Easter Weekend

I've missed my friends in bloggy land, but I've just been so busy the last 5 days. I've had so much to talk about but even when I had time, I just didn't have the energy to sit down at the computer and type. I usually try to write at the end of the day as I'm winding down, but I've just been collapsing and passing out right away.

I decided I needed to run my 6.2 miles for Run w/ Jess's Jelly Bean virtual race on Wednesday (I used my first 3.1 miles from Sunday for the 5k) and since it was gorgeous out, I went over to Farnsworth and the canal path for a nice change of scenery. Plus, I figured I couldn't wimp out on the mileage part-way through if I still ahd to make it back to the car. Just like my last long(er) run, the run OUT felt great, but it fell apart when I turned around. I kept pushing myself, though, and finished with a time of 1:09:51. And, of course, I needed to get a picture with my race bib, so I gathered my "gear" from the car and made the trek down into the flood plain to my favorite little place I know of at the park ...

The visual edge of that grass is the ACTUAL edge of the "cliff".
Directly below is one of the coolest places I know.

Yes, this IS the trail.

Ignore the fact that my bib is upside down.
Don't I get brownie points for hauling jelly beans around with me to get this picture?
They're the best kind too ... Starburst! lol

Sugarland. Jennifer singing "Stay"

My uncle, aunt, and their 2 youngest (freshmen in high school) got here Thursday afternoon (they stay with us when they're in town from Illinois) and that night was the Sugarland concert we've been waiting weeks for. My aunt is a big Sugarland fan but she'd never seen them live and my cousins had never even been to a concert before. It's so cool that Jennifer and Christian chose to kick off their "In Your Hands" Tour in Toledo. My mom took advantage of the email presale so we had AMAZING seats -  2nd row of the balcony, directly behind the sound booth, looking straight-on at the stage. It was so great! We had an absolute blast and I was so glad we were able to give my family that experience. Basically, on this tour, they have a general idea of what they're going to play, but they get input from the fans through texts and the website, live, on what they want to hear and the exact set list! And there was a TON of audience interaction. Sugarland has a reputation of really appreciating and loving their fans, and just being amazing appreciative people, but this is absolutely amazing. There was a girl in the Sugar Pit with a sign that said "Call my daddy when you sing Baby Girl" ... and they did. She came up on stage, called her dad, and Jennifer talked to him on the girls phone beofre they started singing. I hope nobody in my group say it, but I definitely teared up. That song was a lot of meaning for me so I was really touched. I loved it, though. I'll admit, I'm an even bigger Sugarland fan than my aunt and I probably drove my poor cousin crazy with my screaming and singing along. There might have been one song I didn't know ALL the words to, and I think I was the only one who knew the song they started with, "Wide Open". It's the one they recorded for the Olympics and I loved it the second I heard it. We surprised my aunt again right after the show and bought her a concert shirt. So, her, mom, and I are technically twinkies since we all loved the same shirt. :)

Early friday was the closest thing to boring we got all weekend. I worked most of the day on writing, but I stayed home in case mom needed me for something (which she did several times). Friday evening, some more family came over to visit. I don't know what made my stomach hurt more, all the food or how hard I was laughing at the stories and antics. Alcohol may have been involved for some of us.

Saturday was the crazy busy day. I got up and went to Boot Camp. By the time I got home, everyone else was awake and eating breakfast. After I had a chance to get cleaned up, we headed to the zoo. The twins haven't been to a zoo since they were babies and my dad, uncle, and aunt haven't seen the zoo since the new exhibits on the one side have opened or the new elephants! I drove separately from everyone else because I knew I'd have to leave early. My cousin, Jake's little boy is turning 1 and his birthday party was that afternoon at his grandparents' in the next little town over from us. I was glad to spend the afternoon with that part of my family. I'm really going to miss Rach (Jake's older sis) when her family moves to South Carolina in a couple weeks. This was the first time her little girl really remembered who I was and was excited to see me. Little miss is growing up before my eyes and she's the spitting image of both her mother and her great grandmother (who passed away only days after she was born). Pam (Rach & Jake's mom) mentioned the possibility of coming down to visit, since she's moving with Rach's family, in July for little miss's birthday. Did I forget to mention Little miss and I share a birthday? Yea, Jake called me at 3am while I was camping for my birthday to tell me Little miss had been born. lol. Anyway, since the birthday boy wasn't going to oblige us with smashing up his cake, we just had our delicious little cupcakes (I'll discuss at another time. Thanks, Ann for giving me the recipe!) and sat around talking and watching the kids play with the presents.

Saturday night would have been a nice quiet night if it had been anyone but my family. We were loud, obnoxious, crazy, and just plain goofy. The fart jokes, occasional interesting episode of American Pickers and other stunts (*coughcough*fakemouse*coughcough*) kept us entertained long into the night. Again, we over-ate (picking up a theme here?).

This morning was a lot quieter. We all slept in longer than usual. While my uncle's family packed up their stuff and loaded the car, we were getting Easter dinner ready. More shenanigans ensued during dinner, but we were MOSTLY behaved. After we ate and everything was cleaned up, my uncle's family headed home to Illinois (about a 6 hour drive depending on a laundry list of things) and we all COLLAPSED. I absolutely adore my family, and I love that they stay with us when they're in town, but BOY am I glad when everyone leaves. I came upstairs to my room and collapsed on my bed with my tv remote and laptop. It took 3 episodes of Mythbusters and the Making Of Frozen Planet to feel up to starting to write this. I know I need to get some work done tomorrow, but I'm probably still going to be exhausted.

I need a couple days of extra sleep and healthy eating to get me back on track, but I'm glad I had this weekend with all the different parts of my family. :)

Thursday's Group Run and the Boot Camp Class that wasn't ...

I knew this morning was going to be an early wake up call, but I didn't think it would be before 5:30am. Ugh. Normally I would sleep through mom and her coworkers meeting up to head to the airport (they all met at our house and one of the husbands was going to shuttle them), but I think I never really got to a deep sleep state last night so I was already almost awake. The lucky dogs, they're heading to Las Vegas for a financial aid conference. Mom insists they won't have any time for fun, but she said that last time and still managed to bring home stuff from Coyote Ugly and Chippendale's. All work, no play, my boney behind! lol

Anyway, I got up as soon as they left for the airport since I *KNEW* I'd never be able to fall back into restful sleep. I've tried in the past and ended up just rolling back and forth trying to get comfortable, like I do at night, never really drifting off because I know the alarm will be going off soon. Oh well. I may as well get used to crazy early mornings again if I plan on attending the 6:15am classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll readjust soon enough.

My comment last time about gorgeous weather for the group run was obviously wishful thinking. I could hear rumbles off in the distance as I was driving over to Levis, but I figured it would hold off until JUST after we were done. Again, wishful thinking. We weren't even a quarter mile from the store during the run and the sky opened up. And I'm not talking sprinkles, I'm talking downpour so hard you have a hard time seeing and are soaked instantly ... for about a mile. I've run in the rain before (I enjoy it), but I don't think my shoes have ever gotten that ... sloshy. Sure, we'll go with sloshy. Luckily I was wearing a tank top and shorts, both tech material, so those dried out relatively quick. The only thing that REALLY bothered me about the run was that my iPod died within 5 minutes. Oops. This totally blew my concentration for the rest of the 3 miles. I still averaged a very respectable 10:07/mile, but I know I could have done better. Oh, and the running club photographer was there that night too. It figures he's never gotten a picture of me at a race and then he comes to group and gets shots like these ...

March 22nd Group Run, Second Sole Toledo - Facebook Photo Album

Believe me when I tell you these 3 are the best of the pictures of me. Ugh.

And if you haven't guessed by the title of this post ... Boot camp didn't happen this morning. I drove in and sat there with 2 other people for 20 minutes before the one woman called her husband to check her email. Class was canceled on Thursday, she never checked her email. And the instructor never emailed me. *Sigh* Fine then. I guess the woman at the front desk shot off an email to him because I got a message from him a couple hours later apologizing and saying he thought I had been included in the email. Obviously not. So, I wasted an hour and a half, and some expensive gas, driving to Sylvania and back.

Since I was already dressed, I just changed shoes when I got home and headed out for a run right away before I could sit down and get lazy. Running in the fog was pretty cool, don't think I've run in that low of visibility before. Just to be safe, I jumped on the W-C Trail (south fork) and ran an out-and-back. The run itself was a serious mental battle. I'd slow down, knowing I need to conserve energy for more miles, but then I'd get bored and speed up again to the point my side would ache. Bah. I ended up running 6.2 miles in 1:08:17, which is an average pace of 11:01/mile. Not too shabby. I know I didn't wear my race bib, but I'm thinking about using this run for Spatula Runner's Virtual 10k. I'll think about it tonight. I know I won't be competitive, time-wise, with the other people running this, but it was a semi-solid run for me and I don't know if I'll be able to pull out another 6.2 miler before the end of the virtual run.

I want to write more, but I'm just mentally exhausted right now. I've already warned dad he needs to go buy the paper in the morning because I'm sleeping in. No alarm clock. I just need tonight and tomorrow morning to decompress and mentally work through some crap before I go back to being a drone on Monday. 

Hope everyone has a good weekend! Good luck to everyone racing! :)

Jelly Beans, GFC, and Happy Birthday Dr Seuss!

A short(ish) one today ...

Jess of Run With Jess fame is at it again! Early registration for The 2nd Annual Jelly Bean Virtual Race is open! One of the VERY cool things about this race is that you can CHOOSE your distance! You can do any or all of the 5k, 10k, half-marathon, and full marathon distances (I'll be doing the 5k and 10k)! Go HERE for more information.

Unless you've been playing ostrich the last couple weeks, you know Google Friend Connect is ending (or already HAS ended, for those of you not using Blogger). I find this a little disappointing since it made following other blogs SO easy. I've been using G Reader for a while now, so it isn't SUCH a big deal for me, but I can see how it would be a royal pain in the backside. To make it a little easier for some of you (I know I don't have very many readers, so I like to take care of the ones I DO have), I've joined Linky and Networked Blogs. Those seemed to be the big 2 (besides G Reader) I've "heard" talked about lately as alternatives for GFC. The widgets for both of these can be found on the right side of my blog.

Also, a HUGE HaPpY BiRtHdAy to one of my favorite authors, Theodor Geisel. If that name doesn't ring a bell, you may know him as DR SEUSS! I have SO MANY Seuss books from my childhood, and I'm always trying to collect the ones I don't already own. A friend even bought me Thing 1 and Thing 2 stuffed animals back in high school (to go along with our costumes for Seuss day during Spirit Week). My dad's confusion over my love of Disney movies was to my Grandmother's confusion over anything Dr Seuss. They just didn't make sense to her (which she was VERY vocal about), which made story time all the more entertaining for us grandkids. One Fish. Two Fish. Red Fish. Blue Fish. :D

Tomorrow's run is my 2nd attempt at a 8-miler. My confidence SHOULD be much higher after last weekend, but I just saw the weather report for tomorrow. Gusting wind. Well, crap. I guess I'd better put together a rocking playlist to help me stay focused. I'll probably run the same route as last weekend just to make it a little easier on myself. I guess this will be good practice for my 7k next weekend. No joke, this is directly off the entry form for the race ...

Warning from the race director and head leprechaun: Let's be honest about this race for a moment. This race has the absolutely worst weather of any outdoor event not only in the Midwest, but perhaps in the entire US (of course I have not done that Ultra marathon in Death Valley, so I could be wrong). Due to the time of year and the unique positioning of Maumee Bay State Park right on the shore of Lake Erie, the running conditions border on being suicidal! Expect gale-force winds, snow, sleet, rain, freezing temperatures, icy and snow-covered roads, swarms of locusts, and the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, all in the same 4.34 mile course. This race makes running a marathon look really easy!! If you had a brain in your head, you would run screaming from this entry form, but as I know you will not, don't come complaining to me on race day about the weather. Oh, and by the way, the 4 horsemen don't get scored in the age groups, so that is at least one positive thing. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Don't even think that I will cancel this race for any of the above conditions, just get your snow shoes and survival gear ready and pay up the insurance before you come! Now, back to the entry form ...

Yea, yikes. This Bay and Park are actually my Masters research site, so I KNOW they aren't kidding. This is going to be "FUN".

Freeze Your Thorns Off Virtual 5k ... and then some

I had heard the weather forecast before I went to bed last night, but it was still a bit of a shock when I woke up to SNOW SHOWERS at 9am! I guess the snow hit us around 2am, and normally I would have noticed, but I was out cold by 1. The weather guys had said it would be over by 9am-ish, but they were off by a little more than an hour ... which isn't too bad in the scheme of things.

My training plan called for 5 miles and I knew (probably the last) 3.1 miles of it were going towards The Boring Runner's Freeze Your Thorns Off 5k. Just like the Twitter Road Race last weekend, I wasn't planning on being competitive, it just fit into my training plan and I enjoy dedicating miles of my run to certain things. It keeps my head on straight and gives me a reason to NOT stop early, no matter the conditions. My biggest decision ended up being what to wear. The snow showers ended right around the time I decided I REALLY needed to get out of bed and get moving, but I could tell there was still a decent breeze outside (the pine trees were shaking). I asked dad how windy it was outside since he went out to the back garage for something and he said it wasn't bad. *Snort*. Ok, dad. I ignored him and threw on my light windbreaker just in case. So I didn't get too warm, I wore my vented long-sleeve shirt under. I knew it was going to start warming up as soon as the storm passed, and I was right.

BOY am I glad I wore that windbreaker. As soon as I got out of the protection of the trees in downtown, I got SLAMMED. Almost the entire second mile of my run, I was getting blasted by gusts that were almost making me come to a stand-still. I heard later today we were getting gusts around 40mph in my neck of the woods, which I can TOTALLY believe. I hadn't PLANNED on resistance training today, but I guess Mother Nature decided it couldn't hurt.

I was trying to pace myself, even with the wind, without looking at my Garmin. It was a little more difficult this time around and I think I would have had a negative-split run if it weren't for the insane gusts of headwind during the second mile. Taking the times for the last 3.1 miles, my submitted time for the FYTO5k is 0:34:38. Sounds reasonable for my not actually RACING. lol. It was fun, though. I appreciate any day where I can get out on the trail, the sun is shining (at the end), blast my music, and enjoy running.

I guess we're ALL #1?

Running In The Snow ... Sort Of.

We got 3" of snow between 4pm last night and 2am this morning. Despite the little bit of slipping and sliding I did on my way home from seminar last night, I'm doing a happy dance. It's January in Ohio. We should have snow. Period.

Anyway, I was actually excited to get outside and run when I woke up this morning. My parents (well, mom) didn't get it:
Mom: Why don't you just wait until tomorrow? It's supposed to get up to 40* and the snow will melt off some.
Me: Because TODAY is my long run day. Tomorrow is a rest day.
Mom: *blank stare*

Yep. That was pretty much how the morning went. I had an almost identical conversation with dad, too, though he ran cross-country in high school (eons ago. lol.) so he SORT OF gets it. Anyway, I blew it off because the temperature was hovering right around 25*, it was SUNNY, and the roads looked mostly scraped off by noon when I was awake and ready to run. I had no idea what the W-C Trail would look like so I wore my trail shoes (I haven't bought myself a pair of YakTrax yet ... soon) instead of my sauconys.

I used the walk from my house through town to the trail as my warm up. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the trail. There was still some packed snow in the shade, but it was mostly clear. Actually, there was less snow on the trail than there was on the sidewalks in downtown Whitehouse. Weird. There was hardly any breeze at all and the sun was WARM. I'm so glad I just wore my vest and not my jacket. I would have had serious over-heating issues with the lack of breeze. I wore my gloves as always, and ended up having the mitten-part peeled back the whole time I was running (though they DID get pulled back down during my warm up and cool down). I wore my longer [US Rowing] beanie too, which was appreciated since I HATE cold ears. My sunglasses were a must too. The reflection off the snow was just as painful to my eyes as the sun itself was. The run itself was great. My legs felt strong the whole way and even with my iPod on, I found myself paying more attention to my form and not really trying to loose myself in the music. I felt a little sluggish during the first couple miles, but I knew I had to watch my pace if I wanted to run the entire 5+ miles without a walk break. I was really proud of myself for how I was able to pace myself by feeling instead of constantly watching my Garmin. Plus, I think this may have been my longest continuous run. So, over all, pretty freaking awesome.

Though nowhere near my "good" 5k time, I used the last 3.1 miles (35 minutes 33 seconds) as my entry for the Twitter Road Race. I knew I wasn't going to be very competitive with the world-wide attention this virtual race has gotten, but it was fun to do anyway.

I've been thinking about races and goals a lot lately. I have a couple smaller local 5ks I'm looking at, but I'd LOVE to be able to do a half marathon for my 26th birthday in July. Well, the Chicago half marathon is the day after my birthday. But ... Chicago in July? Yea, right. Plus, I don't have the money for that and I don't know if I'll have a job on the other side of the country by then. Grrr. I hate being in limbo.

On another note, I'm thinking about re-starting Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred. Or I might just jump in head-first and use my nifty month-long unlimited BCOR Bootcamp membership. I haven't decided yet.

New Year, New PR!

What a weekend! I raced 2 live 5ks, a virtual 5k, and a Resolution Run! Ok, maybe I just ran the 2 live 5ks and I'm counting one as my virtual 5k and the second as my Resolution Run, but it was still a pretty sa-weet weekend for running. Plus my Pittsburgh Steelers just beat the Cleveland Browns [start up the trash texts with my Cleveland-fan friends who were at the game. Bwahaha]. :)

New Year's Eve (last night) was the Midnight Special 5k right here in Whitehouse. Actually, it started and ended at my old middle school and the course was the trail that I run on several times every week! The tagline for this race makes me giggle: "The race so long it takes 2 years to run it!" Haha! Anyway, I was telling anyone who asked that my only goal was to beat my 5k time from last June (35:52), but I was secretly (ok, once again, not so secretly if you follow me on dailymile) going for a 33 minute finish. I was a little nervous when I got there since my last 2 runs were plagued by shin pain, but I got there early and warmed up and stretched really well. I even wore my new Zensah compression socks instead of my normal socks. When they shot the gun to start the race, I found a comfortable pace (without looking at my Garmin) and just let myself run. I didn't even look down until I heard it beep for the first mile [10:01/mile pace]. The second mile was all about weaving through people who were dropping off and laughing at how many people were keeping my pace purely because I was one of the few people wearing a headlamp [9:51/mile pace]. This part of the trail has NO lights (hence why it's normally closed at dusk) for about 3/4 mile between road crossings and you're basically between a field and a just-started subdivision. It was DARK. I had a little bit of pain just under my ribs during the 3rd mile, but I breathed deeper and focused on my stride. I knew the course and how long it should take me between landmarks, and I was watching my Garmin the last mile, [I even had my playlist set to start Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory" when I hit 30 minutes] but it didn't dawn on me what my finish time would be until I came around the last corner and could see the clock at the finish line in the parking lot. Without really thinking, I stretched my stride out even more and took off in a sprint the last 0.15 miles. I was SO happy when I saw that 0:31:16 on the clock as I crossed the finish line and the woman handed me my finisher's medal. The ushered us inside right away for hot chocolate and bananas. After only a couple minutes, they posted a sheet with times on it (Toledo Roadrunners does an AWESOME job at setting up races and making things run smoothly). It took me a couple minutes to realize that ONLY the top 5 in each age category was on that list ... AND I WAS ON IT!!! I was 214th overall, 86th of 163 women, and 4th of 12 in my age group (awards were 5-deep in each age group so I got a nifty champagne flute)! I barely made it out to my car before I started screaming and dancing around. I'm sure I looked like a fool, BUT I DON'T CARE! I was SO proud of myself!

New Years Virtual 5k picture

I counted my Midnight Special 5k as my New Years Virtual Race (hosted by Kiley @ Daily Vitamin F). I took the picture in the car after I stripped off all my cold-weather gear to give the cars around me time to get out of the parking lot (I was going to have to do a little maneuvering to get out without hitting the guy who parked next to me [NOT A PARKING SPOT FOR A REASON, JERKOFF!]). So, sorry you can't see the whole "bib" or my awesome medal. You'll just have to look at the previous paragraph if you want a semi-close up of the pretties.

As soon as the official race times are up (for both last night and this morning), I'll post the link in my "Races and PRs" tab. Actually, I'm getting all my posts and links set up over there so it's being updated on a regular basis.

Today brought on the Hangover Classic (I know, the name is great, isn't it? I was hoping someone would stumble into the community center this afternoon looking green and barely standing upright, but everyone looked like they were ready to run. Darn.). When I woke up, it was raining with ridiculous gusts of wind, which made me even more nervous than my shins did last night. I pretty much stayed in bed hitting the "snooze" button repeatedly until about an hour before the race was supposed to start. Luckily, the weather cleared up just as we all were getting to the community center and getting ready to go. We were still having some pretty insane gusts of wind (I guess they got up to 45+mph), but the rain was holding off. I wore my rain coat as a windbreaker (and just in case NW Ohio had a change of heart and decided to dump on us during the run). I went into this race just hoping to RUN the whole thing and wanting to ENJOY the run (note the "bib" in my picture for my Resolution Run). I was on Cloud 8 (ALMOST Cloud 9, but not quite) and I didn't know how my body would take running another 5k so close after last night. When the gun went off, I just blasted my playlist and focused on putting one foot in front of another. I was a little tired, but I could feel the strength in my legs. I physically COULDN'T run slower than an 11:30/mile pace. It just wasn't comfortable. Before I knew it, I was at the turn-around. I zoned out into my music again until I could see the 3rd mile marker and then I pushed it through the end. Just like last night, it was like my legs KNEW they needed to step it up at the end and I didn't really need to think about it. It just happened.

Resolution Fun Run 2012 picture

I used the Hangover Classic as my Resolution Fun Run (hosted by Amanda @ Run To The Finish). I think I'm already living my "resolution" (I don't really believe in resolutions and I don't believe New Year is the only time we should be making goals, but that's a whole other story). I really ENJOYED running the races last night and this afternoon. It wasn't just that I was finishing with great times (for me). I actually enjoyed the RUNNING. The feeling of strength in my legs. Knowing I'm physically and mentally capable of doing something I wouldn't have dreamed of a couple years ago. It's a great feeling. Oh yea, and sorry about another car picture. Mother Nature decided she couldn't hold it in any longer JUST as I was walking out the door of the community center and heading for my car. lol.

Oh, and funny story. I was telling my parents about these virtual races and fun runs and they decided to be smarty pants(es?) with the Resolution Run bib. While I was asleep, they took my bib, stuck a post-it note over MY resolution and wrote "sleep more" on it, stuck it next to my head, and took a picture. I didn't know about it until I uploaded the pictures off my camera a couple minutes ago. Yea, hilarious. And, no, I'm not going to post that picture on here. lol.

A huge thanks to Kiley and Amanda for hosting such great races/runs! Hope everyone had a great NYE/NYD and here's to a great 2012! :)

Christmas 5k Virtual Race

Now that I've finished my shopping and wrapping, eaten yummy eggnog pancakes, spent "like an hour" (according to my brother) in the hot shower (ahhh!), baked fudge (shh! I stuck it in the basement fridge so hopefully nobody will notice it's there and I'll get to eat it all on my own), and watched my Pittsburgh Steelers win over the St Louis Rams 27-0 (WITHOUT Big Ben! Holy $#!@), I guess it's time to recap my run this morning.

Hanging with the big man himself! Yes, I'm wearing a
Santa hat. lol

Like I mentioned yesterday, my training plan called for 5 miles today and I decided to make the first 3.1 miles my Christmas 5k Virtual Race. Really, this came at the perfect time in my training. My double 5k (potential) disaster is exactly a week away now and I wanted to test myself a bit. Honestly, I don't know why I keep calling it the "potential disaster". I decided weeks ago that I was going to focus on racing the NYE 5k (Midnight Special) to the best of my ability (come on, PR) and let the chips fall where they may for the Hangover Classic the next day. Anyway, I wanted to push myself through a 5k this weekend just to see where I was. My training has been a bit all over the board so I wanted reassurance that I CAN run this and I CAN beat my 5k race time from June (my first and only in-person 5k race to date). 

And BOY was it a nice run.

I am ESTATIC! I keep telling myself that I'll be happy with my time next weekend if I can beat my time from the Happy Trails 5k in June, 35:52, but I've been quietly hoping to break 33 minutes by my 26th birthday (this coming July). Ok, not so quietly if you follow me on DailyMile. Anyway, I felt STRONG the whole run and the 2 times I noticed that I was starting to shuffle my steps a bit, I was able to quickly change it back to a quicker, stretched-out stride and continue. I knew I could run the whole 3.1 without walking (a huge achievement for me), but every time I do it is a boost in my self-confidence. I had a little bit of discomfort in my right side under my ribs around 2.5, but I ignored it and took a couple seconds to focus on my breathing and it got better and I was able to push myself through the last half mile (yep, check those paces). And as much as I wanted a white Christmas, the 40* and sunshine were much appreciated today :)

Thanks to Kiley @ Daily Vitamin F for hosting the virtual race!

~ ~ ~

And if you have young kids and don't know about this yet ... YOU CAN TRACK SANTA ON NORAD'S WEBSITE! Here (Santa's view) or here (Google Maps). Even for big kids, it's kind of fun. It goes live every Christmas Eve at 7am (EST) as Santa starts his run (which I only know because I was already awake this morning when Norad posted on facebook that the Santa tracker was up and running. lol). Every once in a while he'll stop at a place that just makes me laugh. Last year, I opened the website just as Santa was making his stop at the International Space Station!

And apparently Santa has brought PENGUINS to the North Pole to be slaves in his bicycle factory.

Hahaha ... or should I say

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Blessings to you and your loved ones! Remember that kids grow up (as my mother is currently lamenting as she stares at our piles of laundry), familys grow apart, and you're never guaranteed tomorrow so enjoy today.