I am SO tired.

This weekend was the XTerra world championships for Trail Running. I kind of thought this would not be the best idea for Riley to run since he has the Honolulu marathon NEXT weekend.... but he assured me that it would be fine. So we registered him for the 21K (it was 13.6 miles which is .5 LONGER than a half marathon) through the jungles of Hawaii, I registered myself for the 5K, hoping to just beat my previous trail 5k time. Kyle signed up as well (his first trail run) as well as 2 other Marines.

We piled in the car early Sunday, and headed north on the highway, if you haven't ever been here going from our house towards the North Shore is GORGEOUS, you are on a road that is LITERALLY 10 ft from crashing waves, My car has gotten splashed by waves on more than one occasion. Up by chinaman's hat there is a ranch, Kualoa Ranch. It is HUGE and they film a ton of movies there. i have been wanting to do a tour there for a long time now, just haven't yet. We finally got there, found parking and just hung out, they had the parking just down a slight hill from the start/finish. So we were able to stay around the car until just right before, I sprawled across the trunk of our car so Riley could tape up my leg, which i have to say is the most AMAZING thing ever. Since i roll from the outside of my feet when i walk/run i get ALOT of shin and foot pain while running. it's the main reason i have hated running since middle school. but with using the KT tape (which will peel off if not secured at the top with a piece of duct tape, let me know if you know of a better sports tape for running) I have zero pain that SHOULDN'T be there.

The events from our car.

About 30 minutes prior to when the race was set to go, Team Xtreme made their entrance. If you don't know who Team XTreme is, they are a group that runs all sorts of races IN THEIR GAS MASKS.... not easy! they benefit the wounded warriors. This morning they were making one CPL's dream come true by parachuting him into the race, along with all of Team XTreme. Seeing this CPL who lost an arm and both his legs in Afghanistan last year, was absolutely moving. As the race was getting ready to start, they made their way to their place, which meant parting the crowd for his wheelchair and the group. everyone was cheering for them, there were about as many OOH-RAH'S yelled as there was clapping (including my husband, who you could tell was having a very motivated moment)

Team XTreme and Cpl Love

So the start time was delayed 20 mins... cause the cops that were supposed to direct traffic, just didn't show up. They fired the shotgun and Riley and the boys were OFF! 10 minutes later the shotgun was fired again and i was gone. I was getting passed like crazy at first... and was feeling like once again i was going to be in the VERY back of the pack... Then we reached the first hill, and not ONE other person was running, they were all walking (it was a tough hill) I slowly started passing people that had shot off like a bullet when we were on flatter ground. Then there was a downhill, and a few passed me again... next uphill i took it back! the first bead of sweat dripped off my nose at minute 8, then it was like a shower... sounds pretty gross huh! however i'm one of those girls that feels sexiest when i'm gross and sweaty, I mean whats not hot about girls who are active?! My legs were SO wobbly, i almost fell over a few times.... almost threw up a few times, EH it's part of the experience. I finally finished my 3.1 miles through the valley and tried to steady my breathing. I walked down to the car, changed into my flip flops, grabbed the camera and headed back up to the finish to wait.

gorgeous right!!!

The first of the 4 guys in our group to finish was Rye (SO proud of that boy!)

The other three trickled in within 18 minutes of Riley, one of them only 2 1/2 minutes behind.

Is that picture not fantastic. They had all just finished, were wearing their finishers medal and i told them all to look Bad-A... ya i think this one is being put onto a canvas. :) love it.

This is us with the ranch in the background. seriously such a gorgeous place!

It was an amazing event! we both had so much fun! We went to the after party later, and watched a slideshow as well as the video highlights, So i got to see the run that Riley was on... HOLY INSANE!! they were ducking under trees, and holding onto ropes as the ran down a muddle track. seriously when they post that video online, i will put a link up here, cause it looked insane.... oh and did i forget to mention that i beat my last 5k time, and Riley was in the top 100 overall for his race. He's been wanting to hit top 100 in a race for a LONG time, and this was the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, with about a 1000 people running his race. AMAZING.