Welcome to May! May is off to a chilly start, just like the ending of April. Whomp whomp! We’ve had a taste of the 70 degree days and I’m ready for it! The flowers are blooming and we are still wearing warm jackets. Boo! It was race week (Glass City) and graduation week, and “the college kids are back” week (yay!!). I biked 20 miles and ran only 15 miles (still need 5 more miles to get my weekly goal!). Here’s what went down in my world….
Sunday – Glass City Marathon! Race day has finally arrived. Simple recap: I ran the 4th out of 5 legs on the marathon relay. I hoped to be under 9:00 for the 5.8 miles, but ended up with 9:04 average. Close enough!! This was my 15th year participating in an event at Glass City. My relay team was comprised of my coworkers. We finished in 5:21. It wasn’t a competition between our two company relay teams, but sure enough my team did finish before the other team by 19 mins. Just saying 😉
The bigger news was that Glass City had a first time marathoner run the full in 2:05!!!! WHAT?! Yes, 2:05. That shattered the course record of 2:19. It was a crazy surprise because the winner is from Ohio and isn’t sponsored. Woah, big things ahead for him! And, that was also an Olympic Trials Qualifier for him. Amazing!! And hey, how about those two guys that went sub 2hrs in London today? What a great day of racing all around. Toledo is now on the map and I bet GCM gets a lot of new runners in the future. I hope so, it is a pretty great race!
Mon – 3 miles running, 20 miles biking, gym visit. It was a well rounded day of working out and being social. I went out to lunch with a friend (oops, no pictures). The temperature got up to 72 today so I couldn’t resist a longer bike ride after lunch. I decided to go for a ride in a direction that isn’t my usual route and I crossed paths with my daughter who was on a walk with her friend. What a fun, random surprise!
Tues – Rest day! Garmin begged me to take a rest day, and I agreed 🙂 I had a crazy evening. I received free tickets to a dance performance downtown, so I figured it would be a nice night out with my Mom. We went out to dinner beforehand, quite early at 5pm. However, the service was super slow and our server kept messing things up. We arrived at the venue at 6:10, for a 6:30 performance. It was general admission so I hoped to get good seats although we were a bit late. Imagine my surprise to learn that the time on our tickets was messed up (we got the tickets through a 3rd party) and the show wasn’t until 7:30!! Nope, no way we were going to sit around for over an hour waiting for the performance so we just called it a night. At least we tried! It was great weather so I went for an evening walk when I got home.
Weds – 4 miles treadmill. Early morning run before work. Nothing much happening today!
Thurs – 4 mile run. I ran along the river this morning. There were a lot of people out enoying the sunshine, even though it was chilly (44 degrees!). I also saw several baby geese. Awwww!
Fri – 4 miles treadmill. I hit the basement again for my morning workout. The workout room got an upgrade. I finally hung the Berlin Marathon poster! It’s a bit smaller than our other Majors posters but just as memorable. And here is photographic proof for my husband that I do use our BOSU ball. And… Zach is home from college. Woohoo!!
Sat – 2 mile walk. It’s graduation day!! What an exciting day for Sydney and a proud day for us parents! I told my son that the graduation ceremony is really for the parents, which was so true. Such a big milestone in life.
Sun – Running? Donuts? Most importantly… it’s packing day! Did I mention we are leaving for Italy on Weds? I can’t wait!!!!!
Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Random item of the week… remember I was oh so busy creating a Shutterfly photo book? Each page was created by me in Photoshop Elements and then I uploaded each page to the book. It ended up having 93 pages! Well, when I received the book I noticed that pages 62-65 were missing!! How bizarre! Shutterfly support confirmed they were in the book I ordered, so they reprinted it for me. I’m glad it wasn’t just shipped to someone as a gift. Yay for them fixing the issue, but what the heck??
Q: Have you ever run on a relay team?
Q: Have you ever been to Rome??
Congrats Sydney!!! And how fun with the relay team. And OMG I was watching all of that about the Toledo marathon. How cool is that! It was pretty awesome to watch. I had a few friends running that day too. I went to Rome in college with my family, so it’s been a long time since I’ve been back! I would love to go back.
That fast finish will definitely bring more runners to Toledo. It was a great day of racing, especially with the first place lady getting her OTQ. Woohoo!
What a week! Those marathon paces are crazy — and for a first time marathoner??!!
Congrats to your daughter. I agree the ceremonies are mostly for the parents and grandparents. I guess the students tolerate them so they can go to the parties after. 😉
It sure was a crazy fast finish time. Wish I would have been there to see it!
Congrats to your daughter (and the parents) on her college graduation!
Congrats to your work team on beating the other team in the relay. Even though you weren’t officially racing, you still won. 😉
Yes, to both of your questions! I participated in five Ragnar Relays and was in Rome in 2011. What a great trip you have ahead of you! Where else are you going while in Italy?
Itinerary includes Lake Garda, Verona, Venice and Rome. I’ve been deep into planning this trip for a while so I’m looking forward to seeing it in person!
Whoa, Rome!!! Yes, I have been there. How exciting. And, congratulations to Sydney! I definitely agree that graduation is more for the parents. When we went to my son’s graduation last year, he was so busy (he was playing for all the graduation ceremonies) that I got the feeling it was a hassle for him to actually have to graduate as well. What is she doing next???
That’s crazy, a first time marathoner went 2:05??? AND I KNOW. LONDON!!! I keep thinking about the guy who broke 2 hours but came in second- he’s probably like WTF???
Safe travels!
The job search will start after our trip and she’ll be moving back home (yay!).
Yep that 2nd guy who went under two had his bubble burst a bit!! I feel a bit sad for him!
That’s great news about the record time at Glass City! Lots of records in marathons these days!
It sounds like you had a great, fun week. I can’t wait to hear more about your trip to Italy! What’s the planned itinerary? I haven’t been to Rome (other than airports) since 2016. I’m not fond of the big cities, but Rome is special with so much to see!
That’s a big bummer about the Shutterfly book. You just have to be able to trust that kind of service!! Well done doing it all in PS Elements! Are there templates for photobooks or did you create it from scratch?
I just make the pages on my own. For the type of book I just made (a holiday recap) it’s pretty much the same template so all pages look the same. Still, it takes about 30 mins a page with picking out pictures and writing text. I’m burned out now LOL
We’re going to Lake Garda, Verona, Venice and Rome!
Relay teams are fun! Although I’ve done the Market-to-Relay numerous times, I have also done the Quad Cities Marathon twice on a relay team. It’s a great teamwork endeavor! Congrats to the graduate!!!
It was fun to have first time runners in our relay team. Quite an accomplishment for them!
Nice week, Lisa! I had read about that guy who ran GCM in 2:05 and had the same thoughts about his future. I love an underdog story, and this was so great to see. How has he been undiscovered for so long?
I have probably run a relay sometime in my many years of running, but in the moment, I don’t remember, lol. I guess it wasn’t an outstanding experience for me. :p
Have a great time in Italy! I’ve never been. And congrats to your daughter! What’s next for her?
Sydney has been very busy with classes so job hunting will happen after the trip. Until then, she’ll be back home (yay!!).
It was a crazy fast finish. Wish I would have been there to see it!
Congratulations to your daughter-and you! I do love a good Italy trip! I know you love to travel as much as I do-have the best time
Thanks! I’m looking forward to the trip!!