I’m in IL!

O.K. So, I’m not really in Illinois. But, on my jog across the country I crossed my second state and am now into Illinois. I won’t tell you how many years it’s taken to get this far, but I will share the cool site that I use to log my runs.

http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html

This is a completely free site that you can use to log your miles ran/walked/biked. You can pick teams or partners or just log your own path. It shows you a photo each day of exactly where you are along the path. I love seeing my little dot move and make it’s journey.

And this week that little dot made lots of progress because on Sunday, I completed my second half marathon. I didn’t really blog about this one because 1-I haven’t blogged about anything lately and 2-it was a pretty last minute decision to run this one. One of my best friends from college flew in for the weekend and I decided to go for it. I honestly didn’t train for this one. I’ve been running 3-4 days per week at about 3-4 miles a day, but I hadn’t been ramping up my distance like I did before the previous half. But, this time around I was far more confident. I knew what to expect and knew that I could finish. I also finished a good 14 minutes faster than the last time around! My goal was 3 hours, but a long line for the port-a-potty and a wait for a train (?!?) made my time 3:01:10. I’ll take it though! I will tell you, I was far more sore this time around. I was hobbled for a couple of days. But, I think that I’ve caught whatever it is that makes these runs addictive and I’ve already planned out my next 2 half marathons and one of them is even paid for.

So, I guess I should quickly update on other things since I’m actually sitting here typing. The biggest event here has been B’s weight loss. I will post before and after photos (if he will give me permission..) at some point. But, for now I’ll tell you he looks amazing. And I feel like I’m married to a totally different person. He has more energy and drive and I often lose him in a crowd (yes, he does look that different).

Second to that huge change has been what I posted about last time.. we have our new pup, Maggie. Next time I post, I’ll tell you about my exciting adventure with her the other night. For now, I’ll just say that she’s a joy and a handful and we’re all (well, at least myself and the kids!) in love with her.

All of the boys are chugging along in school. V celebrated his 100th day in K today. Big D recently got a 90% ( 🙂 ) on a book report. And little D asked me yesterday if he could invite his teacher to his birthday party–so, I take that as a good sign that he’s enjoying school. Miss Bean is still a drama queen. In fact, she’s crying right now. Sigh.

So, with that I’m back to “Mom” duty.