Has This Ever Happened to You???

How many times in your life have you been able to see 300 men go to the side of the road to pee simultaneously, hordes of people dressed in ridiculous costumes (Elvis, Wonder Woman, the Flash, a slighly effiminate Pooh bear), an innumerable number of scantily clad people strewn along the sides of the roads seeking medical attention, as well as do all that you can to drown out 20 awful bands with your mp3 player, receive accolades from tens of thousands of adoring fans, toss water cups at any minion who gets in your way, and run 26.2 miles - and all before 10:30am???

Let me tell you about my day...

I did it! Whoo-hoo! Gabe was my biggest (and sexiest) supporter for this accomplishment. He's a stud!!! I love him! Thank you, Gabey!

The Shultzi were also a HUGE (but not necessarily sexy) support for me... They gave me Gatorade on my long runs during my training and came all the way down for this weekend. I am so thankful for them as friends! Now if I can just get JS to run with me next time...
Now... On to the race. I got to the starting line in just enough time to get things situated and me warmed up a little, but not too much time for me to get nervous... At least, not REALLY nervous. I have to say that I felt pretty hard core getting to start in the 4th corral. The gun shot and within a couple of minutes, I had started the race!!!

Everyone was totally excited and full of energy. Runners were yelling and cheering just from their exitement to start the race... Yes, I joined in. (Like you even have to wonder.)

Gabe and Andrew met me at mile 6.5 on the course to cheer me on. I can't tell you what a difference it makes to have people there to cheer you on. It's a looooooooooooooooong race. It was so nice to see them!

The Kenyans were in the lead. They basically sprinted for 26.2 miles... Literally, they were running under 5-minute miles.
See me behind the orange guy? I was loving life here. My splits were about 8:40, which was right where I wanted to be.

(Husband Note: Right where you wanted to be? Really? Wouldn't you rather be in Hawaii? Or getting a massage? Or maybe even walking over hot coals? That all sounds a lot more pleasant than running 8:40 miles over and over again).
And there I go!

Here is my cheering squad at the finish line, although I still had a ways to go when this pic was taken. JS and Amy met me at mile 12 and cheered me on.

It was after that point that things started to get a little difficult. I was expecting to see Mission Bay at mile 13.5, but I didn't see it until mile 15. It really messed me up mentally. Anyway, when I finally got to the bay, I began to get tired. Others around me had already been stopping to massage out knots in their calves, stretch, and walk for a while. I kept running, though. At the half marathon, I was on track for a 3:49 marathon. So I was still pretty happy.

It was between miles15 and 20 that things started to go downhill. I'm not sure what caused it, but my legs REALLY began to hurt. (Gabe says it has something to do with the 20 miles I had just run...) Anyway, at mile 20, I hit "the wall", but I didn't stop. I slowed down TONS, though. I really did well staying mentally strong and I gave every mile everything I had. Each mile, I tried to remind myself that this was it... the big race... keep going!

It was a really long final 6.2 miles... I saw tons of people laying on the ground with medics tending to them. Needless to say, that made me continuously evaluate how I was feeling. But I decided I could keep going. At mile 25, I got freaked out when I had trouble breathing for like two breaths - but I think I was just getting excited about approaching the finish line.

I entered the marine base for the last quarter mile, and just started to run as fast as I could. I used every last bit of energy I could find...which wasn't much. As you can see from these pics, I had a bit less energy than back at mile 6.5. Until I saw these pics, I thought my running form was still good. But now I realize just how tired I actually was.Here I am with about 50 yards to go. When I crossed the finish line, I had several medics approach me and ask if I was okay. I kept on telling them that I thought I was. But then I realized that they weren't approaching everyone - just me! That's when I realized that I was weaving and barely able to walk. I've never been in so much pain in my life. I didn't accomplish my goal time, but I know that I gave this marathon everything that I had to give, and that made me very happy - even though I didn't break 4 hours. I weaved my way over to a medic station, stretched for 20 minutes or so, just in case I collapsed and needed attention. :)

I hobbled from there to the family reunion area, where Gabe was walking towards me and I started to cry. He asked me why and I'm still not sure if it was because of the pain or because of how well I had done. (Husband note: Women!)

Here are some of the results that I thought you might be interested in seeing:
Time: 4:03:43
Rank: 3119 out of 21800 runners
847 out of 8400 women
247 out of 2500 in my age/gender

Final Husband note: Well guys, I did it. I successfully watched Andrew for the entire race. I even timed it right so I had the minimum number of diapers to change. It was a lot of hard work, but I have to say I'm pretty proud of my accomplishment. Congratulations gifts and monies can be sent to my home address...thank you for the support and encouragement! I couldn't have done it without you (or Andrew).

Final Wife note: Which just goes to show that what I do on a daily basis is even more difficult than running a marathon! Thanks for proving my point, Gabey...

Watch Me Run!!!

Look what I found out!!!

Live Results
Your friends and family can follow your progress along the marathon route through LiveResults at this site. Every runner's time will be recorded at the 10k, half marathon, 21 mile mark and at the finish line. Friends and family can click on the LiveResults bug on the homepage during the race to track your 26.2 miles.

Click here to "watch" me run!!!
My registered name is: Cheri Barber
My bib #/race # is: 23004

The race starts at 6:30am, but there will be approximately 3000-4000 runners ahead of me. I'm in corral #4 (out of 23 corrals and 23,000 runners!!!) It's a HUGE race and my adrenaline is already pumping.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all of your support, guys!

May

Andrew is cuter than ever at this age. I honestly didn't know it was possible to be this adorable! You all know Daisy by now. Well, I think Andrew is starting to think that he is Daisy's caregiver... which, I guess, he is... anyway, here he's reading "Go, Dog! Go!" to her in the same chair that I read to him in before he goes to bed.

He's also been changing her diaper for her. (No, she typically does not wear a diaper, but I guess she's not potty trained yet.)

Andrew is turning into his daddy! (Although, Gabe doesn't usually wear a diaper.)

The first Saturday in May we had our annual Mother's Day church picnic.

The next weekend, my mom was SO surprised to not only get to celebrate her birthday and Mother's Day with Gabe, Andrew, and I, but also with my sister, Debbie (from WI), and my other two sisters, Sara and Joleen, from Fresno. She had no idea they were coming. It was awesome!!! This is Debbie with Brayden.

Andrew and Brayden

It's not very often that all 4 of us sisters are together so when we are we take "sister pictures".

Brayden with his daddy.
The following weekend, Gabe's parents came into town.
This was about how our weekend went: lots of food and lots of laughter.

Here We Go!

All right everyone! Today was my last official run before my marathon on Sunday. (I have an unofficial 20 minute jog that I'll probably do on Friday.)

I'm feeling pretty darn good. Tapering has been great for me. I can tell that my body is rested up. I've been able to run much faster in my last couple of "race pace" runs within the last week. My goal time to beat is 3:50 (8:46 minutes/mile). (3 HOURS and 50 MINUTES) There's a chance I might get close to my initial goal of 3:40 (8:23 pace), but my hopes are not up. I will be pretty bummed if I don't break 4:00 (9:09 pace) though.

Now, I'm just drinking TONS of water, eating TONS of pasta and rice (pretty much the anti-Atkins diet), and trying to sleep through my excitement. I've trained for 9 months now. I think I'm ready!!!

On a completely different note, check out my friend, Amy's, blog on the creation museum in Kentucky. I think it's encouraging that people can go to a museum to learn about creation. Although I'm sure I wouldn't agree with every detail presented in the museum (I lean towards an "old-earth" theory), I am still VERY grateful for it being there.

Dancing on the Tables

Look what Cheri learned how to do!... At least I think this is going to work. This was taken at the Mother's Day picnic a few weeks ago. Andrew and Noah were having a blast dancing around on the tables. :) Hopefully you'll be seeing more videos soon!

Our NZ Family Vacation

Well, this will be my last NZ post. Sorry folks. I'm not quite done, but I'm really getting burnt out on so many pics... Please enjoy these last pics and brief comments.

I went Zorbing!!! Yes, I rolled down a hill in a huge rubber ball. It was both fun and dizzying. If you take a look at the site I attached and are interested, I did the "wash cycle".

I am IN that ball.

The next several shots are from the Bay of Plenty... kids, don't you remember your elementary history???

It was so amazingly gorgeous!

I love this shot of Gabe and I.

This is back in Rotorua now. (Andrew's in the carseat sleeping. We got a little date time. Same with the pic of us two above.) :)
We stayed with our friends, the Cliffords, at the camp they work at. It was a HUGE blessing to visit them and they have a fun camp to walk around.

Can you imagine seeing this sign in America? Andrew still looks at this picture and says, "Quack! Quack!"

Random Auckland from the Bay Bridge shot... I'm not sure how this fits here...
Yummiest fish and chips EVER!!! Dude!
Way cuter choo-choo signs than us too!
We went to Matamata. We didn't actually go all the way out to Hobbiton. It would have cost a zillion dollars (or there abouts) and the magic just wouldn't be there. Plus, we heard rumors that all the hobbits moved since all of the tourism started.

Last Day of the Mission Trip

This is Elder Gao. He and his wife hosted us in NZ. They are an awesome family with two great kids. They had just moved into their new house 2 days before we got there. They still had everything prepared for us and did more than we needed throughout our stay. We were VERY blessed to have such wonderful hosts. The Gao's really made the trip go smoothly for us as a family.This is Megan, their daughter. She's in college (university) and serves at her church too. She's a very sweet, caring girl.

This is Daniel, their son. He has so much personality. He's a complete crack-up and totally has a British accent. It's great listening to him tell stories. (He's "six and a quarter"... great to hear with a British accent. The best part is he was actually more like 6.5, but he insisted upon "six and a quarter".)
What a fun kid!
This is Enoch, a little boy who Andrew met at our morning church service on Sunday. He was really good at giving hugs.
Gabe got to preach that afternoon at Pastor Wu's church.
We got to stay for their youth group afterwards and go to Denny's with them as well. Yes, Denny's! This is Jenny and Phoebe, two of the coworkers at the chuuch. They are both excellent servants.
This is Wesley (he translated for Gabe at church), Pastor Wu, and Phoebe. We got to know this church better than the others and really felt at home with them by the end of the day. Praise God for them!