Racing, a train show, and the Zoo

We've been busy the last week and have quite a few stories to catch up on.  Sunday we ran our first race since moving up here, we ran in the Parks Half Marathon, which goes from Rockville to downtown Bethesda.  (We used our neighborhood baby sitter and we were very lucky she was able to get here at 6am so we could get to the start on time!)  The neat part was not only did it mostly go on the Rock Creek Trail through the park, but it also went next to our house (well a few houses away) and took part on a portion of the trail that we run almost every day.  Over 2200 people ran it but luckily the course didn't hit the trail until mile 2 and people had a chance to spread out a bit.  Colleen got a nice "tattoo" before the race and looked ready at the start

Near the end the course goes on the Capital Crescent Trail and enters the tunnel under downtown Bethesda before veering off to a local park for the finish.  Here is Colleen exiting the tunnel heading for the finish, passing a guy on her way to a new PR of 1:51!

Here are both of us after the race, Jim got a PR too at 1:31.

Each of us beat our previous best by about 1 minute, not bad for two people who haven't raced in 4 months!

What better way to celebrate new PRs than to go to a train show...The little town of Kensington near us had a train show and Avery actually really liked it!  Even Jim was ready to go but we couldn't pry Avery from the train layouts.

And, since we were in the racing mood, Avery ran a race of her own!  We just joined the Montgomery County Road Runners Club (MCRRC) and they have lots of races throughout the year.  Once you are a member of MCRRC you get to run a lot of races for free.  They even have a kid's race which was this weekend at Cabin John Regional Park, so Avery was the first one to use the membership!  They had three events: a 1/4 mile, a 1/2 mile, and 1 mile race.  We put Avery in the 1/4 mile race, and she was in the heat for kids 3 and under (Parents were allowed to help!).  She loved getting her big bib number on and warming up...with her baby in tow at first

For some reason she felt the need to hold her bib number on even though it was pinned on!  Funny girl...

Here she is at the start line ready to go, baby in hand and bib number crumpled up

The blur of Speedy Avery with baby dangling precariously:

After the race Avery got a ribbon and some gummy worms to chew on:

  

Also, we have continued to go to the National Zoo here a lot!  It's just a few miles from our house, and free!  Avery loves seeing all the animals, and also loves the spray-ground they have there

Lastly, we finally found a great sushi place near us.  We've been to quite a few and while some are decent and some were not, none have really struck us.  The one we really like is called Yirasai in Bethesda.  It is really hard to find in a strange strip mall, they don't have a website, but wow are their rolls delicious!  Avery has even been working on her chop stick skills too: