Thanksgiving Weekend

 

The mini tree is decorated!

Well this was a very long, busy weekend but a very good one.  My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and their dog came over to my parents for a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch/dinner.  Everyone contributed but my dad outdid himself again... the man can cook.  Then on Friday it was off to the mall to work. Things went really well at the store, black Friday was very smooth and then Saturday was great as well.  Which is not to say that I didn't run my tail off at the store, which accounted for why there wasn't any other running.  A nice flow throughout the day and then I was off to watch the game with the fam.  USC won which was wonderful... and both teams behaved well on the field which is always a plus when it comes to rivalry games.  We spent five hours restocking the store this morning so while I had plans to run this afternoon my feet said no thanks, we'll pass today.  Then tonight it was time to put up the decorations.  The mini-tree and manger are done (only thing left to do is add presents). 




mini manger scene
It always takes me forever to figure
 out which one is Joseph.



Runway Run



Before the start



This weekend JBB, Tony, and myself ran the runway.  One really neat thing about this race was that the timing chip was a disposable chip in the bib so no fumbling with your laces.  Quite surprising since it was such a small race.  I finally remembered to bring my camera to the race this time... but I forgot my iPod.  So y'all get pictures and I got to listen to the sounds of the people running around me who sounded like they were about to pass out.  Luckily I don't think I sounded too bad, breathing heavily obviously, but not in need of medical intervention.  I did want to call medics for some of those around me. :)  It was fun running around the airport and JBB won 3rd place in her age division, Tony did great for his first race in years (I can't remember the exact number), and my time was much better than it had been recently.  So the race was a success for all.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been had I won the tickets. 




At the end with the bear.  I think we decided
 Smokey was having a mid-life crisis.




JBB with her certificate
and patch







Finished! Part 2

More from the race....  So,  I forgot to set my ipod's clock back a hour and so I spent the last three miles thinking I had taken even longer than I did and wondering how I had gotten that slow.  By that point I was walking and I knew that affected the time.  All I was thinking was my poor dad was waiting for me (besides being my dad and supportive, we rode together so he kinda had to wait :) ). For the last few miles I was matched up with William, the gentleman, and character, who kept me distracted with his many stories from what must have been a colorful past.  We had our very own police escort.  William remarked that it made him feel like a Kennedy to have his own cop car.  It was funny to be the one to hold up traffic and to have him block intersections for us... so to anyone out there affected sorry although really if you were in the area you should have planned an alternate route.  I did when I lived downtown.  And I still want my sticker.  Maybe this weekend.

Finished!

Medal and magnet!  I think I
earned both.

I finished!  And I wasn't last... though truthfully it was close :).  I ended up walking about half of it which disappointed me but I did power on and finish and around mile 10 1/2 it was all mental.  So goal one for next time is to run (jog) all of it.  My dad and Jerry were awesome!  Both finished with a great time... next time goal two will be to try and finish within an hour of them (and if I am not walking that is entirely possible).  This afternoon I went to pick up my 13.1 sticker, and to get one for dad, but they had sold out.  This was extremely disappointing.  Although they did have this pink magnet which I picked up.  It now resides on my fridge.  I did not pick one up for my dad... I think he might prefer the white.  So that is still on my to do list along with continuing my training so that the next time I have an injury or feel sick it won't hold me back too much.  Next up running the runway... I can't wait!

Saturday

Just six more days until the Governor's Cup.  I am excited and nervous and amending my goals.  I have not trained the way I would like but I am ready to do it.  I am amending my goals to just finish (though, truthfully, I would still like to not be last).  I ran this morning and felt good- though I think I could have gone further.  I just didn't want to push it after not running last week and having under a week to recover before the cup.  So I will just go out there and do my best.  A special thanks to all of those who are going to be at the race with me and good luck to KSouth, Jerry, and my dad (JBB we will do another one- like you said, can't let that training go to waste :) ).  Good luck with meeting and surpassing your goals and save me a banana when you get to the end.  And in closing today,as my dad pointed out earlier, it is just a run for most of us... not a race. 

I think I will just try to run... leave the
faster for next time.

So...

This week the only exercise I have done was exercising my right to vote.  Hope you all did as well!