in front of me and not so much at my feet.  That was a mistake.  As I was descending from the bridge, my right foot went down into a crack of the asphalt.  It was like slow motion that I fell down to the ground.  I am so thankful that I just scraped up my hands and did not twist my ankle or worse.  A really nice lady stopped and asked me if I was okay.  I was so shaken up that I just kind of brushed it off and started running again.  I'm not even sure if I said thank you to her.  She was so incredibly kind; I regretted that later.  

I took this photo while walking to the race after Sean dropped me off.   This is the main road leading to the bridge.  It was odd to see the roads that are normally so busy with no cars on them.  

View of the park at Milsons Point while waiting for the race to start

Another view from Milsons Point before the race

I took this photo as we were walking to the start line.  If you look over the people's heads there is a bar where the start line was.  People were so tightly packed up to that point that it was hard to move.

Coming up to the bridge in the run

Here we are on the bridge!

The rest of the race went great.  I tried to push myself just hard enough to do well, but also to pay attention to views around me and enjoy the experience.  I cannot really put into words how awesome it felt.  I tried to take some pictures as I ran. My favorite sign of the day from a bystander was "Go Random Stranger, GO!"  The race wound through downtown streets and then through the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens.    

This was the view after crossing the bridge and heading towards downtown.

Headed back towards the harbour after running downtown; almost to the finish line!

 I met up with Sean and the kids when the race was over (after I had gotten some bandaids from the medic station).  Since we were down in the city, we headed over to a Starbucks for a post-run coffee.  The city is usually a busy place and it was overly saturated due to the running festival, so we decided to hop on a ferry to Manly to eat lunch and relax for a little bit.  

War wounds

Post-race photo of me

Carter modeling his free bucket hat he got at a stand by the recovery village

Ahhh.......Post-run caramel macchiato at Starbucks.  I bought the tumbler to commemorate the day.

We had some yummy Thai food (it has become a staple for us).  For dessert, we visited the Manly Adriano Zumbo shop for some macarons.  Once we got our tummies full, we realized we were all exhausted from our busy weekend.  So, we headed home to rest the remainder of the day.  

Carter and Aubrey on the ferry to Manly

I got a text later in the day to let me know my official time for the race.  I was pretty pleased considering it was my first race.

Now, we are trying to wrap our heads around the fact that we are going home to visit Kansas City in less than a week.  Even as I am writing those words, it does not seem real to me.  Preparing for the trip to KC is completely opposite of any other trip I have taken.  Instead of shopping for things to take with me on vacation, I am making lists of everything I am going to shop for at home.  I am dreaming of shoes and clothing items that are a quarter of the price they are here.  I am craving such simple things as Panera Bread, Chipotle, Five Guys, Jimmy John's, even Taco Bell.  I am wondering how I will like the coffee since it really is quite different here.  I am trying to picture myself back at our house.  I love my bed at home; I think I'm just going to collapse in it and not want to get up for days.  Will it seem weird to be driving back on the right side of the road?  The flight seems endless; will the kids travel well this time?  So many things are going around in my head right now......