Green Mountain Mile

We celebrated our "Fourth of July" in Waterbury on Saturday, June 26. Yes, we get our celebration taken care of early around here. The celebration consists of a parade, fireworks, and, in recent years, a mile run. My husband came up with the idea to have a mile race right before the parade. It works out well since Main Street is already closed to traffic and all the parade spectators are great fans.

My daughter, Ava, is a veteran racer, having run the mile at ages four, five, and six. I told Julia that she could run when she was four and so this was her race debut. I was curious if she'd be up for the run as she does not always have the same motivation as her older sister. Boy, did she impress me. She moved along well. I kept pointing out people and attractions up ahead to motivate her until she said, "Stop talking, Mommy."

A bunch of young kids ran the race, with 200 participants in all. It's a great family event and the money funds cross country skiing at our local elementary school. I think the race has become as much of a highlight of the day as the parade. A fire truck doesn't look so exciting after you've seen two or three.

School Ends, Summer Begins

This time of year I have no trouble getting the family out and being fit, it's most everything else that gets neglected - the blog, house cleaning, bills, and general household organization. We have so many things to do and places to go that before we've unpacked from one event, we're ready for another. But, we're having a good time. A couple of highlights lately - joining friends for swimming and staying at a camp on Lake Champlain. The dads braved the high dives.

And the girls and I just took a leisurely walk/run and played in a brook not far from our house.

This weekend we head to NH for daddy to run in the Mt. Washington Hill Climb.

Marathon Mom and Dad

Our six-year-old told us that it was okay to have an ice cream last night since we were done with the marathon. Tom and I both ran the Vermont City Marathon on Sunday and we'd been limiting sweets and other processed foods to stay light on our feet for the 26.2 miles.

We had a great marathon day. The daunting forecast of 80-something degrees didn't prevail. Instead we had an overcast sky with temps in the 60s and a cross-breeze from Lake Champlain -- perfect. I was lucky to have a good friend to run with and the miles actually flew by (with the help of some bands along the way) until mile 20. Yup, I tightened up some and the 8-minute pace, or thereabouts, slowed to 8:50, but I didn't crash and still made it to the finish under 3:40 (Boston qualifying time for me) with a 3:37. Tom blazed through earlier at 2:53 making him the 5th finisher in Vermont. That's why when people ask if we train together, I laugh.

Even though, Tom and I have very different speeds, our training has been pretty much the same. We had a lot to talk about after the marathon: How were your allergies? Did you see all that white stuff on Pine Street? Do you think anyone high-fived the eagle (radio mascot) on the Beltway? That last mile was brutal.

Part of us felt a little sad that our kids didn't see us cross the finish line, but with the way we were walking afterward I figure we had little chance of keeping up with our kids, especially our four-year-old who still likes to take off at times.

We've already got a tinge of interest in running next year, but for now we're letting the mileage log have an empty page and we're enjoying an occasional ice cream.