International Marathon #2?!? +Things This Week!

We are back home again with the kids this week and doing our best to avoid dying from jet lag and everything we packed in the last 1.5 weeks.

We were invited over to a friend’s house to celebrate the recent marathon performances of Jared Ward, Conner Mantz, and Clayton Young. You will never meet more humble humans, even though they are the fastest in our country.

The kids loved every second of this party… it was at the most incredible house ever:

We love this stir-fry sauce.

Brooke had Egypt Day at school!

And it is never too soon in the season to get started on all of the peppermint treats, in my opinion.

Let’s take a few moments to rewind to the night of the Budapest Marathon.

We were at the most amazing Georgian restaurant (truly the best restaurant I have ever eaten at… and for once, I am not exaggerating) together with the City Sightseeing group. We all became such good friends as we spent hours together at restaurants and touring Hungary. They told us they had a surprise for us, but I didn’t think twice about anything else because they had already spoiled us beyond belief.

The night before the race, the CEO called and told our hosts that if one of us were to win the marathon, he would bring the whole group out to the next round in Seville, Spain. They didn’t tell us this before the race because they didn’t want to pressure anyone because they wanted us to run just the way we felt like running that day. Andrew is grateful they didn’t tell us this because he thinks I would have ripped both of my hamstrings attempting to win so soon after the St George Marathon🤣. BUT Mitch (aka Superman) naturally felt like going out with the lead men and then deciding whether or not to stay with them based on how he was feeling (he ran Chicago in 2:20 the weekend before🤯). He felt great and led the entire race. He won. We all freaked out that we were with the marathon winner and that he had such a great day.

We were all on cloud nine after the race because of how well everyone did and how good the food and conversation were, and then the CEO FaceTimed us. He was so kind about everyone’s accomplishments that day and then said he wanted to invite us to run the Seville Marathon. Mitch, Andrew, and I all said, “Yes, someday we would love to come out and run that marathon,” thinking we would all need to save up to make it happen. And then he clarified he offered to take us all there to run the marathon this February! Expenses covered. I went into complete shock. I legit felt like I won the lottery AGAIN (the first time being when I opened my email from them about the Hungary marathon).

Mitch won a trip for us to all go to Spain now! City Sightseeing has been beyond generous to us, and I am still in disbelief. We are planning on bringing our kids with us this time and going to explore Spain with our kids and our new best friends there.

I took one week off after StG and at least ten days off after Budapest to start training for Seville! I cannot believe it.

They will host three additional runners to come through their contest again (best story, fastest male, and fastest female), so apply, and maybe you will join us in Spain!!! Apply HERE!

Sunday night, before we found out about the trip to Spain, we were so sad about maybe never seeing our new friends again. It made me tear up thinking about it. Hugging them that night and saying, “See you soon” was the best present ever.

Spain, here we come!

I love these humans so much.

When I asked Andrew if he would do the Seville Marathon, he responded, “I’ll make the sacrifice for you of watching the kids and skip running it this time.” That is so selfless of him;).

But I think I might be able to convince him over the next few months to do it.

Who has been to Spain?! Tell me everything!!!

What are the odds you think I’ll be able to convince Andrew to run Seville?

Anyone else on fall break?

-Ours just started, and we decided to take the kids camping… nothing like camping with four kids while still recovering from Jet Lag;)

Who will be in marathon training during the winter?