We Ran. We conquered.

Well, we did it. And we did it well! Christina and I both finished in faster time than our last races and we had a blast doing it. 2 hours, 9 minutes. That is roughly a 9:53 pace. Next time it WILL be done in under 2:00 hours...

Check out the race and our fun weekend in pictures at my picasa web album.

I was feeling so great at the end I have decided to go for a full marathon next year - Me, Christina, Clark - in San Diego - see you there.

Missoula was beautiful - we had great weather and air quality (trust me, a big deal for Missoula) the entire weekend.

We enjoyed the Farmer's Market and People's Market on Saturday. Found some fun finds and drank some yummy lemonade - people watched of course. We then walked all over town shopping, scoped out our route ahead of time - we were thrilled to discover that it was mostly down hill (a bit) and flat. NO uphill anywhere!

Saturday night we met our friend Vann and her friend Tony at Scotty's Table for a great dinner. Vann was in Missoula celebrating the fact that she just bought a HOUSE and passed her certified Dietitian exam! We all went to the Steve Earle and Allison Moorer concert at U of M. It was great. However, I had NO idea Steve E was so political. He has some strong opinions that man.

We got back at midnight and had to wake at 4:00am to catch the shuttle to the race start. Yikes. Our early rising allowed us to get a little breakfast, digest, and get ready for the big start. It was a big race, 511 1/2'ers and a few hundred full marathon racers. Running a race like this is the BEST people watching ever. You see all kinds - all ages - very amusing and inspiring too.

We loved it! We ran strong, happy and well the entire 13.1 miles. We ran into some other Livingston folk along the way, which was nice. We chatted with them and passed a few miles during those conversations.

After we finished the race at 8:09 am, we had a full day to do other fun Missoula stuff. We had a great breakfast at Rattlesnake Gardens, went with Christina's boyfriend Dennis and some other friends to Kootenei Canyon to climb. We thought we might climb too, but I soon realized I had NO interest in exerting myself anymore that day. So we just hiked in and sat in the shade and talked and hung out. It was perfect.

Then, a nice drive home... Lots of goal setting for the next race and catching up. It was a perfect weekend, filled with some fun accomplishments and memories for both of us.