4 Miles, a 4th of July Parade, Camping, Philadelphia & 3 Days Starting Wednesday

I can't believe how much I've packed into the five days since my last post!  Let's see...Wednesday was my day home with the kids.  We spent the morning at home and then I took them along to my PT appointment.  I was given some additional exercises, including one I was already doing - the bridge - which hurt my back.  The kids were a challenge, they thought the giant PT room was a playroom.  As an aside, we took Myra's diapers away and she got the whole potty training thing all but down within a couple days.  My little rock star!

After PT we went for frozen yogurt.  And by "we" I mean them, I had tea.  Then we met up with my buddy Michelle and her kids at the library for Lego playtime.  The library has tons of legos and the kids get to build to their heart's content.  Fun!  Then back home for dinner with Michelle and all the munchkins.  Michelle and I enjoyed a salad, some of my red beans and avocado.  It was a satisfying dinner.  After they left I prepped my gear for the Four on the 4th Fun Run the next morning.

Up and at 'em and ready to face the miles.  I wasn't quite sure how the run would go, given that I'd barely run even 1.5 miles in the last few weeks.  But I reminded myself it was a "fun" run and to just enjoy myself.  As soon as I got there I ran into a slew of mommy friends also doing the run.  Now we're really talking fun!

Mira and I pre-race

Erica, Danielle, Me, Jackie and Laurie pre-race

Check out all those runner moms...so cool.  Danielle and Jackie are both still nursing and working on partial nights of sleep.  Hard core runner moms is what they are!  Before we knew it, it was time to line up for the start.  And, as has been my habit lately, I forgot to start my Garmin.  So I walked up to the starting line and waited for my Garmin to find satellites. Unfortunately, I think I got too close to the starting line and the timing chip on my shoe thought I'd started the race.  Lost about 30 seconds on the official clock but that's ok because I know my "real" time.

Anyway, once my watch was ready I hit start and started running.  I didn't have a goal pace in mind, just planned to see what felt comfortable for my body.  I remembered from last year that there was a nice little hill around Mile 2 so I just took it easy and prepared to face said hill.  It was already pretty warm out with the morning sun beating down on us pretty good.  Laurie and I ran together for a while and then we separated and then together and separated, playing leap frog as we have done in past races.  My first couple miles were just under 10 minute miles so I decided to have that be my goal, to keep it under 10.

Things were going well.  I ran up the last small hill and a volunteer yelled, "It's all downhill from here," which was just at the start of Mile 3. The next couple miles were a cruise with Mile 3 coming in at 9:18.  Then early on in Mile 4 I looked down and saw 9:03 as my pace.  I can break 9 minutes for my last mile!  And finish strong, something I really enjoy.  So I dug deep, focused on keeping up my pace, and pushed on toward the finish line, which couldn't have come soon enough.  Mile 4 came in at 8:54 - woot!  Boy was I happy to be done. 

Full Garmin stats here.

My final time was just over 38 minutes for an average pace of 9:28 minute miles.  I'll take it!  My "official time" was 38:33 but I know that's got an extra 30 seconds or so tagged on because of my dawdling near the starting line.

Elevation profile for 4th run. 

So the run was done and it was off to the 4th of July Parade!  I've walked with the kids every year with my mother's club and it's so much fun.  I wish I had a picture to share but I was too busy handing out lollipops and keeping my kids hydrated to take any.  And man-oh-man it was friggin' hot out!  After the parade we headed over to Baskin Robbins for some promised post-parade ice cream.  I decided to make ice cream my afternoon snack.  Makes sense, right?  This was pretty much the beginning of the end of my 7 day realignment, which still had 3 days left.  More on that in a bit.

Anyway, Miguel met us for ice cream and we started again kicking around the camping idea.  We'd been discussing it for days and not settling on a plan.  I'd looked up campgrounds the night before and it seemed every site in the state was booked.  But I found one spot for one night in Mendocino County.  I called and asked what the chances are of them finding a spot for us for night #2 if we drove up, "pretty good," the campground lady said.  Pretty good is good enough for us!

We headed home and packed up our camping gear and the kids and got on the road going north.  Several hours later we arrived in Westport, just north of Fort Bragg.  And just in time for an ice cream social.  That's my kind of campground!  We had a great time with the kids.  Smores, a beach day, wine, plenty of adventure walks, fireworks, chips and snacks galore, making new friends and generally living it up.

The blurriest pic ever of Myra and I sitting by the campfire.

Come Saturday after all the junk food I'd been eating I begged Miguel to hang with the kids while I go on a quick 30 minute run in the morning before our drive home.  Thankfully he was on board with the idea.

I was so excited for my very first beach run.

Running along the beach in Mendecino (wearing my See Jane Run race shirt)

I ran for 3 miles along the 1/3 mile strip of beach adjacent to our campground.  At first I'd wished it was longer but then, when I experienced that beach running means running on an angle, I was happy to be reversing course every 1/3 of a mile.  Here's the satellite of my route from my Garmin stats.

Isn't that cool?!  I ran 3 miles in 32:55, just a hair shy of 11 minute miles.  Running along the surf was surreal and I felt so grateful for that moment in time.  I wish I had some camping pictures to share but we were too busy having fun to take any pictures!  After my run we decided to head to Fort Bragg to check out the Salmon Festival that was going on.

World's Largest Salmon BBQ

Cooking up some corn

Grilled salmon, corn, garlic bread and salad. 

There were about 10 of these massive bbqs going at once!

I think the pictures do our afternoon justice.  The only thing missing is the massive waffle cone of ice cream I had after my lunch.  I told you my 7 day plan went a bit astray.  We headed home but ended up stopping about an hour from home for some last minute playtime in the Russian River.  It was about a bazillion degrees and the kids were happy for the diversion.  From there we headed to In-n-Out for dinner before making the final leg home.  Back at base came we unpacked our gear and then I got to packing for a trip to Philadelphia.  I had a 9:30am flight out of SFO.  I was shocked to learn a plane had crash landed there earlier in the day. 

Up early and on the road to Philadelphia, it seemed my flight was scheduled to leave on time despite the tragedy from a day prior.  I logged my morning weight, 142.8 pounds. Nice.  I packed some string cheese and a bag of whole, plain almonds for the 5+ hour flight.  At the airport I bought a Greek Chicken Salad to eat for lunch on the plane.  I did my best to nap on the plane, which wasn't easy given I'm a terrible napper and I was on a plane.  Landed in Philly and boy is it hot here!  But honestly, I like the heat here, the AC in the airport and the shuttle bus had me freezing.  I briefly entertained a trip to the hotel gym but in the end I was too worn out.  So I had a beer and a burger with fries for dinner and called it a night.  It's super late here, midnight  as I'm wrapping this up.  I have to get up at 7am so I'm hitting the sack.  Tomorrow I'll exercise for sure. 

So here's my plan.  Once I get home from Philadelphia (late Tuesday night) I'm going to resume my 7 day realignment as if this holiday/camping/travel glitch didn't happen.  I have 3 days left so that will be Wed, Thur, Fri.  Doesn't that sound like a good idea?  I think so too.  Well, I'm sure I left something out but there you have it, the busiest 5 days I've had in a while.  Good gosh I'm tired.  Night all!