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Hi Friends! I've been absent for a few days because, as usual, I've been a busy lady. It is officially three days before The Broad Street Run and the anxiety has set in. I know I can do the ten mile race since I did it two weeks ago on the treadmill, but I have anxiety about all the other logistics... how to get to the expo, taking the subway to the starting line, finding my family and friends that I'll be racing with since they are going to be much faster than I am... lots of logistics.
All that being said, I am super-duper excited! I think back to this time last year when I never would have thought that I would be tackling a 10-mile race! I also think back to the fact that I knew some people who were doing the Broad Street Run and it was a rainy and cold 53 degree day! I felt for them, I really did... well, let's just say I felt for most of them, some of them were the cliquish "mean moms" from the Y so I didn't exactly feel for them. ;) Anyway... the temperature THIS year is supposed to reach 87 degrees! Yeah! I am thrilled by that because I am thinking that it will be a perfect temperature for running in the morning and not 87 until the race is over. Either way, in my mind, 87 is WAY better than 53 and rainy! Go Mother Nature!
The whole weekend proves to be lots of fun, my cousin Chrissy and her friend Cherie are coming from Connecticut tonight and will be racing with me. I have to work on Saturday morning but we are heading into The City immediately after my classes. We will check into our hotel and then head to the "Not for Runners Only" Expo on Saturday afternoon. After that we have a friend who is a former concierge who is making dinner reservations for us somewhere in The City and she's also joining us for dinner. My BIL will be joining us for dinner too, should be LOTS of fun. I'm thinking we'll head back to the hotel to get to bed fairly early... not that I'll be able to sleep very well!
The race starts bright and early on Sunday, in fact, we have been told to board the subway by 6:30 AM to make sure that we reach the start line in time. Ugh... I am SO not a 6:30 AM girl! I think I can handle it this time though. So then, after we join the other 29,997 people who are running in this race, I guess we'll get started! I finished my "Mock Broad St. Run" on the treadmill in just under 2 hours and I have to put it out there, my goal is to finish this race in 1:45 but I think that might be a stretch but I will say that I'll be happy if I finish in less than 1:55. (Hell, I'll just be happy when I finish.)
The Husband and The Son are meeting us in The City at the finish line or somewhere around there but they are not staying in The City on the night of the race... but... we ARE! We've decided to get a room there on the night of the race so that we can go back to the room, swim, relax, NAP, and then go out on the town and celebrate our fantastic finish! I'm hoping to get together with some of my City Friends while there. We'll come home Monday morning and get back to real life...
and possibly...
training for a half marathon? You heard it here first folks... now to find one...
Have a great day everyone! It might be next week until I get back here but I promise lots of pictures and recaps of the race/weekend in The City!
Back when The Son was a baby and I was solely a Stay at Home Mom, we spent every minute together, playing, hanging out and visiting museums, etc. Now that he's a Big Boy, and in Kindergarten, I'm working more in and out of the home, and I realized that we haven't had any of those "special" Momma/Son moments we used to spend together.
We're fortunate that we live kind of near Longwood Gardens and that we're members there. Longwood Gardens is a wonderful place to visit, it's acres and acres of beautiful horticultural wonderment. (I just made that up) It's beautiful all year round and I know I've mentioned it at Christmas time before. If you're interested in visiting or just checking out the history, just click on my link above.
I decided that The Son and I needed to take a Momma/Son visit to The Gardens and I picked him up from school on Tuesday for us to do just that. We took LOTS and LOTS of pictures. As I told you before, I just got a new camera and I knew that taking The Son there would give me lots of opportunities to test out the new camera. It was a beautiful day so there are many pictures to share with you...
As you can tell, we had a fantastic day, we plan on going back again really soon. Thanks for stopping by my blog today and for leaving a comment of course. Tomorrow we're going to get a little more up close and personal with some of the flowers at Longwood... See you then!
Hi Bloggy Friends!
I know I've told you all that on May 2nd I'm running my first long race, the Broad St. Run in Philadelphia. I also know that I shouldn't be that specific on my blog but considering there are 29,999 other people running in that race, if you ARE a stalker... good luck finding me!
Well, I decided that I couldn't try to participate in that race without having run the full 10 miles at least once. I've heard the Broad St. Run is an "easy 10-miles." It's "mostly downhill" and that it's a "really fun race," I also heard that as long as I could run 8 miles, I'd be fine for the BSR. I didn't believe that so I decided to stage a "Mock BSR" on the treadmill at the Y on Sunday.
I was psyched. I ate the same breakfast that I am going to eat on the morning of the race, an Asiago cheese bagel from Panera Bread with some cream cheese and right before I left for the Y, I ate a can of pineapple. I like to eat pineapple before I run. It's psychological but I think it helps me with energy and every time I eat it, I have a good run. Why mess with that? I chose the bagel and cream cheese because I love bagels and never eat them any more and for obvious reasons, I don't want my fiber filled breakfast on the morning of the race. Bagel it is! The cream cheese was some added protein for me.
I started the run at 11:40,
and, an hour and twenty minutes later, I had gone 7 miles! I had to stop because the treadmill only allows one to run for an hour and a half, I took a quick break to reset and kept on running...
Three more miles in 34 minutes and I was finally finished!
An hour and 55 minutes later! My goal was two hours which obviously I achieved and I'm hoping I can do it a little more quickly during the actual race.
Not exactly pretty but, pretty happy!
I am continuing my training for the next two weeks by doing my shorter runs and working on my speed. I ran with this guy today and finished 5K in our neighborhood in 28 minutes and I think I'm ready... I can't wait! 
Don't you just love that picture? Two happy cousins playing together. The Son and The Niece had a great time on The Niece's new swing set last weekend.
Happy Friday everyone! I'm finishing up a week of being a single-mom. (sort of) The Husband has been in Palm Beach, FL at the Ritz Carlton for a work event. Before you get too jealous, notice the words, "work event." He barely got to enjoy any of the Florida sunshine and was in meetings most of the time. I feel bad for him because to me, that's almost like torture. Take a bunch of employees to a beautiful hotel in a beautiful area let them see the pool but not got to the pool and then schedule meeting after meeting after meeting with no down time until it's finally time to go home and they still never had any time to relax. Torture. Anyway, I'm happy that he'll be coming home this evening and The Son of course, is happy too. We missed him.
I am taking some time today to post a few more pictures of last weekend.
More swing set... leave it to the boy to have to stand on the swing instead of doing it the "right" way.
Time to slide...
Inside the house, The Son entertained The Baby Niece.
...while The Niece practiced for her future career in modeling. Yes, that is totally posed, the girl knows how to work it.
And... we were finally able to get some shots of The Pop-pop with his grandchildren. So cute!
Have a great weekend everyone, we have a busy one ahead of us! Should be fun!
Today is our dog Ziggy's second birthday! Ziggy has brought such joy to our family and is a really wonderful dog. When we lived in The City, we had smaller dogs, we still have DaVinci, our Italian Greyhound, but unfortunately, our MinPins, Iago and Desdemona have passed away. Ziggy definitely has a different personality then that of the MinPins and I must admit, is probably a better "family" dog. (Well, at least better than one of the MinPins who I like to refer to as "six pounds of pure fury.")
Ziggy is a German Shorthaired Pointer we got him from a fantastic breeder, Keystone Gun Dogs, as we knew we really wanted this particular breed and we wanted a puppy. I highly recommend the breeder we went through, she has a beautiful operation and top quality dogs who you could tell she really, truly loves. The place was immaculate and I was extremely impressed. The Husband grew up with GSPs and knew what great family dogs they would be, how right he was!
Thank you Zig for being such a pleasure to have in our house. You are a great "little brother" to The Son and you have such a sweet disposition.
Thank you for being the best running buddy a girl could ask for...
We hope you have a happy birthday and that we can give you as much love and joy as you've given us. We love you Big Man!
Happy Tuesday everyone!
I had a busy Monday and didn't get a chance to come on and blog but I can update you about my weekend today!
I had a great weekend! After work on Saturday, I headed out to my sister's house, we were doing a race together on Sunday. My sister invited me to come a day early so that we could go to her gym together and work out and so that we could also go out for a bite to eat together sans kids.
We had a nice work out, did 15 minutes on the stairmill and then ran a couple miles before doing our back, triceps and shoulder weights. We decided that we had to do the same work out because we're sisters and we have to do everything the same. ;) We took a few pictures after we got ready to go out.
This little beauty was already sleeping but I can't leave her out can I? The Baby Niece is a very serious girl, can you tell?
We had a nice dinner but knew that we couldn't stay out too late because we had a big race to run in the next day so we headed home and went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up, and got ready to go. The BIL who is a high-powered, much sought after, renowned, gastroenterologist had to leave the house at 4:15 AM for his rounds. In other words, he's a newer doctor and he's the low man on the totem pole so he was on call and had to go in on a Sunday morning. It was just the girls, basically this meant that my sister got her girls ready and I only had to worry about myself. We headed out around 7:50 AM.
We got there in plenty of time and guess who was there to meet us? These two handsome guys!
I was so happy to see them! They were scheduled to do the one mile walk which meant that The Husband was scheduled to carry The Son on his shoulders for one mile because The Son was feeling particularly lazy this day... good workout Honey!
Here they are lining up at the start line for the walk.
Here's me and The Sissy before we got ready to run... it was a smaller race in a beautiful state park. Only 91 runners participated. The race was to help benefit the computer lab of The Niece's preschool which is also a K-8 school.
Here I am crossing the finish line... I finished in 29:44 which is a personal record! I was SO thrilled and never thought I would finish in less than half an hour. I started off really slowly and was actually the last one in the entire group of runners but I knew that I had to pace myself and not start off too fast. My iPod helped me to stay steady and I picked up my speed as I went along and passed lots and lots of runners. It was a somewhat hilly course and I have trained a lot on hills so I am sure that helped me. I ran the entire thing even up the very last steep, steep hill that I thought was going to kill me! What doesn't kill us makes us stronger though right?
I even slowed down a bit when I was able to see the time clock because I was afraid I'd have no room to grow if I finished too fast and I'd like to be able to do a couple more PRs. Speaking of a PR, The Sissy finished in 27:18 but hated every second of it! I'm still proud of her.
I am still thrilled with my time and feel like I want to run around and tell everyone! Thanks for sticking with me if you read this far. I have some more pictures from our super-fun weekend but tomorrow is a special day for a furry member of my family so I think tomorrow's post will be devoted to him... more pictures on Thursday perhaps?
Have a great day everyone! I am off to get The Son ready for school and myself ready for the gym... weigh in on Thursday you know and I had a decadent weekend. Bye for now!
