Thanksgiving

We had a restful day with Adam's dad (Pete) and step-mom (Nancy), as well as some of Nancy's family. As we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal, we used our friend Jeff James' "Thanksgiving Dinner Activity Book" that he created for friends and work associates. The book was filled with questions about our Thanksgiving meal, Thanksgiving trivia, turkey facts, and scripture verses on thankfulness. We had fun conversation around our dinner table.



Here are the five of us on Thanksgiving. We love that Josh is smiling for this picture!

Gobble Gobble

We traveled to New York to be with Adam's dad and step-mom for Thanksgiving. They have a tradition of buying a fresh turkey from a local turkey farm, and have taken Andrew and Katie with them to pick up the turkey. The kids enjoy seeing live turkeys, as well as rabbits, ducks, chickens, turkey poop and lots of feathers! In the photos below, they are carrying out our turkey in its bag.

A Marathon Adventure: Final Installment

After a nice day in Philly and an easy drive to the Jersey shore, I settled in for a good night's rest in Long Branch, New Jersey. Prior to this little experiment, the shortest rest I had ever had between marathons was one month. I pushed that limit the other week when I ran Chicago with Cindy and then ran Delaware with only 10 days rest. And there I was...pushing it even harder...with only one day of rest in between my marathons.

Saturday morning was bright, sunny, and chilly. My sister, Stephanie, and her friend Alex came to eat sausage, pancakes, and ice cream watch me run, and I have them to thank for these pictures. The race started right on the boardwalk with a short pep talk and group picture with Dean.



Then we dug in for another 26.2 miles and I was surprised at how well I felt. I was a bit tired, but no soreness. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all? The course was a flat and simple double-loop course. Everything went fine, except our rolling police escort kept telling us to stop and slow down. Dean was running a bit slower that day in anticipation of his 50th marathon the following day in New York City and the police wanted all of us to stick together. Even with all the forced stops from the police we still finished in 4:15 and wrapped ourselves in these lovely mylar blankets.



The whole race went really well for me until the last quarter mile when I got really tired and light-headed. I didn't drink as much sports drink or eat as much Gu as usual, which is a mistake I'll try to not repeat. I was pretty tired afterward, but once I got a bit of food in me (bag of cereal, energy bar, two energy drinks, one piece of pizza, one large sandwich, one coke, one sprite) I felt great! I still had a two-hour drive back to the airport and then a two-hour flight to Chicago, so I'm glad I still had a little somethin' left.



Thanks to Steph and Alex for "crewing" me on this run. If I ever try an ultramarathon, I want them on my support team!



PS: The most amazing part about this little adventure? I had no soreness at all when I woke up on Sunday morning. In fact, I got up early and ran a few miles before church and it was a great way to speed up my recovery. Next up? Rock-n-Roll Arizona on January 14, 2007!

A Marathon Adventure: Round 2

Well, after a great marathon with Dean in Delaware I drove back to Philadelphia for a bit of rest. I took a nice walk around Philly and had an amazing dinner at Audrey Claire. If you're ever in the area, you MUST check this place out. Incredible food!



I also saw this restaurant with an uncanny name, but the food at Audrey Claire's was too good to pass up.



Anyway, Friday morning I woke up feeling better than I ever have after a marathon. I had a light breakfast at the hotel and then went to find Dean. He and 50 other runners were running the Philly Marathon course that day. I ran about five miles through the city streets that morning trying to find the group, but kept missing him and didn't wait to wear myself out. So I resigned myself to a Philly cheesesteak (good combo of carbs and protein, right?) and a drive to New Jersey for my second marathon in three days!





Stop by tomorrow for the third and final installment of my little marathon adventure...

A Marathon Adventure

I'm just catching up on recent events, but wanted to share my little adventure with you...

First, we should back up to Sunday, September 24. That's when I ran the Boulder Backroads Marathon in Colorado. I realize most folks don't consider running a marathon a "nice" vacation, but it's becoming more and more typical for us. I got to run with Dean Karnazes for a few minutes and it was a great run.



A month later, on October 22, Cindy and I ran the Chicago marathon together. While Grandpa Pete watched all three kids for us, we had a great run. The Chicago marathon is pretty much an annual tradition in our family and it was great to run it again.

Eleven days later, on November 2, I ran the Delaware marathon with Dean and 49 other runners. If you're not familiar with Dean, he's the guy who just finished running 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 consecutive days. He's the guy who runs 200 mile relay races...by himself. He's the guy who once ran 350 miles....without sleep.

Anyway, the Delaware course is basically four repeat loops of a 3.25 mile, out-and-back route. Not exactly scenic or exciting, but running with a small group of runners in a non-competitive environment was really a unique experience. It was a great run and I had a blast. The marathon is never easy, but I felt better than ever after that run.

This is what I looked like before the marathon:



And this is what Dean and I looked like after that marathon:



Watch for another installment tomorrow....

Halloween

Katie's preschool has an annual tradition of a costume parade for Halloween. The children and teachers dress up and march around the gym while parents gawk, grin and take lots of digital pictures! Katie was a cute little Snow White and Andrew dressed up as a fireman again! He loves that fireman costume.



My intention was to carve a pumpkin with help from the kids. However, Adam came up from his dungeon office and promptly took over. He obviously needed a creative outlet after a busy day at work! What is that green stuff on the pumpkin's head, you might ask yourself? Cilantro hair. The kids loved his creation.



We didn't do trick-or-treating, but went out to dinner instead. We wrapped up the evening with a special trip to the Wheaton candy shop. Needless to say, I think we were the only people paying for our candy that night!

Fluffy Comes Home to Visit

Katie is having a great year at Sunshine Preschool. She attends a threes class twice a week for half a day. One of the traditions at this great little preschool is that the children can bring home the class pet, a guinea pig, for the weekend. Well, it was our turn and the kids loved it (more than the parents).

Katie and Andrew were good helpers and enjoyed holding little Fluffy. Their favorite part was probably feeding her pieces of carrot.