Exhausted (in the Best of Ways)

Right now, I am exhausted. Bone tired. Weary. Worn out. You get the picture.  It means, though, that I've been living life this week, and I love that.

My sister had her third baby on Tuesday. I believe I've mentioned that earlier, but what I did not mention was that Natalie immediately had to go  into the NICU because of an intestinal problem and had to have surgery on Friday.  Also, on Thursday blood tests came back that confirmed Natalie has Down Syndrome.  I've been spending some time each day at the hospital with my sister and Natalie. It's been an emotional and exhausting and emotionally exhausting time.  It's hard to see such a small baby hooked up to so many monitors and ivs, but we are thankful she is a healthy weight and had no other major health problems beside the stomach issue. Once that gets resolved in the next couple of weeks she won't have any further problems with it.

Friday I drove to Greenville and back for work. After work I met Amie and Cindy for our drive to Asheville for the Hot Chocolate 10k.   I've never really spent much time in Asheville, but it is a really cool city. We stayed at an awesome hotel within walking distance to downtown and the race start.  We ate two of the best meals at two different restaurants (Tupelo Honey and Innucci's). 

The race was both wonderful and horrible, but I think most races usually are (thus my love/hate relationship with running).  We ran along the French Broad River most of the time, and it was beautiful. It was also freezing cold. Literally.  The water they were handing out at water stations was turning to ice in their hands before they could give it to us. We had a plan to walk one minute every mile, and it was a good one. It made us focus on only one mile at a time.  I was really feeling good for most of the race, but hit a wall somewhere in the fifth mile.  That's when I turned to Cindy and said, "I don't want to do this anymore."  We walked a bit extra there. Plus, when we got to the last uphill we definitely had to walk that.  It was brutal. But as you looked up the hill, you could see that most people were walking it. When we rounded the final bend, we ran again, because I didn't want Amie to see us walking.  

My time was not as good as it was for my first 10k, so that is a little disappointing.  I can't figure it out. It looks like it will be almost five minutes longer whenever they post the official results, but I just don't think  I walked as much as I did during the Fall Harvest 10k.  However, Cindy made a good point. It shouldn't be about the number, but about how it makes you feel. After the race, we drove Amie down the course so she could see how pretty it was, and it really blew my mind how far we ran.

Also disappointing was the actual hot chocolate served at the Hot Chocolate 10k.  It was un-drinkable. In the end it was okay, because we got real hot chocolate at a shop downtown later to make up for it.

So clearly the week had some ups and downs, but it was a life fully lived. Here are some pictures from my week. Race photography by Amie.

*No post race oranges were available, so I had to take my traditional picture with a banana!