Derrick's Marathon Results

So, Derrick ran in the Columbus 1/2 Marathon this past Sunday. He ran the race with our friend, and personal trainer, Kelly. A couple of weeks before the race his foot was really bothering him so I was nervous that he wouldn't be able to run in the race. We just prayed that he would either tough it out and finish or that it would heal before the race.

Luckily his foot quit hurting about 10 minutes before the race (Thank you God for the healing). He was able to run the race and finish! We stood at the 9th mile marker and saw him and Kelly run by. Derrick said that around mile 10 he had to stop and stretch so Kelly was ahead of him by a couple minutes. We ran back to the finish line and I saw him cross! It was amazing. I am so proud of him for accomplishing this goal!! He said he wanted to cry because he was so tired and sore and I told him I wanted to cry because I was so happy!!
Derrick and Kelly rounding the 9th mile

His goal in the beginning was to run a mile in 10 minutes and finish in 2 1/2 hours. Then after a few weeks of training he said he was going to push himself and run a mile in 9 minutes. You can see his results and he exceeded his finish time goal by over 30 minutes and also ran a mile in 8 minutes and 53 seconds.
Derrick sprinting towards the finish line!

Here are his race results:
Derrick Johnson
bib number: 2140
age: 25
gender: M
location: Pickerington, OH
overall place: 1645 out of 5290
division place: 185 out of 374
gender place: 1033 out of 2230
time: 1:56:21
pace: 8:53
10k: 54:03

Derrick right after he finished (he has also just shoved some food in his mouth)

Derrick and Kelly after the race

His mother, grandparents, and aunt and uncle all came up for the weekend. We had Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday since we were all together! I cooked all day and made pies for dessert. Dinner turned out great and we had a good weekend with his family.

Way to go Derrick!!!! I love you!

Date Night

Last night my husband and I had a date night! He took me to dinner and I had gotten us tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance concert a couple months ago. We went to a Japanese steakhouse and it was wonderful. It was by far the best Japanese Steakhouse we have been to!

On the way to dinner we were talking to each other and Derrick was just cracking me up. He was totally acting like we were on our first date and telling me all about him and asking me all kinds of questions about me. He kept talking and rambling on about running marathons and then he would stop and say "Oh, listen to me talking about myself. what do you like to do?" We were both laughing at each other.

After dinner we headed down to OSU's campus for the concert. We had great seats. We were right in front of the stage, on the floor. We were the 8th row back so we could see all the dancing really good! I can't believe I left my camera at home- but I did. We tried taking some with our phones but they didn't come out very good. Here is one that we took just to give you an idea of how close we were.


After the show we were leaving and there was a barricade set up with security so we waited there- in the freezing cold- but we were able to meet all the dancers and I even got their autographs!! I know, how cheesy is that!?!?!! Well, there was a nice mother and son standing next to us in line so they took a couple of pictures of me with some of the dancers and they are going to e-mail them to me. When I get those pictures, I will add them to the post.

Good news.....

My friends Crystal and Eric are engaged!!! YEAH!!!

If you scroll down on my blog you will see pictures of us four at Kings Island this summer. They have set a wedding date for June 13, 2009. I will definitely be making a trip home for that wonderful day.

CONGRATULATIONS CRYSTAL AND ERIC!!!!!

I am so happy for you two. I love you both!!!!

Before and After.....

I have had so many people asking to see pictures of me and Derrick since we keep talking about how much we are working out. Here they are. I posted a before and after so you can compare. It is unbelievable! Derrick has now lost about 50 pounds and I have lost a little less than 30 pounds.

Here is a picture we took about a year ago, right before we moved up here.....



And here are a couple of recent pictures of me and Derrick......

This is us with Derrick's mom at the Columbus Zoo



Derrick is done "loosing" weight. He is just working on toning. I am not quite done loosing just yet. I am definitely toning up though. :) Have a great week!!

Fall is here

Wow, I have been so busy that I have not blogged in a few months! We have had so much going on that I could have written a book by now! Where do I start???

Derrick and I were able to make a trip back to Nashville over Labor Day weekend. It was good because we all drove to Memphis to see my grandparents. Most of the Hamblin family was there so it was so nice to see all of them and catch up with everyone! I have a wonderful family and I love spending time with them. The 4 hour drive there, and then 4 hours back, was a blast because of course I was chosen by Allison to sit in the very back with her. I had very little leg room since a 3rd row seat isn't made for comfort! It was a fun weekend and I am glad we had a chance to go home and see my family.

A couple weeks later was the UK vs MTSU football game in Lexington, KY. Derrick has a dealer who has season tickets to all the UK home games. She knows that Derrick and I are UK fans and she mentioned to Derrick that they were going to be out of town that weekend and asked if we wanted the tickets. She had 6 tickets and a parking pass. We were so excited to have tickets so we called our very best friends, Ruth and Karl Meyer, to see if they all wanted to go to the game. Of course they said yes! We met them in Lexington and spent the weekend in Lexington together. It was so much fun to get to spend time with them. I miss those girls so much!

Since then we have been busy every weekend with ALS Walks across Ohio and Indianapolis. ALS (a.k.a Lou Gehrig's Disease) is one of the main diseases that Derrick deals with in his patients. His company is a national sponsor so he has to go and set up a booth at every walk so I went with him and volunteered. It was a lot of fun but the past 3 weekends have been consumed with these walks. We finally have a weekend off but it will be spent cleaning and preparing for Derrick's family to come in town the next weekend. Most of you know that Derrick and I have been working out and working with a trainer. Well, Derrick has always wanted to run a marathon so he has been training to run the Columbus Half Marathon. He is now 2 weeks away and is doing awesome! I am so proud of him and how far he has come! He will be running on Sunday, October 19th. So, if you think about it that day- say a little prayer that he can at least finish. He doesn't care about placement or time, he just wants to finish.

Ohh, one more thing! We bought a new tree and planted it in the backyard. It is a maple tree and the leaves will be a beautiful red in the fall. I love fall and I can't wait for Halloween weekend because we are going down to Gatlinburg with my family! I am sure another blog and pictures from that will be coming soon!