Vacation

I have just returned from a 10 day visit to the awesome state of Minnesota. My oldest son, his wife, Connor and I flew to Minneapolis on the 12th and returned on the 22nd. I just wanted to give a brief summary of the trip. We arrived and I promptly caught a head cold. I think it was from the stuffy plane trip. Connor and I spent the entire time at my parent's in Garfield while Matt and Sarah spent 4 days discovering the many things to do in Minneapolis. Here are some photos:

This is Ollie in Alexandria.

Connor had a run in with a bear at the Runestone Museum in Alexandria.

Here is the picture of lightening, taken with my highly quick shuttered ipod camera phone during an awesome thunder and lightening storm.

Here I am before my lightening fast 10K women's win. I ran the Run for the Melon. I was hoping to win a new pair of melons but instead received free watermelon after. The run took place in Vining Minnesota on Watermelon day!

AND, I knitted Sarah an awesome pair of socks.

It was a fabulous vacation!!

Run fun.......

Mod Moms Club

Roos and I were featured here in the Modesto Bee Moms Club blog. Pretty cool.



Run fun.....

Modesto Midnight Half Marathon

On Saturday evening, Modesto had it's very first half marathon. It was pretty exciting. The run was hosted by Fleet Feet in Stockton. Surprisingly, there were between 600-700 participants. They also offered a 2 mile fun run but the majority of the entrants participated in the half marathon.

The run started at 9 p.m and consisted of two 6 mile loops. The course left a little to be desired because of the park we enter into. I run down there all the time and know that it is a home to many of Modesto's homeless population. Plus, there are VERY few lights at the park but despite that, it was fabulous. I like to run at night, lots of new sounds - lots of wildlife emerging.

I had set a goal of 1:45 but thought that might be impossible due to the limited visibility and the narrow bike path that was shared by all. I brought a handheld light and was really thankful that I did.

I started out pretty fast (as usual). I wasn't going to look at my watch except to see if it was time for a walk break. I did my usual run 10 minutes, walk 1.

Despite the darkness, I saw many familiar faces and shouted out to lots of runners. I saw Roos and Connor walking at a nice pace.

When you do walk breaks in your runs, you play leap frog with many people. I sometimes like to use this as a motivator to run faster, to catch and pass them. I'm sure that it's pretty annoying to some people but I really like the break. Walking for that short period allows my legs to recover some and I find I drink more fluids. I have read many a heated discussion about walk breaks and it's not "running" an event if you walk but all I can say is it works for me.

I played leap frog with two girls last night. One is a member of our running club and the other I didn't know. I did this until mile 12 and then passed them both to finish up at 1:43. I felt pretty good. I was happy that I achieved my goal. It's not a PR for me but very close - 5 seconds! I can't seem to get below the 1:43 mark. I suppose if I did more speed work, I could achieve that. Priorities for the past few years have been L O N G runs and not speed.

I stood at the finish line for sometime and cheered lots of runners in. Anita finished up great with a 2:10. Afterwards, we hit the beer garden for a beer then returned to the finish line to see Roos and Connor run across in 3:18.

It was a pretty late night. I didn't hit the pillow until after 2 am. I really enjoyed this event and would do it again next year. It's kind of nice that ShadowChase didn't have to do participate in any part of the organization so LOTS of members were out running instead of helping. It was awesome....

Run Fun.....