Half Marathon/ Girl's Weekend

I just finished my first half marathon.  My sister in law Hannah and I have been training for it (not together though b/c she lives in Utah) and she did the SLC half a few weeks ago in preparation for this one.  It is called the Valley Crest Half Marathon and it was in the hills of Malibu.  It was a trail run up and down mountains...it was KILLER!  Seriously, it was either up or down- never flat.  Nobody could have prepared me for it.  I feel I'm in shape, and have been running alot, but the longest I ran was 8 miles (3 times).  I obviously should have trained more, but even Hannah said this race was more like running 20+ miles on flat terrain.  But the views were beautiful and company better.  It was so fun to be in the race atmosphere and have that sense of accomplishment.  

We decided to make a weekend of it and drive up Saturday morning- just the two of us- stay the night and then do the race the next day.  Unfortunately, neither of us brought our camera to document the trip....I just think we were too excited to get out sans kids!  So here's an overview of our fun-filled day (thanks Shane for being our travel agent).  After a pit stop to grab some D. Cokes, we went straight to Malibu to drive around and walk along the beaches.  Unfortunately it was cold and overcast, but it was still SO beautiful.  We then went to Abbot Kinney Road to walk around the shops and ate at the best sandwich shop called Abbot Habit.  After doing a drive-by through Venice Beach (entertaining but dirty) we went to the beach in SAnta Monica to relax and read some trashy magazines.  Of course we picked a spot on the beach far away from any kids so we wouldn't feel guilty or sad.  We then went back to Shane's friend's apartment to change (lucky for us he was out of town and let us stay there!) and headed back out.  We drove down Sunset through Beverly Hills (beautiful!) and headed to the Grove.  We then went to the Arclight (the BEST theater ever!) and watched AWAY WE GO.  SUCH a cute movie- hilarious supporting characters, great one-liners, and a great message!  We then crashed early (or tried to but we were so anxious for the next day!) and got up early to get on our way.  

I am super sore and super tired, but it was ALL worth it!  A huge thanks to Derek for happily taking Jack for the weekend and encouraging me to just enjoy myself, have fun, and make him proud in the race.