This past weekend I made another (much shorter) trip to Texas.  On Thursday evening, Me, Matt, and my parents left for Texas to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday.  She has seven kids and they were all coming to my Aunt's house for the weekend.  It was the first time in I don't how long that they have all been together.  Some of my cousins that I hadn't seen in 5-10 years were there and I finally got to meet one of my cousins who lives in Australia and his family.  It was so much fun hanging out with everyone and catching up.  Me, Matt, Lindsey, Matt, and Eli were able to stay at Devon's house which Isaac was excited about, of course.  Over the weekend, we spent alot of time swimming with the kids, hanging out with everyone, and then on Saturday evening was the birthday party.  My grandma really enjoyed being around all of her family, though she wasn't thrilled about turning 90, she kept mentioning that she couldn't believe it.  She is in great health though and alot better off than most people 10-15 years younger.

Grandma and all her kids



Grandma and all the cousins (that were there)



Me, my parents, and my cousin Hayley decided last minute to do a local 10k on Saturday morning.  It was called the Toughest Texas 10k and it did a pretty good job of living up to its name.  We picked up Hayley and got to the race venue about an hour early so we would have time to register.  Registration took no time at all, so we had plenty of time for last minute trips to the bathroom, waiting around, and warming up.  The race didn't start until a little after 8 and it was already pretty hot by then.  That was one factor that contributed to the toughness, the other was that there were 13 hills within the 6 mile race.  These weren't little hills either, most of them had a pretty significant grade, definitely not what we're used to in Pensacola. 

It was a smaller race, I think there were about 300 people that ran including those that did the 5k and it wasn't too competitive.  I was able to stay with some of the top guys for about the first mile and could tell by then that I wasn't going to have too much difficulty finishing as the top female.  I ended up as the first female and ninth overall, my mom and Hayley both got second in their age groups, and my dad got fourth in his.  Not too bad of a way to start off the weekend.

Last week was a very low volume week for me trainingwise.  It was a good mental and physical break, but I was going crazy by the end of the week.  I had too much pent up energy and couldn't wait to get back at it.  This week I'm ramping back up and getting ready to race in Nashville on the 24th.