Thanksgiving/November Recap

This year we went up to NH for Thanksgiving. Seeing family is always a good time. WE made pretty good time as well considering that we left around 3:30. Made it up to Manchester around 5/5:30 to check into the hotel. It was a nice place. We ended up getting a 2 bedroom suite that had a kitchen as well. In the end we really didn’t need the kitchen, but we did use the frig for a few things and the microwave as well. The kids did great sleeping in the same room. The first night we stayed out so late and Seth had the great idea to put them in the same bed just to make it easier. Miss Rebecca thought it was play time and we had to go in there 3 times before she finally settled down. The next couple of nights we stuck her in the pack n play and she passed right out for both nap and bed times. I think she liked having her own space.

The next day was Turkey Day!! We had signed up for a Turkey Trot at the Fisher Cats Baseball Stadium. Running was me, Seth, two of my aunts, 2 of my uncles and my grandfather. It was low 30’s for temperature that day so staying warm before the race started was a little bit of a challenge. Don’t want your muscles to tighten up from the cold. I was eager to see how I would do for time. My final time was ok, but in the end I wish that I had stayed back and ran the race with the rest of my family instead of going ahead to see how well I could do. I saw some of the pictures that they took along the way and it was a good time. Not that I didn’t have a good time, I took a bunch of photos of them crossing the finish. 

After the race we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready, Rebecca went in for a nap. Aiden said he didn’t want to which proved to be a bad idea in the end since by 6:30pm he was begging to go to bed. We got him to last until 8pm before I packed them up in the car to head back to the room. The meal was great. As always it was way too much food, but that’s how it is with family meals. Everyone sitting around, laughing having a good time. Sharing stories.

  

 

  

 

 

Friday we had breakfast in the hotel since it was included and then we headed out to look for a local park for the kids to run around and for my aunt’s dogs to stretch their legs. We found one and the kids had a blast.

 

 

 

 

Later that night we would be going to see the production of the Nutcracker that my uncle Ken was starring in. It would also be the kids’ first theater show. I figured that they would last until intermission and then we would head out, but they did great. I think it was more the music and the dancing that kept them interested and away. I stayed out to get a bite to eat with family and Seth took the kids home since the night before he stayed later to watch the football game. 

 

Saturday we got up and all had breakfast at a local diner. It was nice to get out and have another family meal before everyone packed up to head out. I had done a bunch of prep work for packing that morning and so once we were back to the hotel there wasn’t that much left that needed to be done. As with any family event, the time always goes by soo fast. You look forward to these days and then they are gone in the blink of an eye. And you start planning the next event. We talked about camping this coming summer again. That would be nice. Until the next time.

Run to the Rock 5K

So another race under my belt and this one I actually ran the whole thing. I have been working really hard lately with my training and while I did my first 5K Thanksgiving  and did a second one in March for St Patrick’s Day I didn’t really start focusing on training until the first week in July. I had tried the C25K app on my phone and it didn’t seem like it was working for me. Come to find out that our treadmill is not that great. I am pretty sure it’s at a slight incline from the way our house sits so that will make it difficult for me in running. I did find another app called Ease into 5K and I like this one much better. There are more intervals to help you gradually get into running if you are not a runner like I was. I’m still working on things, but it’s getting better.  Now that I have finally finished a race running the whole thing, I just have to start working on my time. 

So we had a sitter come for the kids since the race was at 9am and both of us were running. Aiden was happy because we are currently using one of his old teachers that he really liked. Seth ran the 10K and I ran the 5K. The problem with that was that they started in 2 different locations so I had to drop off Seth and then I drove over to where my race started. We ended in the same place though. It was kind of warm out, but there was a nice sea breeze going through so it made the run better. There were to decent size hills that I will say I had not trained for, but I watched my pace and I was able to work through it all. Seth did really well with his time; beating his best by almost 3minutes. I was surprised to see him coming up to the finish when he did and had to scramble to go over and meet him. When we saw the race results we saw that he came in 4^th place for his age group and missed 3^rd by 7seconds. He would have gotten  a trophy and some sort of prize money as well. Something to remember for next year.

 My Medal for finishing.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Top o' the morning to ya!!

This post is a day late not because I was slacking and didn't get my butt in gear, but because I wanted to include the photos from the Boston St. Patricks Day 5K that Seth and I participated in and the race was the day after St.Patty's day- which we didn't get any pictures. I worked my butt off to be able to run as much of the race as possible and I started to feel a little nervous when I heard people talking about the hills in the course. I, of course, had not trained for hills. I just wanted to be able to finish an entire race before I tackled hills.

The race started off on a hill. It didn;t seem like that much of a hill until you turned the corner and saw that it kept going. I made it up that hill and was able to make it all the way to the turn around point which was about 1.5miles in, at which point you then had to run back up the hill you just came down. GOOD LORD!!! That is ultimately what killed me. However, once I made it up the hill. ( I was able to run about half the way up) I was able to continue my way to the finish line.  In the end I ran 75% of the race and had a finish time of 35.40 My actual running time was 35:08. This is the time the was recorded on my number chip. So in the end I beat my goal time of 36 minutes. Probably woul dhave been closer to 30 minutes had there not been any hills.

After the race was the St. Patricks Day Parade. I have always wanted to take the kids to it, but sometimes it just seemed like a huge pain and the timing was never right. I really wanted to take them in this year since we were already going to be in Boston, but I'm glad that we skipped it this year because I was tired and we needed to shower and change. Next year we will come in for the parade and not do the race. Or we might find a more local race and parade to go to.