Today is my son's 8th birthday. I'm so proud to be his mom and I love the person he is and will become. What a lucky person I am to have him in my life!
I ran the Race for Hope, a fundraiser for specific things for the June E Nylen Cancer Center here in Sioux City. The race started at 8:30 and because of the nice rain on the roof, I stayed in bed until 7:30. I got up and checked the radar to see if it should be ending and it looked like it would be relatively clear by race time. Wrong. Right before the thing started, and it starts late EVERY year, it poured on us poor souls. It was cold, puddley (not sure if that's a word but it's appropriate right here) and a mess. The trail is a really nice fine gravel and perfect when it's dry. It had a lot of puddles in areas, especially the beginning. I dodged the puddles as much as I could and my feet stayed dry until the last two miles of the 9.3 mile course. I felt great throughout the entire run, and was very proud of my 1 hr, 15 minute finish. And in those conditions! I assume I ran better due to the cold 43 degrees than anything, but speedwork that I've been doing sure didn't hurt.
Dirty Shoes after the Race for Hope
I took this picture because I felt very humbled by the race experience. As I was driving there, in the pouring rain, I thought that I could just turn back home if it was raining at start time. Then, as I was walking towards the start line and bathrooms, this thought came to my head "This has GOT to be easier than chemo". It was decided. I was going to run this race regardless. So I did.
We got our countertops tiled last week. Andy took the sink out on Wednesday and he put it back in Sunday. This has to be one of the reasons why paper products were invented: home improvement projects that take a lot longer than what you though. Granted, the tile guy worked his rear off, but it's still not the way we think it should look. Andy has to finish the backsplash too. The reason I mentioned this is because of the paper that my shoes are sitting on in the above picture. He put protective paper on the wood floors, thank goodness.
That brings me to our new car. It was a hard decision to spend too much on a car. But with the current one being 12 years old, we knew we could be in for a boatload of repair costs. Plus, we don't trust the thing, nor do we trust most repair shops. Yes, there are a few we trust, but when one tells us that there's no leak when we can clearly see the remnants of it on our driveway, we have a good reason not to trust them. So we went to the Billion Auto thing at the event center and ended up doing something we said we wouldn't. For the first time ever though, we think we actually got a good deal. One of the best parts is that the new car gets 20 mpg in city driving. I about flipped when I filled up this morning and it took just under 10 gallons. WHAT???!!! Granted, it wasn't empty, but still. I'm used to a Ford Explorer V8 that is doing well at 17 mpg, and that's a lot of highway miles, and I can't fill up for less than $40. The second best thing is that we got a free trip to Vegas. Here we go again! And no shows, no tours, no nothing this time, only fun!
Ok, I guess that's it for the catching up. The 1/2 marathon is coming closer so I will be putting in 2 hour long runs on the weekends. It's really too much to handle at 5am, actually 4:45am. By 1pm, I'm totally beat.
Off to play legos with the birthday boy and have some fun with their friends after school (mine got out early today).
