Can you guess which student is mine?

I'll give you a clue: he's looking right at you.

Any kid can sing in a 5th grade musical.....

....But not all kids can do it while holding imaginary binaculars.

I am the luckiest gal to get to work with such cool kids.

In the amount of time it takes to watch two movies...

...we ran a marathon! I know, we're nuts. "Why would you put yourself through that?", you may be asking. We asked ourselves that very question around mile 25. The answer: because we can. Our legs work, our lungs work, we're in our late 20's and...why not?

I don't want to be one of those "runners" that talk about running with a twinkle in their eye like they're the only ones on the planet that have the ability to keep a pace going for more than 20 minutes. The truth is: anyone can do it. You just have to try it.

Back to race day. After 6 months of training, we got up at 5:15 on Sunday morning and laced up for our big run. It was dark outside, and the streets of downtown Portland were packed with runners from all over the country. We met 8,000 other people at the start line. The gun fired, and everyone started moving. It's actually pretty amazing to be running alongside that many people. Then, loud drums filled my ears. A huge band of loud drummers played for us as we ran the first mile, it was pretty incredible. I couldn't hear anything but the drums. I kind of felt like I was in The Lion King, when that huge herd of antelope-or was it caribou?-ran through valleys. It was a pretty incredible experience.

Around mile 8, Andy and I were cruisin, with 18 miles to go. Heath jumped in the race and joined us for 5 miles, which was really fun. She was so excited for us, and was super encouraging by reminding us what an amazing thing we were doing and how great we looked. She really put us in a great mood during, what could have been, the hardest part of the run (the middle).

Then around mile 23 is when we were really aching. This is when we hit the wall. We were totally out of energy, dehydrated, and pretty much every leg and foot muscle was shot. I've never seen Andy's face look so yellow and drained. We were silent-niether of us complained to eachother or tried to chirp a little "we're almost there". It wasn't worth the energy. We both knew how we felt. Of course, we both knew that giving up was not an option, and we would keep running together until the end.

Finally, we crossed the finish line together! We did it! I was so happy for Andy. This was his first marathon, and he was so tough! What a champ! We made great time: 4 hours, 10 minutes.

Afterwards, we were met with our biggest fans: Heath, Grant, and Amelia. They made the trek all the way from Puyallup to watch us run. We spent the afternoon together celebrating and relaxing.

Dr. Laura (from talk radio) says "the only way to increase your self confidence is to do something you thought you could never do". Spot on, Dr. Laura. I feel pretty badass.