Being in the South

I considered many things when choosing this race. I wanted one on Saturday because I choose not to compete or train on Sundays: they are difficult to find, but out there, just not the usual big and heavily sponsored ones. I also wanted one late in the season, the end preferably, because I wanted to have as much time to train as possible, so I wouldn't chicken out or completely BONK due to being out of shape. Lastly, Wilmington is kinda special to us, Derick's family is from there, his grandfather was even chief of police, and his 94 year old grandmother still lives close to Wilmington. We also scheduled it so that Derick's mother was there taking care of her mom at the time so all of us were together. We had them over, took walks on the beach, and took lots of pictures.You also can't beat gems like this from the south: at the pre-race meeting, they announced that hunting season started the same day as our race! you should have heard the collective groan from all the participants! We were specifically told to watch out for packs of dogs on the roads and for men with rifles! I texted my mom about it, and she replied that she wanted me to wear an orange vest a sign that says "I am not a deer!!!" LOL!

Another beautiful thing about being in the South is that Ali and Brooke were close enough to come up and stay with us. These girls were absolutely adorable together and Ali and I cannot resist dressing them alike as much a possible. We got asked several times if they were sisters or twins, and we loved it! There are also a fair number of rocking chairs on porches in the south too!