I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

A really easy 3 miles with cousin Jennie and Brendan (Luke's bro).  Brendan got tired of running with the old ladies after about 1.5 miles, and so he broke free.  Our pace was leisurely and the conversation was good.  And more important, it was the perfect night for a run (in the 70s with really low humidity).  Ahhhhhhh.

My mid-morning swim lessons run was so much more manageable today.  It was in the high 70s with much lower humidity.  I tried to stay in the shade anyway, but the lower temps felt goooood.

I have this run down to a science.  I make sure that the kids are in the water with their teachers and then I take off.  As I am walking onto the pool deck, the kids are getting wrapped in their towels.  It works perfectly.

Another swim lessons run.  It is so much cooler this week than last week.  There was a nice breeze, which made this run pretty enjoyable.  My average pace was about 9 mm, but I did try to push it a little during the last 1/4 mile.  

There is a 5K here Friday evening.  A bunch of people I know are running it, wearing their Luke shirts.  I am pretty sure I am going to run it too, but I feel kinda torn.  I haven't seen my family in a while and my sister invited me up to Michigan.  I want to go (I haven't seen her since April, although my kids have seen her since then) but I don't really want to drive.  Plus there are some things going on here that I don't want to miss.  Chuck's family is still in ultra-togetherness mode, and although I am getting tired of all the love, I feel bad missing it.

On the other hand, my SIL probably needs more support than I have been able to give up till now, so I feel like I should make my family a priority.  However, my bros family is not going to be in Mich, so I wouldn't see them till Sunday or Monday.

So I'll probably decide at the last minute what I'm doing, but if I do stay and run the 5K, I'm not racing it.  Just shooting for somewhere around 26 minutes maybe.

I also have another decision to make along the same lines:  we are supposed to go to Wisc to see my FIL's brother and sisters (a yearly thing) on the weekend of the 17th.  But my SIL is having a joint b-day party for her kids that had to be rescheduled around her impending chemo.  I feel that I should go to that.  My husband and I are thinking about each taking one kid and splitting up, but he wants to take the kid that I want to take :)

These were slow miles indeed.  I missed my swim lessons run because I had to go in to school in the morning, and since we had plans tonight, I ran at about 2:15.  It was sunny, but surprisingly not too terrible.  Temps were in the high 70s/low 80s, and I stuck to the shade and carried water.  I also went a little longer than I have been lately.  Not sure why.  Just sorta felt like it.

I got one of my yesterday problems solved.  My family is not going to Michigan after all, so I am running in the 5K tomorrow and then leaving for Chicago on Saturday.  I might do a 5K on Sunday, but only if my brother runs.  I don't think I'll race this one either.

Then this evening, we went to a gathering at the new principal's house.  My husband is the oldest of all the administrators, which surprised me a little.  Two of the assistants are younger than me.

We arrived at the race more than an hour before it started.  Don't know why.  I did a mile warm up out of sheer boredom and to get out of the sun a little.

We started on one of the base runways.  I'm sure this wasn't planned, but the start of the race was delayed a few minutes while a plane touched down.  Then we were off.

I gave my watch to Brendan because he was eying it and I thought it would be more helpful to him.  So I was surprised when my first mile was right around 8.  I was more shooting for 8:30 or so, because I just wanted to take it easy.  At the first mile, I was right behind Sue, the PE teacher at St. Mal.

So I've been thinking all this time that I don't have a competitive drive, but I guess I do.  I really didn't want Sue to beat me.  I ran with her and a 6th grader for a half mile or so and we were trying to get the girl to keep our pace.  She stuck it out, but then fell behind.  I kept going with Sue just a little behind me.  She asked what my goal was and I said "under 26."  So she said she'd keep with me.  Right after the girl dropped back, one of my former students, Clark (who also mows my lawn) ran by.  He had never done a 5K before and I didn't want to be shamed.  So Sue and I picked up the pace.  Our second mile was 7:40.  Pace on the last 1.1 was 7:25.  We passed a lot of people together (but we never did catch Clark) and really raced to the end.  Normally I probably would have let her go ahead when she surged, but like I said, I didn't want her to beat me.  So I got her in the end, but we both got 1st in our age division. That's part of the reason why I didn't want her to beat me.  She's at least 15 years older than me and I didn't want to be shamed again :)

 So that's not bad for what wasn't going to be a race.  And I haven't really been putting a lot of effort into running, either, lately.  The rest of the night I sat around in my own stink and enjoyed watching the kids play and seeing the fireworks.  I forgot how cool fireworks were.  They are so much better when you've got a kid oohing and ahing on your lap. 

Now it's off to Chicago.  I hope I can get a run today.

The kids and I took the el downtown to Millenium park.  Even though we didn't wear our suits, I let the kids play in the water sculptures for a bit.  Compared to all the other kids, my kids were glowing white (I make them wear swimshirts to protect that blinding white skin).

I liked this one because at first glance Eli looks like he doesn't have a leg.

Then we took some other pictures, including some of our reflections in the bean. I look tired, but I think it's just the shadows.

My dad is the one wearing the Sox hat that he got for free in 1989.  I don't know why it's yellow, but you can't see that it says "Vienna Beef" on the side.