"auntie nani's race" - headlands 100 mile endurance run

my friend nadia recently completed yet another 100 mile race - the headlands 100 mile endurance run - through the beautiful marin headlands . a couple of years ago, i was a pacer nadia at this event. a pacer is someone who goes with the runner to assist them with meeting her goal. in most 100 mile races, the runner must do the first 50 miles alone and then you can have pacers in the final 50. i took the brutal overnight leg with her 2 years ago. i was out of commission this year, obviously, but i boy did i want to be out there... the overnight leg is brutal, not only because it's well, night time (i think i started with her after midnight), but also because, nadia's been running all day. and at this point, she's basically sleepwalking. for nadia, the overnight pacer keeps her awake and moving, more than anything. for a point of reference, she did the first 50 miles in about 11 hours 44 minutes and then at night, paul, her husband took over the bulk of the overnight piece. it took them 7.5 hours to do 12 miles. jenny (party of 5!) ran the last 30 miles with her. nadia usually perks up later on in the morning, with the help of jenny's special brand of "encouragement" although this time around, that didn't happen for her until mile 92. jenny practically dragged her along for about 22 miles and then she ran the last 8 as if it were her first... jenny sent her on ahead because none of us can keep pace with nadia if she's actually awake while running...

anyway, hana was excited to see "auntie nani's race". her first race was back in march when nana and auntie dee dee did a half marathon in atlanta. she caught the fever and she wants to "get bigger and bigger and i gonna run a race". so watch out!

so here are some shots of nadia approaching the finish line.

and then just after finishing... she doesn't even look that tired. what's up with that!

jen came in not much further behind nadia.  
baby brother gives auntie nani a high-five.

hana and cole are amused by grandma glenda while we tend to the runners.

practicing her "balance".  hana still takes her "tuff tumblers" class at daycare and it has really helped with her coordination.  

hana is "helping" auntie nani by bringing her chips... in addition to helping herself.

another belly  shot for those who have complained about the lack of belly shots this pregnancy.

this picture of hana is one of the coolest of the day.  i'm not sure why she looks so much older here, but it is a little freaky...  it's like glimpsing into the future.  

hana at the beach version 3.0 (aka daycare's closed)

hana's daycare's annual summer vacation happens to correspond with my birthday week. i generally take a little time of then, but this year i was planning to be more conservative about it so that i could save up time for maternity leave. but since daycare was closed, we decided to make it sort of a last hurrah vacation for 3 (well, there turned out to be 7 of us) before "baby brother" comes. so for my birthday, i decided i wanted to spend some time at the beach. hana has been lucky enough to enjoy a beach vacation every year of her short life, (hawaii at 6 months, bodega bay and the central coast at 18 months, and now again at 2.5 yrs), which is not bad since she didn't grow up in los angeles like i did. i LOVE the beach so i'm really glad that hana likes it too, or these wouldn't be very relaxing vacations for her. jenny and the twins (party of 5!) shared a beach house rental with us and nadia, paul and cole came and crashed with us for a couple of nights.

the house we rented was REALLY NICE... it was in the community of irish beach, which is about 22 miles south of mendocino. irish beach is hard to find on any map but i believe it may be one of the nicer, less pretentious places to be. not only was the house well-appointed, but it had a dishwasher! since we don't have one at home, just being able to wash dishes with a machine felt like a luxurious retreat. the views from this place were amazing. and it came with an access card to a private beach - irish beach - that turned out to be our favorite beach in the entire area...

the kids were excited to both be together, and to be in this really cool new place. and we fought hard so that they wouldn't ruin it. outside of a little crayon on the couch incident, they did pretty well.

don't let this relatively peaceful moment fool you though, while in this photo, they are thoroughly engrossed in the movie "ice age" - which hana calls "ice stage"- we generally had to run them down pretty hard to get them to be mellow. by the way, "ice stage" was the only movie the kids watched all weekend... and by that, i mean they watched it over, and over, and OVER again. not that they had much idle time, but when we needed to make dinner or clean up or something, we would offer them many movies from which to choose, and they always picked ice age. i guess it's better than madagascar (which is funny... the first 50 times you watch it).

one of the strategies we used to tire the kids out each night was going for a walk after dinner each night (that's hana in the white sweater). the community is really quiet and there's hardly any auto traffic so it was perfect. the kids really got a kick out of the deer running around too.

we spent our first full day "in town" at irish beach. we were there for a looooooong time. it's amazing how time flies at the beach. the kids were really enthralled with the environs, and dug in the sand, making "cupcakes" and sand castles, for hours. we had life vests on them for the first few hours, until we could be reasonably assured that they wouldn't take off into the rough tides on their own. we did take them to dip their toes in the water... which. they. LOVED! but we held on to them tight... the currents were no joke. but back at the beach, they seemed pretty content just playing in the sand...

this family "self portrait" (taken by jon) is not my favorite picture of me (i look a lot more tired than i actually felt) but i thought it was a cute picture of jon and hana. we have so few pictures of the 3 of us... but i don't think taking them while 7.5 months pregnant is the best time to begin... sigh.

after we got back from the beach, we shuttled the kids into the shower (they have a huge double shower in the master bedroom) and hosed off the 500 lbs of sand the brought with them (you should have seen the car!). hana is not a super fan of showering so it takes her some convincing to get in. but once she's in, she's hard to pull out too... we forgot to bring conditioner for hana, so her hair was lookin' ca-razy! if only i'd had a pick to at least make the 'fro kinda even... anyway, after showering, hana decided to brush her teeth. this series of pictures is so funny to me...

i call it progress that she's actually making some brushing motions and not just sucking the tooth paste off the brush.

examining her handiwork...

... and pleased with the outcome.

the next day, which happened to be my birthday, we ventured into mendocino proper. i must say it was forgettable. it was a tuesday and apprantly, everything is shut down on tuesdays in "mendo". we did find a coffee spot open that happened to have magnificent baked goods (mendocino baking company?) so that turned out ok. but this seems like more of a weekender town for hippies and couples... in that order. i was "over it" almost as soon as i caught a whiff of patchouli as we entered town.

on our way out of town, we stopped at big river beach (?). the kids got a kick out of throwing rocks in the river and watching the kayakers paddle by. it was pretty peaceful there, with placid waters and soft (but buggy) sand. we attempted another family portrait before leaving... hana wasn't having it because she knew it would be the last thing we do there that day. she wasn't happy about that.

she also wasn't happy that this was where cole and his parents would part ways with us. nadia had to get back to work (and the wifi was down at the house... that was when there was that interantional internet attack that effected wifi service globally).

on the drive back to irish beach, the kids fell asleep and jon, jenny and i hoped that this would mean a good long nap, since the kids had been nap-free for 2 days... not so lucky. shortly after they got back to the house, the kids were ready to go again, so we headed back down to irish beach. i really can't imagine a better birthday than a day at the beach with family and friends. it was also a little less windy on this day, which made for a very pleasant afternoon.

and again, time slipped away effortlessly. the kids played peacefully for hours.

i love how hana sticks her tongue out when she's really concerntrating on something... she does this when she's doing a puzzle, building a tower of legos...

here hana is delivering the first of many, many, MANY "cupcakes" for my birthday. hana, jack and charlie sang happy birthday to me a few dozen times... it was really cute.

it was also nice for be to lay on my belly for the first time in many moons. i dug a hole in the sand and it was really comfortable. i could have easily napped there, but the singing and the always simmering anxiety that the kids would suddenly take off to the ocean kept me alert (but definatley relaxed).

there aren't many pictures of me these days that i like very much, but i thought this one was cool. happy birthday to me!