Wife.Mother.Runner: if you give a moose ....

if you give a moose a muffin...

(sorry the pics are sideways! - too late at night to fix) ... he'll want some jam...

and another muffin.....and another....

i feel like i can relate to this book lately - i recently applied to the New York City Marathon for a pre-qualified time spot and just found out yesterday that i was accepted to run the marathon. (yes, i did dance around in the kitchen when i read the email that i had been accepted into the race! the girls were home with me and laughing at me!) believe it or not, my time that qualified me was my half-marathon time from the Goofy Challenge in January! (the race that i did BEFORE the marathon!) how does this relate to the moose? well, orignally this year i was going to run just 2 full marathons - Disney (January) and Portland, OR (October). Well, i found a marathon in ann arbor (MI) in june - so i'm going to run that one..... now i qualified for NYC so i'm going to run that one in november.... so you see.... my story is "just one more race :)"

i am so happy to receive a pre-qualified spot in 2012 because the pre-qualification standard times are changing next year and runners in my age group must run 10 minutes faster to pre-qualify for 2013! (there are a few ways to qualify for the marathon: pre-qualify, lottery, and raise money for a charity) for the lottery - you must apply and with a little luck (ok - a LOT of luck!) - you get accepted to run the marathon (i read on their website that only approximately 8% in 3 different categories get into the race each year! thousands apply for the approx. 45,000 spots in the marathon each year). in the past, if you applied for 3 years and did not get in to the race- on your 4th application - you automatically receive entry into the marathon. in 2013 they are doing away with this process. you must keep trying the lottery process if you don't pre-qualify or run for a charity. anyway... seems like a long explanation for why i MUST run this race this year - haha!

erin, my sister-in-law, is running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon in a few weeks. i told her that i would help her make some shirts. erin and 3 of her friends are running the half-marathon together. i think, after designing these shirts for erin, that i need to work on designing my own shirt for my upcoming marathons!