I know this is gross but...

It's really cool.  Last Saturday night Joel and I experimented with ear candles.  It was amazing to see how much wax could actually come out of one person's ear.

The candles are made of muslin and are hollow.  As it burns the smoke flows into your ear and heats up the stuff inside and it is somehow vacuumed up into the base of the candle.  The foil covered paper plate protects you from aliens and from falling ashes.

This is the gross part--the end result.  I should have laid something beside it to give you a point of reference for just how much there is.  What you see is the remains of the candle cut open (about four inches in length, one inch across) and the orange stuff is the wax.  It was a lot of wax and that was just the first ear. 

So yes this is probably the grossest thing I've ever posted but as those of you who know me well know--I have a bit of thing for cleaning ears so I had share.  : ) Love you all!

So More About the Marathon

The picture on the right is from the starting line.  It took about 3 minutes to actually cross the starting line. The one on the left picture shows me at the beginning of the marathon...I'm the one in the center waving.  Initiailly I ran with four hour pace group.  The lady with the bunny ears was the pace group leader...However, she was a little too fast of bunny for me to follow.     

Mile 1--over the bridge. The other picture with just me is about midway through on one of the blessed downhill slopes.  I was having a lot of fun.  What they didn't get a picture of was me going up miles 14, 15, & 16--we climbed from 340 feet to 500 feet elevation during that time.  One of the pace group leaders described it as "hell-y."  It was rough, but they had amazing crowds along the way--some people had bands set up on their balconies.  Others dressed  in costumes.  I even got a high-five from a guy in a chicken suit at mile 19.

This is me towards the end.  I had just about 3/4 of a mile left to go. I started getting pretty tired at this point and slowed just about to a walk when a guy ran past and said, "You've been pullin me through these last 5 miles. You can't stop now."  That is what's so amazing about marathon running...there's such a sense of comraderie.  Your competing against yourself so you want everyone to "win." 

And this is the medal we recieved.  It was huge.  Runner's World says it is the world's largest finishers medal. 

Little Rock Marathon

 Today I ran in and completed the Little Rock Marathon (26.2 miles).  My finishing time was 4 hours 35 minutes.  The first half was a lot easier than the second half.  My split (first half of the race versus second half of the race) was 2 hours vs. 2 hours and 35 minutes.  

 All in all I am very pleased!  I'll post pictures and share some of my stories later in the week.  Just wanted to get to share with you all that I finally finished this thing!

Ice Storm

 Here are a few pictures from the neighborhoods around us.  We took these  on Sunday.

A Week Off...Now Running Again