As you can see by the new blog picture, Henry met Santa (or "Ho Ho" as he calls him). He did really well with the whole thing. He actually got even more excited when he spotted the Santa on the flag in front of Santa's shed and also the Santa hanging on the wall behind actual Santa.
He also met Santa at Valley Hospital, thanks to Grandma Pat Pat. We tagged along with her to the holiday event for work and got to see Santa there. We have a physical photo that I'll have to scan to put up online, it's pretty cute too.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
There's No Place Like Home
*I've been trying to get Blogger to post this since Monday!*
Well, we have finally moved our belongings into the new house! I'm not going to post any pictures just yet as the house is basically a giant collection of boxes that need to be unpacked. But have no fear they are coming! (I want to do some before/after pictures because the changes are amazing.)
We moved everything on Saturday. Thankfully we had help from Eddie's family (both physically moving and watching Henry) and our friend Meredith, who came to keep me company and help unpack boxes while the boys packed and unpacked the vans from storage. Meredith and I jammed to some Broadway CDs while unpacking the kitchen and laughed at some of the random finds in the kitchen boxes (like a framed picture from Eddie's HS prom!).
I am really excited to get everything in its place. Right now the downstairs bathroom is the only "finished" room in the house and it looks amazing. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Just have to find some appropriate wall art and it's truly done.
We will be hosting our first guests this weekend! Thankfully we have the guest bed put together and it utilizes the downstairs bathroom so they should be all set. I am excited for their visit and for our adventure in dining to Aldo's with them and some friends. Sooooo very tasty. I will be salivating over it all week!
Other than the house, things are going on as usual. Eddie has been busy reffing and Henry and I have been busy with things like swim class and talking about Santa. He can definitely recognize Santa when he sees him on TV, in books, in front of people's houses, etc. He makes the motion like saying Ho Ho Ho, with his hands on his belly, but doesn't make a sound. It's pretty funny. We saw Santa at the mall (didn't have a picture taken, just walked by him) and he got really excited.
He's also starting to get excited about Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. We hadn't watched it but he would pull the VHS off the shelf and point to Buzz. I'm not sure why he picked him over Woody or anyone else on the cover but he now gets excited to see him. Toy Story 2 was on TV yesterday so I put it on a for a few minutes and he recognized Buzz right away. He still gets excited about Mickey Mouse and a few other Disney characters. This makes Eddie and I really excited about bringing him to Disney World next month.
Running continues though we are now hitting the point where we will start to taper our distances a little. I'm not sure the science behind this (I'll have to google it) but it's weird to think I probably only have one or two more long runs to do before race day.
I think that's about all for now. I'm hoping to have some house pictures to post by later this week.
Well, we have finally moved our belongings into the new house! I'm not going to post any pictures just yet as the house is basically a giant collection of boxes that need to be unpacked. But have no fear they are coming! (I want to do some before/after pictures because the changes are amazing.)
We moved everything on Saturday. Thankfully we had help from Eddie's family (both physically moving and watching Henry) and our friend Meredith, who came to keep me company and help unpack boxes while the boys packed and unpacked the vans from storage. Meredith and I jammed to some Broadway CDs while unpacking the kitchen and laughed at some of the random finds in the kitchen boxes (like a framed picture from Eddie's HS prom!).
I am really excited to get everything in its place. Right now the downstairs bathroom is the only "finished" room in the house and it looks amazing. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Just have to find some appropriate wall art and it's truly done.
We will be hosting our first guests this weekend! Thankfully we have the guest bed put together and it utilizes the downstairs bathroom so they should be all set. I am excited for their visit and for our adventure in dining to Aldo's with them and some friends. Sooooo very tasty. I will be salivating over it all week!
Other than the house, things are going on as usual. Eddie has been busy reffing and Henry and I have been busy with things like swim class and talking about Santa. He can definitely recognize Santa when he sees him on TV, in books, in front of people's houses, etc. He makes the motion like saying Ho Ho Ho, with his hands on his belly, but doesn't make a sound. It's pretty funny. We saw Santa at the mall (didn't have a picture taken, just walked by him) and he got really excited.
He's also starting to get excited about Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. We hadn't watched it but he would pull the VHS off the shelf and point to Buzz. I'm not sure why he picked him over Woody or anyone else on the cover but he now gets excited to see him. Toy Story 2 was on TV yesterday so I put it on a for a few minutes and he recognized Buzz right away. He still gets excited about Mickey Mouse and a few other Disney characters. This makes Eddie and I really excited about bringing him to Disney World next month.
Running continues though we are now hitting the point where we will start to taper our distances a little. I'm not sure the science behind this (I'll have to google it) but it's weird to think I probably only have one or two more long runs to do before race day.
I think that's about all for now. I'm hoping to have some house pictures to post by later this week.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Ridgewood Concert Band
The ensemble that I play in has a concert tonight. I found out that they will be live-streaming it on the internet. So if any of you (not sure who actually reads this) are interested in watching our concert tonight, you can go to www.westside.org and then click on the "Videostreaming" link - it's the fourth one on the left side. The concert will be broadcast live starting at (or around) 7:30. There is a local high school playing a "prelude concert" for about a half hour so our programming should start around 8.
My favorite piece on the concert is Grainger's Children's March:
My favorite piece on the concert is Grainger's Children's March:
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Top Ten Tuesday: El Ocho
Okay...it's not Tuesday and this list does not have ten items...so it's the Wednesday Ocho edition.
My recent trip back to Virginia last month got me thinking about all of the neat places in commonwealth that I liked to visit. In no particular order, I give you:
El Ocho: Places To Visit in VA
Westmoreland State Park
(Website: http://dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/wes.shtml)
My parents and I spent a lot of time camping at this park while I was growing up. Besides a nice campground the river beach is fantastic for long walks mostly because of the cliffs that run along the shoreline. The Horsehead Cliffs have fossils including shark teeth and whale bones.
History Lesson: In prehistoric times, the ocean stretched all the way to the fall line (at Great Falls, above Washington on the Potomac). The cliffs developed from sediments that fell to the sea floor--thus explaining the abundance of shark teeth, whale remains, even sea crocodiles. The soft sediments preserved many of the bones and teeth. Scientists believe that about 2 million years ago, an ice age began and the polar ice caps began to expand. As a result, the sea level began to recede and fell to a point even lower than it is today. The Chesapeake Bay was turned into a river valley (of the Susquehanna). When the ice age ended (about 20,000 years ago), the ice melted and sea levels rose rapidly, flooding the river valleys and creating the Bay. Erosion, a natural process, continues to change the face of the lower Potomac. (Source: http://www.riverexplorer.com/pot166.htm))
We spent hundreds of hours during my childhood walking up and down the beach looking for shark teeth and have a pretty impressive collection of teeth and other fossils as a result. Shark Tooth Hunting has “ruined” walks on the beach for me because everywhere I go I tend to keep an eye out for teeth, whether or not they should be found at that particular beach or not.
Hollywood Cemetery
(website: http://hollywoodcemetery.org)
I love cemeteries. There, I said it. There is something really interesting about them for me. I think it’s because I like to read the headstones and use my imagination to create whole life stories out of them. I also think they are great for photographing, especially the older ones. Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond is probably my favorite cemetery for its historic and visual offerings.
It was opened in 1849 and is the resting place to two presidents (Monroe and Tyler), Confederate States President Jefferson Davis, 18,000 enlisted men of the Confederate Army, prominent figures from Virginia history, and everyday people.
The cemetery is fairly large (130 acres) and is great for strolling. The views of Richmond and the river are great and the graves themselves are pretty interesting with sculptures, monuments, etc. If you are in Richmond on a nice day, I highly recommend stopping here.
Monpelier
(website: http://www.montpelier.org/)
What list of my favorite Virginia places could be complete without a little visit to the home of one of my favorite presidents, James Madison?! The Madison family moved to the plantation in 1723 but the house that we now know as Montpelier wasn’t built until around 1764. The surroundings are just fantastic (sweeping fields, trees, etc.) and the house itself is pretty awesome, especially now that they have restored it to the James Madison era. I have had the pleasure of seeing the home in three different states….in the DuPont family renovation setting (they owned the house after the Madison family and made quite a few changes), during the restoration process (walls were stripped down to the beams, old doorways were being found, little bits of paper with James Madison’s handwriting discovered in a very old mouse nest, etc.) and again after the restoration was completed.
If you like history, old homes, drives down winding country roads, this is great place to visit. Do it in the fall. It’s amazing.
Monticello
(website: http://www.monticello.org/)
If you go see Jimmy’s place, why not go see Thomas Jefferson’s down the road?!
Built in 1772, Monticello is a fascinating home to visit, mostly because Jefferson himself was a fascinating man. (Plus it’s up on a hill overlooking the Valley…wonderful!) Some of my favorite things: the Great Clock in the entry hall that Jefferson designed himself (in order for it to work Jefferson had to cut a hole in the floor so that it could hang down into the basement), the artifacts from the Lewis and Clark expedition and a device that allows someone to write two identical letters at once (his own invention). I just think Jefferson is a really interesting character in our Nation’s history and was a real genius.
Fun fact: I took my first photograph at Monticello. It was of my parents sitting on the steps.
Colonial Williamsburg
(website: http://www.history.org/ Pretty impressive that they snagged that address!)
What history nerd wouldn’t love walking around a town full of authentic buildings and people in costume/character while munching on a gingerbread cookie baked in a real fire oven?! I love CW. I got spoiled living near it for a few years because I would take quick trips in the afternoons during the week when it wasn’t crowded and just enjoy the atmosphere.
Some of my favorite things in CW:
-Wythe’s Candy Store in Merchant Square…I especially love their rock candy and browsing their selection of candies.
-College Delly (http://www.collegedelly.com) My parents have been eating here for decades and I inherited their love of their sandwiches. A Chandler served hot is the family favorite. The restaurant is located next to the William and Mary campus and is very much a college place.
-The Raleigh Tavern Bakeshop in the middle of CW has tasty treats. Our family favorite are the gingerbread cakes/cookies and apple cider. Perfect snack on a spring or fall day while walking around taking in the sites.
Arlington National Cemetery
(website: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/)
Yes, another cemetery but for very different reasons. Arlington Cemetery has a very different feel from any other cemetery I’ve been to. The solemn beauty of JFK’s eternal flame, the ceaseless repetition of the footsteps of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the overwhelming sea of white headstones that gleam in the sunlight, reading the names of the men and women that sacrificed their lives for our country. It’s all so beautiful in a very patriotic and moving way.
Busch Gardens
(Website: http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw)
This amusement park is a fantastic way to spend a day, night, afternoon, etc. We lived close enough to where we had season passes and would hop up after work for a few hours of fun. I’m a fan of rollercoasters and the park is great for that sort of thing, obviously. However, it’s also a really clean and pretty park so even going just to walk around is fun. They have a few live music shows that are a lot of fun too, though they have cut some of them in the last few years because of budget stuff. But there is still a really fun polka show in the Festhaus, which is my favorite place to eat in the park.
Other highlights:
-Griffon: My favorite rollercoaster at the park. You go up 205 feet into the air, the car (3 rows of 10 seats) sneaks up to the edge of the drop and then stops. If you are in the front row you hang there, looking straight down for what feels like forever before plunging 90 degrees straight toward the ground at racing speeds faster than 70 miles per hour. It’s pretty awesome. And don’t listen to what they tell you about each row having the same ride experience… The ONLY way to ride it is in the front row.
-Beer School/Brew Master’s Club: R.I.P.: Because Busch Gardens was previously owned by Anheuser-Busch they had a beer-tasting component to the park. Beer School was a place where they would show you a powerpoint about how they made beer and then ask questions of the group. At the end you would try a bunch of samples and then be bestowed your “Beer School” diploma. A few years of graduates later they turned the Beer School into the Brew Master’s Club, which was a more intellectual beer-tasting experience. It was actually pretty neat. You got seated in small groups and had a person assigned to you that talked about the different beers and other Anheuser-Busch products. Once they went through their little talk you had a certain number of samples you could have from a menu of their products. The cool part was that they had cheese, crackers, chocolate and fruit at the tables to eat while having the samples and they taught while should be paired with whatever you had chosen to drink. It was a really neat way to try new things that you might not, have some free drinks, relax in air conditioning and then head back out to the park. Sadly when A-B sold the park they got rid of it.
-Celtic Fyre: It’s like a mini-Riverdance production. It’s super-fun and a great place to sit and enjoy AC on a warm day…plus I’m a sucker for Irish dancing and bodhrans. (The show changes every few seasons and has different names, Celtic Fyre is what it is currently.)
Fort Monroe
(Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monroe)
(NPS page: http://www.nps.gov/fomr/index.htm)
The fort was just declared a National Monument after being an active Army base. The season I like the fort is best summed up by the blurb on the National Park website: “Fort Monroe National Monument spans the American story from the 17th to the 21st centuries: Captain John Smith's journeys, a haven of freedom for the enslaved during the Civil War, and a bastion of defense for the Chesapeake Bay.” In other words, tons of nerdy history to be learned. The Casemate Museum within the Fortress walls is a really great Civil War museum if you like that sort of thing. My only complaint about the museum was it has a lot of mannequins dressed up in uniforms and period clothes, acting out different facets of fortress life during the Civil War. I found them incredibly creepy…this picture is an example:
The fort is great for walking around (both in and out of the walls) because of the older houses, the location right on the water, the fortress walls and moat, etc. Great history, neat location. Worth a trip, especially now that the NPS will be involved.
------------------
I'm sure there are plenty of places that I'm leaving out but these are the places that came to mind when I was thinking about all of the great places in VA. I may have to do a Part II.
My recent trip back to Virginia last month got me thinking about all of the neat places in commonwealth that I liked to visit. In no particular order, I give you:
El Ocho: Places To Visit in VA
Westmoreland State Park
(Website: http://dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/wes.shtml)
My parents and I spent a lot of time camping at this park while I was growing up. Besides a nice campground the river beach is fantastic for long walks mostly because of the cliffs that run along the shoreline. The Horsehead Cliffs have fossils including shark teeth and whale bones.
History Lesson: In prehistoric times, the ocean stretched all the way to the fall line (at Great Falls, above Washington on the Potomac). The cliffs developed from sediments that fell to the sea floor--thus explaining the abundance of shark teeth, whale remains, even sea crocodiles. The soft sediments preserved many of the bones and teeth. Scientists believe that about 2 million years ago, an ice age began and the polar ice caps began to expand. As a result, the sea level began to recede and fell to a point even lower than it is today. The Chesapeake Bay was turned into a river valley (of the Susquehanna). When the ice age ended (about 20,000 years ago), the ice melted and sea levels rose rapidly, flooding the river valleys and creating the Bay. Erosion, a natural process, continues to change the face of the lower Potomac. (Source: http://www.riverexplorer.com/pot166.htm))
We spent hundreds of hours during my childhood walking up and down the beach looking for shark teeth and have a pretty impressive collection of teeth and other fossils as a result. Shark Tooth Hunting has “ruined” walks on the beach for me because everywhere I go I tend to keep an eye out for teeth, whether or not they should be found at that particular beach or not.
Hollywood Cemetery
(website: http://hollywoodcemetery.org)
I love cemeteries. There, I said it. There is something really interesting about them for me. I think it’s because I like to read the headstones and use my imagination to create whole life stories out of them. I also think they are great for photographing, especially the older ones. Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond is probably my favorite cemetery for its historic and visual offerings.
It was opened in 1849 and is the resting place to two presidents (Monroe and Tyler), Confederate States President Jefferson Davis, 18,000 enlisted men of the Confederate Army, prominent figures from Virginia history, and everyday people.
The cemetery is fairly large (130 acres) and is great for strolling. The views of Richmond and the river are great and the graves themselves are pretty interesting with sculptures, monuments, etc. If you are in Richmond on a nice day, I highly recommend stopping here.
Monpelier
(website: http://www.montpelier.org/)
What list of my favorite Virginia places could be complete without a little visit to the home of one of my favorite presidents, James Madison?! The Madison family moved to the plantation in 1723 but the house that we now know as Montpelier wasn’t built until around 1764. The surroundings are just fantastic (sweeping fields, trees, etc.) and the house itself is pretty awesome, especially now that they have restored it to the James Madison era. I have had the pleasure of seeing the home in three different states….in the DuPont family renovation setting (they owned the house after the Madison family and made quite a few changes), during the restoration process (walls were stripped down to the beams, old doorways were being found, little bits of paper with James Madison’s handwriting discovered in a very old mouse nest, etc.) and again after the restoration was completed.
If you like history, old homes, drives down winding country roads, this is great place to visit. Do it in the fall. It’s amazing.
Monticello
(website: http://www.monticello.org/)
If you go see Jimmy’s place, why not go see Thomas Jefferson’s down the road?!
Built in 1772, Monticello is a fascinating home to visit, mostly because Jefferson himself was a fascinating man. (Plus it’s up on a hill overlooking the Valley…wonderful!) Some of my favorite things: the Great Clock in the entry hall that Jefferson designed himself (in order for it to work Jefferson had to cut a hole in the floor so that it could hang down into the basement), the artifacts from the Lewis and Clark expedition and a device that allows someone to write two identical letters at once (his own invention). I just think Jefferson is a really interesting character in our Nation’s history and was a real genius.
Fun fact: I took my first photograph at Monticello. It was of my parents sitting on the steps.
Colonial Williamsburg
(website: http://www.history.org/ Pretty impressive that they snagged that address!)
What history nerd wouldn’t love walking around a town full of authentic buildings and people in costume/character while munching on a gingerbread cookie baked in a real fire oven?! I love CW. I got spoiled living near it for a few years because I would take quick trips in the afternoons during the week when it wasn’t crowded and just enjoy the atmosphere.
Some of my favorite things in CW:
-Wythe’s Candy Store in Merchant Square…I especially love their rock candy and browsing their selection of candies.
-College Delly (http://www.collegedelly.com) My parents have been eating here for decades and I inherited their love of their sandwiches. A Chandler served hot is the family favorite. The restaurant is located next to the William and Mary campus and is very much a college place.
-The Raleigh Tavern Bakeshop in the middle of CW has tasty treats. Our family favorite are the gingerbread cakes/cookies and apple cider. Perfect snack on a spring or fall day while walking around taking in the sites.
Arlington National Cemetery
(website: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/)
Yes, another cemetery but for very different reasons. Arlington Cemetery has a very different feel from any other cemetery I’ve been to. The solemn beauty of JFK’s eternal flame, the ceaseless repetition of the footsteps of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the overwhelming sea of white headstones that gleam in the sunlight, reading the names of the men and women that sacrificed their lives for our country. It’s all so beautiful in a very patriotic and moving way.
Busch Gardens
(Website: http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw)
This amusement park is a fantastic way to spend a day, night, afternoon, etc. We lived close enough to where we had season passes and would hop up after work for a few hours of fun. I’m a fan of rollercoasters and the park is great for that sort of thing, obviously. However, it’s also a really clean and pretty park so even going just to walk around is fun. They have a few live music shows that are a lot of fun too, though they have cut some of them in the last few years because of budget stuff. But there is still a really fun polka show in the Festhaus, which is my favorite place to eat in the park.
Other highlights:
-Griffon: My favorite rollercoaster at the park. You go up 205 feet into the air, the car (3 rows of 10 seats) sneaks up to the edge of the drop and then stops. If you are in the front row you hang there, looking straight down for what feels like forever before plunging 90 degrees straight toward the ground at racing speeds faster than 70 miles per hour. It’s pretty awesome. And don’t listen to what they tell you about each row having the same ride experience… The ONLY way to ride it is in the front row.
-Beer School/Brew Master’s Club: R.I.P.: Because Busch Gardens was previously owned by Anheuser-Busch they had a beer-tasting component to the park. Beer School was a place where they would show you a powerpoint about how they made beer and then ask questions of the group. At the end you would try a bunch of samples and then be bestowed your “Beer School” diploma. A few years of graduates later they turned the Beer School into the Brew Master’s Club, which was a more intellectual beer-tasting experience. It was actually pretty neat. You got seated in small groups and had a person assigned to you that talked about the different beers and other Anheuser-Busch products. Once they went through their little talk you had a certain number of samples you could have from a menu of their products. The cool part was that they had cheese, crackers, chocolate and fruit at the tables to eat while having the samples and they taught while should be paired with whatever you had chosen to drink. It was a really neat way to try new things that you might not, have some free drinks, relax in air conditioning and then head back out to the park. Sadly when A-B sold the park they got rid of it.
-Celtic Fyre: It’s like a mini-Riverdance production. It’s super-fun and a great place to sit and enjoy AC on a warm day…plus I’m a sucker for Irish dancing and bodhrans. (The show changes every few seasons and has different names, Celtic Fyre is what it is currently.)
Fort Monroe
(Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monroe)
(NPS page: http://www.nps.gov/fomr/index.htm)
The fort was just declared a National Monument after being an active Army base. The season I like the fort is best summed up by the blurb on the National Park website: “Fort Monroe National Monument spans the American story from the 17th to the 21st centuries: Captain John Smith's journeys, a haven of freedom for the enslaved during the Civil War, and a bastion of defense for the Chesapeake Bay.” In other words, tons of nerdy history to be learned. The Casemate Museum within the Fortress walls is a really great Civil War museum if you like that sort of thing. My only complaint about the museum was it has a lot of mannequins dressed up in uniforms and period clothes, acting out different facets of fortress life during the Civil War. I found them incredibly creepy…this picture is an example:
The fort is great for walking around (both in and out of the walls) because of the older houses, the location right on the water, the fortress walls and moat, etc. Great history, neat location. Worth a trip, especially now that the NPS will be involved.
------------------
I'm sure there are plenty of places that I'm leaving out but these are the places that came to mind when I was thinking about all of the great places in VA. I may have to do a Part II.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Beth's Running Update
Work it harder, make it better,
do it faster, makes us stronger,
more than ever, never over,
Our work is never over.
Now that don't kill me
Can only make me stronger
Yes, I just quoted Kanye West in my blog. (For my older readers, he's a rapper.) I picked this quote to open this entry because it is on my running playlist and the "What doesn't kill you..." quote was also used by my running partner yesterday morning. (He's a blog reader so...Hello!) More on this run later.
I don't want to turn this into a running blog but it's become a larger part of our lives since we are now only 34 days away from the Disney Half-Marathon so I would imagine that it'll come up a few more times in the next month! My training hit the 200 mile mark this week and I am feeling pretty good about it. It's amazing how something that used to be hard and unsatisfying can become enjoyable. Not that it isn't still hard...because it is, but in a productive kind of way. (I've also learned how much of running is a mental game....for me, even moreso than physical.)
I can't speak for Eddie or the siblings also running a Disney race in January but it's been fun to have a long-range goal this year. Now that we are closer and my mileage is picking up it is starting to feel real...and attainable! It's fun to think back on our first 5K on Memorial Day when some of us couldn't even run the whole thing!
I had a series of successful runs when we were visiting my parents. My first run back up here was not a good one. I got up early to try to do 10 miles and had to fight myself to keep going to get to 7. It was my first really frustrating and "bad" run but as Eddie pointed out, I still got out there and ran 7 miles! Since that "bad" run I did a 4 miler alone and then had an adventure yesterday morning.
*Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the name and identifying details have been changed to protect the identity of my running partner, who is a fugitive…or not.*
I mentioned that I ran with someone else during the introduction to this entry. I met Mahoney when I started playing in the Widgerood Kazoo Brigade earlier this year. I was placed next to him and I am very glad. Turns out that besides a stellar kazoo player and Pulitzer-prize winning journalist he's also a runner. We had chatted about running on and off as my training picked up and last month we ran together. (My first 60-minute 6 miler, in fact, which was a big accomplishment for me and a wake-up about what I might be capable of.) We decided to run again since he could push me (because he's too new of a friend to say "Bite me!" to when he is pushing the pace or taking me up big hills) and could teach me a few things.
Yesterday we took off pre-dawn for Garret Mountain Reservation a few towns over. After a little bit of adventure getting there (read: scenic tour of Paterson) we parked the car and took off UP the mountain. (Of course it’s no Everest, but pretty darn hilly.) Once we got to the top we could see a "sweeping vista" (from the website) of Paterson and beyond as the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. From the Google research I had done prior I knew that I would probably be able to see NYC at some point, which was exciting.
Since Mahoney is familiar with the trail system in the park we picked up a trail for a good part of the run. It was my first trail run and it was pretty interesting and quite different from the neighborhood roads on Ridgewood. It was weird to have to really watch my step, “hurdle” (which for me meant stepping gingerly over) downed trees and figure out how not to tumble down leaf-covered downhill trails. Because we were running on a mountain there was a lot of up and down and my legs were definitely feeling it (and still are). On the plus side, the scenery was pretty great: handful of deer (some pretty close up!), a red-tailed hawk, a plastic bag in a tree that Mahoney thought was a hawk, etc. We also took detour off the trail to hit up to a scenic overlook where we could see the sun coming up over the NYC skyline. (This was the highlight of the run for me.) I had my phone so I snapped a quick picture (and caught my breath a little!) and we kept on.
Sadly you can't really see the skyline in thie photo, but it's there.)
While the run mileage was only 5.65 miles it felt like a heck of a lot more because of the terrain. My legs were burning and I was pretty beat by the end of it but it was a good run. (Hill work is supposed to help strength, which helps with distance.) I quite enjoyed the new running experience (trail) and am thankful for Mahoney for his encouragement and for pushing me to be a better runner.
do it faster, makes us stronger,
more than ever, never over,
Our work is never over.
Now that don't kill me
Can only make me stronger
Yes, I just quoted Kanye West in my blog. (For my older readers, he's a rapper.) I picked this quote to open this entry because it is on my running playlist and the "What doesn't kill you..." quote was also used by my running partner yesterday morning. (He's a blog reader so...Hello!) More on this run later.
I don't want to turn this into a running blog but it's become a larger part of our lives since we are now only 34 days away from the Disney Half-Marathon so I would imagine that it'll come up a few more times in the next month! My training hit the 200 mile mark this week and I am feeling pretty good about it. It's amazing how something that used to be hard and unsatisfying can become enjoyable. Not that it isn't still hard...because it is, but in a productive kind of way. (I've also learned how much of running is a mental game....for me, even moreso than physical.)
I can't speak for Eddie or the siblings also running a Disney race in January but it's been fun to have a long-range goal this year. Now that we are closer and my mileage is picking up it is starting to feel real...and attainable! It's fun to think back on our first 5K on Memorial Day when some of us couldn't even run the whole thing!
I had a series of successful runs when we were visiting my parents. My first run back up here was not a good one. I got up early to try to do 10 miles and had to fight myself to keep going to get to 7. It was my first really frustrating and "bad" run but as Eddie pointed out, I still got out there and ran 7 miles! Since that "bad" run I did a 4 miler alone and then had an adventure yesterday morning.
*Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the name and identifying details have been changed to protect the identity of my running partner, who is a fugitive…or not.*
I mentioned that I ran with someone else during the introduction to this entry. I met Mahoney when I started playing in the Widgerood Kazoo Brigade earlier this year. I was placed next to him and I am very glad. Turns out that besides a stellar kazoo player and Pulitzer-prize winning journalist he's also a runner. We had chatted about running on and off as my training picked up and last month we ran together. (My first 60-minute 6 miler, in fact, which was a big accomplishment for me and a wake-up about what I might be capable of.) We decided to run again since he could push me (because he's too new of a friend to say "Bite me!" to when he is pushing the pace or taking me up big hills) and could teach me a few things.
Yesterday we took off pre-dawn for Garret Mountain Reservation a few towns over. After a little bit of adventure getting there (read: scenic tour of Paterson) we parked the car and took off UP the mountain. (Of course it’s no Everest, but pretty darn hilly.) Once we got to the top we could see a "sweeping vista" (from the website) of Paterson and beyond as the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. From the Google research I had done prior I knew that I would probably be able to see NYC at some point, which was exciting.
Since Mahoney is familiar with the trail system in the park we picked up a trail for a good part of the run. It was my first trail run and it was pretty interesting and quite different from the neighborhood roads on Ridgewood. It was weird to have to really watch my step, “hurdle” (which for me meant stepping gingerly over) downed trees and figure out how not to tumble down leaf-covered downhill trails. Because we were running on a mountain there was a lot of up and down and my legs were definitely feeling it (and still are). On the plus side, the scenery was pretty great: handful of deer (some pretty close up!), a red-tailed hawk, a plastic bag in a tree that Mahoney thought was a hawk, etc. We also took detour off the trail to hit up to a scenic overlook where we could see the sun coming up over the NYC skyline. (This was the highlight of the run for me.) I had my phone so I snapped a quick picture (and caught my breath a little!) and we kept on.
Sadly you can't really see the skyline in thie photo, but it's there.)
While the run mileage was only 5.65 miles it felt like a heck of a lot more because of the terrain. My legs were burning and I was pretty beat by the end of it but it was a good run. (Hill work is supposed to help strength, which helps with distance.) I quite enjoyed the new running experience (trail) and am thankful for Mahoney for his encouragement and for pushing me to be a better runner.
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