Just poke me with a fork...

...because I'm done!! It's nearly 8 p.m. on Sunday night and I just finished cleaning up the kitchen from dinner. I'm tired! I've been working since Thursday---feels like non-stop.

Mindy and 3 friends came in this weekend for the Music City Marathon. Only Mindy and one other girl ran it. The confusion actually began last Monday night when Mindy called home crying (and she doesn't think she cries that much...). Apparently, she had missed the deadline for online registration for the race. Now the only alternative was to have someone go down to the convention center and stand in line with thousands of other runners. Guess who got elected? To make a long story short, Butch pulled a few strings and got it taken care of for her (and me). He had everything she needed delivered to his office. He went to the airport to pick the gang up on Friday night about 5:30. From there, he had to race downtown to the convention center so that Mindy's friend (who had registered) could pick up her race package before they closed at 7.

The Music City Marathon is the 2nd largest in the country after Boston (as reported on our news). Over 32,000 people were in it---with 23,000 running the 1/2 marathon (13 miles) which is what Mindy did.

I took Mindy and her friend down to Centennial Park Saturday morning at 6. Their start time wasn't until 8, but it's a good thing we left early. The traffic was like nothing I've seen here. After sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, they decided to walk the rest of the way in the rain. It took me about an hour to get down there.

The plan was that I was then going to try to see them and get some photos at mile 4 which was in front of Christ the King Church. I had to park several blocks away, but luckily, I found a good spot to wait. I would never have seen them amidst all those people, but they saw me. All that trouble for 3 seconds. Luckily, I got one good shot (see photo below). To show how crazy it was and how many people there were, I heard some racer yell, "Barb Eads". Never saw her and didn't recognize the voice.

Butch went down to the stadium for the crossing of the finish line and he too was lucky and saw them right as they finished. They did it in 2 hours and 35 minutes (11 minute miles). Mindy said they never stopped or walked---totally ran all 13 miles. They had the blisters to prove it.

They all went downtown to celebrate. Despite the blisters, Mindy wore heels (and was really suffering this morning). I'm proud to say that I taught her well. You have to sacrifice comfort to look good.

Being very happy empty-nesters, we are unfamiliar with the schedules of these 20 somethings. They stay out half the night, sleep until noon, eat, hang out, nap from 4-6, eat at 7 and out again around 8. Thus the late-night kitchen clean-up for me.

It's been fun having them here. 2 leave early in the a.m. and Mindy and race partner leave about 5 p.m. tomorrow. I'll definitely be ready to kick back.

I'll post the picture tomorrow. I tried to just download it from Snapfish, but it keeps coming out "tiny".