Race Recap - The Publix Half Marathon

OMG!  I am so sorry that I haven't been blogging much lately.  I have been very busy, and I am trying to detach myself from technology more, which is good for my kids, but bad for the blog world.  I have been in the kitchen more and doing more with my kids so it's been great.  I have also been logging about 20 miles a week running and getting in some cross-training.  My tennis team just made the playoffs so we start that next weekend.  The little guy is still waking up a lot during the night so we are trying to work on that right now.  Hubs goes in more at night and less of me, so we are hoping the little guy will figure it out sooner than later.  We are on Day 3 of that.  The little guy is still nursing as well, but only 2-3 times a day, so I have a lot more freedom.  He is showing zero signs of being ready to wean so we are going to just stick with it for a while I guess. 

So finally, my last race was the Publix Half Marathon.  My brother-in-law had planned to run with his friend, but at the last minute pulled out (his friend).  So my brother-in-law decided he would run with me.  Yikes!  He is really fast and I wasn't used to running with someone so it was going to be interesting. 

He lives near me (3 miles away) so I picked him up early and we headed down there.  We got parked, walked to the bag drop off and then to say hi to his friend working a tent at the race.  I was Corral C, so I was up close.  The gun went off and we started. 

My goal for the race was a course PR.  I was coming off a 10k PR, so I knew I wanted to do well.  The course had changed slightly over the past couple of years.  I didn't run it last year since junior junior was only 10 days old, so it had been 2 years for me.  I knew it was a difficult course, and now I can say I think it's harder than it used to be.  The first 8-9 miles were good, easy hills, nothing crazy.  Miles 9-13.1 were killer. 

Here we are at mile 8. 

Brother-in-law obviously feels better than me here.

Hubs and my little pumpkin

Junior Junior giving us his "happy face."



Since I wanted a course PR, I needed under 1:53:00.  I got in with 1:52:43 for 13.18 miles meaning a pace of 8:31.  I was pretty happy with that.  It was a difficult course to say the least. 

I have a few races in mind for May, but with tennis we will see how it goes.

Happy birthday little boy!

Yes, I am behind in my posts.  It's not like I don't have things to write about, because I do.  I just can't find the time to write.  Work has been crazy, the kids are terrific but crazy, the kitchen has been crazy (I am cooking up a storm), and Adam's work has been crazy, which has led me to do more around the house and with the kids.  The good news is that after 6 weeks of at least one person being sick in our family, everyone is healthy.  Yay!!!

And my little baby had a birthday.  I can't believe he is one year old already.  I remember when he was born. 

And now . . .



We had a small family gathering to celebrate his birthday, and of course, I made him a special cake.

I took the kids to the store to get some decorations.  I wanted to specifically say 1st birthday, so I knew I was limited.  There were 2 for boys, one just blue, and one Sesame Street.  Sesame Street won.  Then I remembered that my friend made an Elmo cake for her daughter's birthday a couple of years ago, and sure enough she still had the directions and the cake pan.  I think it turned out pretty good.  For the cake, I used this recipe.  Now everyone is different when it comes to cakes, and I am not a huge cake fan (I said cake, not sweets people), but I thought this cake tasted amazing!  It's a little more dense than most cakes probably, but I thought it tasted awesome.  I did half organic whole wheat pastry flour and half organic unbleached white flour.  If you have to bake a cake anytime soon, I recommend this recipe. 

And here I am in hte kitchen cooking.  We had dinner at our house for the little guy's party.  I made hummus, homemade trail mix, spaghetti with 2 kinds of meatballs (one had meat and one did not), salad bar, garlic bread, and of course, the cake.  Dinner was a hit.  Everyone enjoyed it!

Everyone was not a fan of the party hats though.  I was lucky to get this one picture with my kids and their party hits (mine too of course).  I can't believe how big they are getting.

I wish I had pictures of the little guy eating his cake, but they wouldn't upload.  I will add them later if I can get it work.  Now Hope is a girly girl, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the way she is being raised.  She is all about skirts, dresses, princesses, and not getting sticky.  So one her first birthday, she was not into the whole cake in mouth thing.  It wasn't for her.  She didn't really even play with it.  Total bummer.  But my Aidan, he is a different story.  We gave him a whole eye of Elmo, so it was like his own individual cake.  He started out slow, but once he figured it it was a lot of yummy sugary stuff, he went crazy.  He had it all over his mouth, hands, it was . . . AWESOME!  I loved every minute of it.  I will never forget that moment. 

I then took the little guy into his 1 year appointment and he is weight is ok.  He is in the 7th percentile and still pretty picky about what he eats and how he eats it.  He only has 2 teeth still so I don't feel like I can give him much, but we are trying.  I am still nursing, but not as often and not in a rigid schedule like before.  He has had whole milk and had no problems with it.  I really struggle with what to give him.  He take organic whole milk with most meals and a little extra when I am not around, but he doesn't drink that much.  I nurse him anywhere between 2 and 4 times a day and then at night if he is waking up (he has been sick with an ear infection so I am currently nursing him when he wakes which is twice a night right now).  I am trying to be careful about soy with him because he is a boy, but the kid does like tofu. He hasn't had any meat, and doesn't like beans.  If there are any moms who have picky kids, tell me what you give them.  I refuse to have him eat chicken nuggets and mac and cheese every week.  We are doing what the ped recommends which is to just keep introducing the food over and over. 

Oh, and 4 days after the little guy's birthday, I celebrated my birthday.  The hubs did a great job for my birthday.  I felt very special.  And the cake I had was awesome!  It's a special place we get cakes for each other and they even come in vegan versions.