Grandma Woods visit to NC

Less than two weeks ago Colleen's mom (Grandma Woods to Avery!) called us and said "I won a few days vacation time in a work raffle and I have to use it by March 31st, are there any cheap flight to Raleigh from Manchester?"  Well we looked it up and there were indeed, so we had a nice surprise visit from Monday through Saturday of this week!

Now that Avery is talking so much, she really enjoyed her time with Grandma Woods, and we think Grandma Woods had a fun time playing with Avery too!

While she was here, cousins Charline and Christine came over and we had a big family dinner where Colleen made her delicious mushroom stroganoff, Jim made garlic cheese bread, and Grandma made lemon lavender cupcakes!

It was also nice having a babysitter so that we could finally go out for an "adult dinner"at Ruth Chris Steakhouse with just us two, to celebrate Jim's birthday.

It was a nice night and we sat out on the patio and have lobster, crab cakes, dessert, and coffee!

We also were able to go for an 11 mile run together (because of the baby sitting services!) as we are getting ready for Colleen's race (Run Raleigh Half Marathon) in 2 weeks, and both of us are running in the Flying Pirate Half Marathon in 3 weeks on the Outer Banks with cousins Lori and Scott participating and cousins Charline and Christine joining us in our 4 bedroom beach house!

Speaking of running, we ran last weekend in the Second Empire Classic 5k race

It was a hot Sunday afternoon to run so we didn't get our PRs, Jim's sub 19:00 and Colleen's sub 24:00 will have to wait for another time.  But Jim still finished 3rd in his age group and won a nice wine glass and gift certificate to a running store

And with her finish in that race Colleen is now 3rd in her age group in the spring race series we are running in.

Here is a determined Colleen during the race:

Jim with a pack of older guys trying to draft off of him:

And the pain of crossing the finishing line of a 5k, yes a short race really can hurt that much, especially on a hot day

(Jim read on a running blog about improving 5k times and a posting from a member of the US Olympic marathon team said he hates 5ks because they hurt and he equates trying for your 5k PR to: "Imagine holding your breath. Now imagine holding your breath for as long as you possible can.  Right at that moment when you have to exhale , hold your breath for 30 more seconds."   Yet we still really enjoy these races for some reason, that's how we know we are addicted!)

Thanks to Christine for baby sitting (and cheering us on!) for that race.  We had a great after-race dinner at our favorite Mexican place in town called Cantina 18 where the fish tacos and veggie tacos are yummy, and so are the Margaritas!

Birthday Marathon weekend and Virginia Beach trip

On Friday morning we drove 4 hours to Virigina Beach for a 4-day / 3-night trip to celebrate Jim's 35th birthday and for Jim to run his first full marathon!  He ran in the Shamrock Marathon on his actual birthday, Sunday the 18th.

We stayed at a Holiday Inn right on the beach and even had a direct ocean front room with a sliding door that led straight out to the beach and boardwalk!

Saturday was the Children's Marathon, kids 5 and under get to run 26.2 yards (as opposed to the marathon distance of 26.2 miles) and cross the same finish line that the big race uses!  They break up the groups into age groups so the 5 years olds don't trample the 1 year olds.  They even get their own t-shirt, bib numbers

and a finisher's medal when they cross the line! Avery had fun warming up:

But unfortunately they had everybody line up too early and the toddlers in Avery's 1-year group all got really bored waiting for too long; and Avery was so grumpy that daddy had to carry her across the finish line!

 Oh well, at least she enjoyed her finisher's medal:

 Avery also enjoyed seeing the large King Neptune statue on the boardwalk:

Also on Saturday afternoon we went to visit our friend Meg (Meg and her husband Chris used to live in San Diego, and got transfered via the Navy to Norfolk).  They now have a baby, Jocelyn!  Avery loved seeing "baby Jocelyn!"

On Sunday we got up early and Jim got prepared to race

And luckily were only 4 blocks from the start line so we walked on down.  Jim got a good-luck send-off before the race (yes that's Ronald McDonald in the background, we don't know why he's there!)

Then Colleen and Avery staked out a good spot to watch him run.

He got to see them at the start, again about the halfway mark, and finally right before the finish!  Having your name on the bib number was neat, because people would yell "Go Jim!" "Come on Jim finish strong!" "I poured this cup of water just for you Jim!"  It was neat having people yell your name at you to help push you through.

Jim's goal was a 3:20:00 finish and was running almost right on pace for the first 18 miles and then he got a leg cramp, but he kept running and slowed down the last 8 miles and finished at 3:38:16.  Even though he was a little disapointed he didn't make his goal time, he was very happy to finish his first marathon, and still finished in the top 12% overall and the top 24% of his very tough age group (males 35-39 years old).  Here are some race pics during the race, at mile 18:

A half mile from the finish:

Almost to the finish:

Here is shot Colleen got of him on the final stretch, his feet aren't even touching the ground and he has a smile on his face!

Here is waiving to Larry the Leprichan who announced all 14,000 finisher's name in that day's full and half marathon!

After the race photo with Jim's finisher's medal:

And got a photo in front of the sand castle:

Avery liked wearing daddy's finisher's hat (and she was still holding the cow bell she rang when daddy ran by!)

They had a huge finisher's party tent with a band playing and Yuengling Beer (the sponsor) and they claimed that this year they broke the record for number of kegs drank after the race (it was a St Patrick's Day theme after all, and there are priorities right??)  We enjoyed two beers each and did our part!

Since Jim cut out coffee the last four days before the race he was craving one, so after we left the beach party we went straight to Starbucks for a well-deserved venti sized latte.

That evening it cooled off a lot but we still went down to a large playground and Avery enjoyed playing!

We then did a quick dinner at a taco shop and got a Margarita, not a fancy birthday dinner but with a toddler what can you do right?  We all enjoyed hanging out for his birthday either way!

On Monday it was bright, sunny and warm again so we hit another beach playground:

Then we went to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk on the way out of town.

Since we are members of the NC Zoo they have recipricol memberships with most other zoos in the country so we figured we should check it out!

We saw some of Avery's favorite animals and then we headed home.  Once we got home that evening Colleen made Jim's favorite cake for his birthday:  white cake with chocolate chips baked into the cake, and white icing with chocolate chips in the icing.

Running!

We have been running a lot lately as you may have heard! We are running in this spring's Second Empire Grand Prix Series in the region. It consists of 10 races ranging from 5k, 10k, and half marathon distances. (They give you points for each race based on how you do and take your best 6 scores). There is an award luncheon at Second Empire Restaurant in Raleigh in July for everyone that completes the series--running in at least 6 races--and the top 3 in each age group get an award. We think we each have a shot at the top 3 in our age group!

The last three races we both set PRs in each race. Colleen is down to 24:20 (7:50 per mile) and Jim is down to 19:09 (6:09 per mile). Here is Colleen with her rose from Race For the Roses 5k.

In that race we got an award (gift certificates to a local running store called TrySports) because we were third overall for the couples competition (combined time).

At the NC Torch Run Jim got third in his age group and won a medal. Of course Avery likes to wear it around the house.

Here we are after the most recent race Run For The Oaks in downtown Raleigh.

Thanks to cousin Charline for watching Avery during the race and cheering us on!

Jim is running in his first full marathon on March 18th (his 35th birthday) at the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, then we each are running the Flying Pirate Half Marathon at the Outer Banks in late April with cousin Lori and her fiancé Scott. We have a beach house rented and look forward to that one! (Jim hopes to break 1:31 and Colleen hopes to break 1:57.) Also we are continuing our race series this spring in which Jim hopes to break a sub 19:00 and Colleen hopes to break a sub 24:00. The next two 5ks in the series are flat and fast (the last three were hilly) so hopefully we'll get it! We really enjoy running on some of our training runs we do together and love that we enjoy something in common so much!