This post is like a middle school essay on "how I spent my summer vacation" only with less sunburn. After spending the day at an SCA event and falling asleep at 11pm last night, I got up at 7am to shower and head to the oceanfront. I ran in my very first 5K race today! Since I come from a family that largely ignores birthdays, this was a fine way for me to spend my morning.

There were 11 of us in our little group (Team Emotion in Motion) that gathered to run. This was the Beacon of Hope 5K for I Need a Lighthouse, raising money for depression education and suicide prevention. Poor Chris was too sick to come but was with us in spirit. I was very proud of all of us as we all had a great performance.

My official results are that there were 308 finishers in the race and 59 finishers in the women 30-39 age bracket. I was 201st in the overall and 37th in my age bracket. I ran it in 36:55, giving me an 11:55 pace per mile.

It was very exciting to have a bib to wear (I've never used that technology before - it was very neat), an official t-shirt and lots of other folks running with me. Also interesting is that this race is by far my best time for running 5K ever. So having others around me seems to help. Having a 10-15mph head wind on the way back did not, however, help at all! Man, that was rough.

After that celebration, we hurried home to meet up with Shannon and Regan on their way back out of town. It worked out perfectly that they brought subs and I made some quick guacamole for our delicious lunch. I baked some quick banana muffins while we chatted. And then they had to head home and we had a super tired little boy on our hands. We all three took a super nap from 1:30-4pm! It was luxurious.

Then we rallied for whatever I wanted for dinner on my special day. I chose the same thing we probably would have eaten anyways - Moe's Southwest Grill - as kids eat free on Sunday and I'm in love with their food. Rich teased me for bringing my own guacamole to the restaurant (our leftovers from lunch) but why pay for it at the store while the stuff in the fridge goes bad?!

Dinner was followed by a trip around Barnes & Noble for me to wander the aisles child-free while Rich and Ian spent all night around the train table. We had some Starbucks treats and all was well until somebody turned around and walked straight into a cafe table and then started howling in pain over his poor little nose. So Rich bought our stuff while I took the wounded soldier to the car.

Bedtime was smooth sailing as our son was asleep by 8:45 (a rarity in our house) and I had time to throw together some quick chicken soup from leftovers before doing some work. I'm done with all that and ready for bed.

Oh, my presents from Rich and Ian are the shirt I wore on race day that says "up 2 the challenge" and a Kaylee paper parasol. All told, a great day.