Sprint to the Beginning

May 31st!!! We made it through 31 straight days of blogging, a challenge we accepted from Michelle Rafter's WordCount Blogathon. Michelle often referred to the task as a marathon (thus the term Blogathon), and I couldn't agree more.

My family lived in Superior, Colorado until November 2010 when we moved to Maryland for my husband's job. It was a sad day for all of us. We loved the community and beauty in Colorado. My oldest daughter was heading into fifth grade and had some opinions about leaving the friends she had been with since first grade. We made plans to come back Memorial Day weekend to visit with her graduating friends (all heading into middle school!) and to see our Colorado family. Bittersweet.

As part of our trip, I ran the Bolder Boulder 10K (along with 54,000 other people). I love this race and ran it three times when I lived here, but they went and changed the course for the first time in the race's thirty-two year history. For fun, they added more hills. Plus, I trained at sea level (people from CO love wearing t-shirts that say "Sea Level is for Sissies").

The Unversity of Colorado's Folsom Field (finish line)

I ran the race with two of my girlfriends, Kelly and Sara. They were wonderful running partners. When I said I needed to walk for a second to breathe, they were gracious knowing I was readjusting to altitude (the summit of the race was just shy of 6,000 feet above sea level). At the end, I was in desperate need of some Motrin, but felt exhilarated and proud.

Kelly Smith, Sara Jensen and me post 6.2 miles

This morning, I realized how much the race reminded me of this blogging adventure. There were moments where mentally I just had to push through and moments I found my stride and felt really good. In addition, I couldn't have made it to the finish without the encouragement of my new blogger friends and Michelle. Even though we cross the finish line today, I know it is only the beginning for this blog!

I already recapped what we learned during Blogathon, although I can't believe I forgot to mention Haiku Day. I dreaded the art of Haiku at first, but it ended up being my favorite Theme Day. Some highlights from our blog's May adventure:

* Guest Blogger, Eden Sterlington, on the Mother-Daughter Bond: simply beautiful and comment-neglected thanks to being my post during the Blogger shutdown.
* Ten Mistakes I Made in My Writing Career so you Don't Have to by Elaine Isaak: great speaker, great information. I included five mistakes I have made to date. I'm sure I'll need to update that before year-end.
* I am Woman, Hear me Roar, for Shoes?: The Chick Lit classification debate.
* Friday Feature: My Favorite Thing I Read this Week and Why: Mom's discovery of Muffin-top syndrome. Hilarious, yet disturbing. A new feature for our blog that Mom and I are both enjoying.
* Interviewing in Character: Krista Interviews Abby: Loved this exercise. A 13 year old character interviewing her mom. Too much fun (yet as the mother of a preteen, it was too close to home).
* What Most Southern Women Love about the "F" Word: Mom discusses the art of flirting (I know, that's not what I was expecting either).

What was your favorite part of May's Blogathon, either as a reader or participant?