Morgan, the Half Marathon Runner

So we headed down to Albuquerque this past weekend for the long-awaited half marathon. Honestly, I was so ready to just run the thing and get it over with! The training over the past few months has been pretty crazy, especially since I couldn’t even run 2 miles around Thanksgiving. So I am pretty excited to know I don’t have to go running tomorrow and I don’t have to go on a long run…unless I want to, which may not be for a little bit. We’ll see. Anyway, the morning of the race finally arrived! It had rained during the night, so part of the course was muddy, which I thought was appropriate. We are from Taos after all: land of springtime mud and wind. But, best of all, the course was FLAT!! I couldn’t get over it! Seriously, there is pretty much nowhere to run in Taos that doesn’t have hills, and I was tired of them! I cannot emphasize enough the wonderfulness of running on FLATNESS. That made all the difference. That and I had a great buddy to run with. I really can’t imagine how anyone could do something like this alone, so I am very grateful for a friend who was willing to stick around by me through all this training and eventually the race. I won’t bore you with those minor details of how fast I ran or where I placed. Suffice it to say, we set out to run the whole thing, all 13.1 miles of it, and we did. I didn’t die, and the medical staff didn’t have to remove me from the race because I looked distressed (I was worried about that!). I am quite proud. And I’m Jacob’s hero. And I got a medal. Pretty good, eh? Thank you to all our cheerleaders, whether you were there or not, and even to those I didn’t even know. You really helped!
So now we look forward to Jacob’s crazy half marathon in the Jemez Mountains next month, which includes a lot of STEEPNESS. Not good. I am very excited to go, mostly because I don’t have to run it. Jacob is pumped, and I’m all about being a cheerleader. Any suggestions about what to write on his T-shirt for him to wear during the race? Yes, Jacob, you are getting one! Even if you say you aren’t going to wear it.
Sage has been losing teeth lately, which has pretty much freaked her out. You can imagine that she wouldn’t let anyone try to help pull them out—she would barely do it herself. It seems she would rather have the teeth dangle out of her mouth forever, as you can tell by the pictures. It was a little gross. Can you see her adult tooth already growing in? After a wee bit of drama, the teeth did finally come out, painlessly too. That was really important to Sage. And she has learned that the tooth fairy really does exist and pays a lot more than what I got when I was a kid.