Bluebell Fun Run 2015

After living in Texas for more than 30 years, we finally decided to join the Bluebell fun run.

We started off with a trip to Bakery Donuts, compliments of Bethy.  May the sugar load begin!  Worth it!

We had to get a family picture before the race - DTB with his girls!

Brandon brought the girls to cheer us on!  Sweet Mabel, Annie and Leah!  It probably helped that there was all-you-can-eat "free" ice cream at the end.  Little did we know Bluebell was about to be shut down and our world would be shattered. :( This was to be our last chance for the best ice cream  in the world!  (Listeria or not)

 Here is Shady showing how much she LOVES running!
Best.Picture.Ever!

Boston Marathon 2015

The Boston Marathon is pretty much the ultimate goal for all runners.  To qualify you must run a time for your age group much faster than the average.  In my dreams.  But Poodle managed to beat the odds, aka trained her little butt off getting a qualifying time to run the marathon.  We joined in the festivities vicariously by going to Boston to cheer her on.  Brittany's friend, Emily Bones flew up from Washington, D.C. to support her.  What a great friend!

First item on the agenda was heading for the Expo.  It was held in the Convention Center in downtown Boston.  We took lots of pictures, of course.

Here she is in front of the wall of sponsors.

You have to take your picture at the finish line BEFORE the race, as they don't let anyone in the finishing area during the race.

She added her name to the wall of runners, and we wrote some encouraging words as well.

Carbo-loading is essential!  She chose pizza at Regina's - best pizza EVER! (as well as goodies from Mike's Pastries)

Marathon tradition - picture of the clothes you will wear the next day with your bib number.  She wrote BRIT on the front of her shirt so people would cheer for her.  IT WORKED!

They had more school buses than I had ever seen in my life.  No wonder the schools shut down for this event!

Race day turned out to be COLD, and windy (25 mile per hour headwind facing the runners the entire 26.2 miles)  To make matters worse, it began raining as she began running and didn't stop until she finished. 

Before the race

After the race

She's a winner!