April 2013

Skating w/Gretchen
Before going to DC I had a chance to go skating with Gretchen's class. It was the first time I had been roller skating since college.  The rink was as gross as I remembered (or similar to the one I went to as
a kid).  It was still fun though.  This was Gretchen's first time going roller skating.  She wanted to use the real skates and not the ones that go over your shoes.  and then she wouldn't do anything.  So
she pouted and I went skating with her friends.

Cherry Blossom 10 mile run
This was it.  The big race (for me anyways).  The longest race I have
ever run.  What Beth and I have been training for since December.  We
flew up and stayed with Lauren and her beautiful family.  We went into the city
to get our race bibs and really enjoyed the expo, or at least I did.

The races around Greenville hardly do anything, but this was awesome.
There were booths for sunglasses, clothes, shoes, nutrition stuff.  It
was great.  Then we met Tarik and Ellen K and her boyfriend for lunch
at this cool Cuban restaurant.  Low and behold Josh and his boyfriend
(or was he fiancé at the time? or husband? I can't remember) was there
as well!  It was so great to see them b/c they have recently moved to
London.  We had a great time at lunch, although, eating Cuban the day
before a race is probably not the best idea.

 This was early morning before the race began. Race tim came came and it was cold.  Probably just cool for those DC folks, but for me it was cold.

 During the race I took some pics.

 The race camera people got me taking a pic.  The pic above is what I was shooting.

 Thumbs up!

 Had to take a pic of a Cherry Blossom!

 It turned out to be a beautiful day and a nice course.  Mostly flat.
My knee kicked in about mile 2 and never stopped.  This race was 90%
mental for me because by mile 6 Beth was read for a breather, but if I
had stopped, I probably wouldn't have run anymore.  So I kept going.
Ran the whole thing except for when we stopped for water and a gummy
snack.  There was one hill at the very end.  Coming down it was the
finish line.  I usually try to kick it up at the end and sprint, and I
felt like I was flying down that hill.  Later I found out I was only
going about 9:30 pace.  But considering my overall average was 11:00
pace, I guess 9:30 was flying.  It was painful but a ton of fun.
Lauren, Beth and I went for a walk around some of the monuments (who
does that after running 10 miles?) and then went for margaritas.
Those were good :) We flew home the next day and the Cherry Blossoms
were more in bloom here than they were up there.  It was a great trip
and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Yes, we climbed all the stairs to get up to the top of the monument, but took the elevator down.  

When I got home, this is what our cherry blossoms looked like.

 Hey, what is that in my Cherry tree??  A Gretchen Pirate!

Savannah turns 3
What? That can't be!  As far as birthdays go, it was low key.  We had
a little party with the kids from class and had cake etc at home.  We
did get her a ton of balloons, all the kids enjoy that.   And since
she is into the movie so much these days, we took her to see an
adaptation of Rapunzel at the Gunter Theater in Greenville.  It was
the first time we took the girls to a play, though Gretchen has been
with her class from school.  Both the girls did great, and we had Beth
and Elaina with us as well.  We had a great time!!

And Savannah's 3 year old stats:

39 inches (90%)

30.6 lbs (50%)

and very healthy :)