Firecracker 4

On July 4th, I ran the Firecracker 4 which is a 4 mile road race in historical Saratoga Springs, New York. This was my fourth time running this race. I am pleased to report that I hit a PR for this race. Here is a chart of my results the past four years:

Year	Time	Pace	Division Place	Division Total	% of Division
2019	48:38	12:09	78	101	77.2%
2018	51:33	12:53	74	100	74.0%
2017	48:45	12:11	76	98	77.6%
2016	51:48	12:57	136	158	86.1%

In 2016, I was the oldest age in my division and I had my slowest time for this race; there are a lot more runners in the younger divisions. In 2018, it was extremely hot and the entire field ran very slowly. Yesterday, even though I was about 3 minutes faster overall than 2018, I was slower compared to the runners in my division. With a pace of 12:09, I am good with it!

Smiling for the finish line photo 

Lots of runners 

In a couple of decades, when I get to the 70 - 74, 75 - 79, 80 + I will be in the top 3 of my division and earn a medal!

Overall, it was a lot of fun. People get into the spirit with lots of red, white and blue clothes, tutus, and even headware to be seen. They added a free beer ticket after the race this year. The only time I drink beer is after a run that includes beer! But it certainly hit the spot on a hot day.

Berkshire Botanical Garden

Last weekend, we met up with my sister and her boyfriend in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  Stockbridge is the hometown of artist Normal Rockwell.  One of his famous paintings is of Stockbridge at Christmas time.  The town looks exactly the same, because they work very hard to keep it that way!

We met on the porch of the Red Lion Inn which was nice and relaxing.  They have rockers and it's very welcoming.  We walked about 20 feet to have lunch at a cute café.  I did not want a big lunch that would leave me stuffed. I noticed two older ladies at the next table had the quiche special; it was accompanied with a small salad.

Both of the ladies wrapped up leftovers! It was a small meal, so it struck me funny that they didn't finish it.  I certainly finished mine!

After lunch and strolling around the cute gift shops, we drove about a mile on Route 102 to the Berkshire Botanical Garden.  It had rained earlier, and was cool and overcast. A lot of flowers were not in bloom. I am not an expert but I think that the flowers blossom more in sun. The last time we were there it was a beautiful sunny day and my face was orange with pollen from sticking my face in the day lilies. We have a photo of that to memorialize it! For some reason that photo cracks my husband up every time he sees it. 🤷‍♀️

We had four free admission tickets to the Botanical Garden courtesy of the public library. I went to two different library branches last week to get the four free passes.

After the Botanical Garden we  headed over to the Lee Outlets.  By then the sun was out.  I picked up a couple of outfits at the Oshkosh store for a 1-year old's birthday party we have on July 4th. And a sports bra at the Champion store.

Pretty white and magenta blossoms 

Bupthalmum Sunwheel Daisy Speciosa Telekia 

Shrubs shaped like llamas 

Thanks for reading!

Goodbye June Hello July

June is over and that means that 2019 is halfway over as well. My main accomplishment for the month of June was getting a new job. Check. You know what, I'd still rather be retired. July 1st means I am officially 3 years and 5 months from retirement!

As far as running goals, I have done 6 races so I am on track to meet my goal of 12 races for 2019.  I have only run 135 miles for ALL of 2019, which means I am far below my goal of 450 miles for the year. After I read 26 Marathons by Meb Keflezighi, I requested the book Meb for Mortals from the library. This is Meb's book about how he eats, trains and thinks. I could increase my running by adding one extra day per week for a month.  I will certainly think about it!

Last week's workouts: I did Zumba on Wednesday with Michelle, I did about a 3.5 mile trail run on Thursday, and a 3 mile run on Saturday.

I am guestimating the distance of the trail run.  It was supposed to be 3 miles, but there were three of us at the back of the pack running together, and we missed the marker to go right up a hill.  Yes, it was a hill trail run! It's hard to explain but it meant we ran one section twice, and we still ran up that hill. At the top of the hill, I fell and landed on my right butt / hamstring.  I am OK, just a little sore - that is a good place to land; I have seen fellow trail runners take bad spills. I had to walk a little bit after that. Since I have sciatica that runs down my left hamstring, at least now both sides hurt equally! The only thing that makes it feel better is to keep moving.

At the end of said trail run, I fell behind the other two, and missed the marker heading back to the main lodge where our group was having a BBQ. There wasn't any danger; I could hear a dog barking in the direction I was heading. I followed that trail, and it led me to some houses. I was not lost enough to approach them, but it felt good to know civilization was close by.

I backtracked and saw the markers I missed. By the time I got back on our trail, I was running with (actually, being passed by) some of my running club peeps who were finishing their second loop. All in all, it took me 59 minutes! Quite an eventful trail run and I needed that after the work day.

A few months ago I read Meet The Frugalwoods and ever since then I have been following her blog.  Liz (Mrs. Frugalwoods) is starting a July Frugal Month Challenge. You still have until midnight tonight to sign up and join the group. You get an email a day and if you are on Facebook, you can join the special FB group. I already have a good balance of frugality in my life, however I am very curious to see what I can learn from this challenge.

I am looking forward to July because my husband and I are going to Maine. I have never been there, and that is on my bucket list. We are going to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.
Hopefully I will get some real hiking done in July.

What are your goals for July?

It’s All Good

This may have been my first week since I started blogging where I did not post midweek. That’s Ok though. I have a new job and that requires mental energy.

After two weeks at the new job I feel comfortable there. The job checks off all the boxes that I was looking for when I decided to make a change.

1. Supervisor and Director - kind, laidback, no micromanaging
2. Sarcastic and Manipulative Assistant Director - THERE ISN’T ONE!😁
3. Coworkers - four of us in a big room; so quiet you can hear a pin drop
4. Staff - I don’t supervise anyone (not responsible for other people’s work)
5. Parking - 5 minutes from car to desk
6. Location - There is a park right across the street; a library in our network is down the block
7. The work itself - I can see that there is less volume of work. The work itself suits me and will be steady and repeating: monthly, quarterly, annual vs. constant flow
8. Desk - no more cubicle!
9. Windows - we have 4 windows in our room (I have always had windows at work but people do ask about this)
10. Kitchen - one floor up is the pink kitchen. I have a place to go eat my lunch that isn’t my desk.

Pretty in pink

Pink couches too 

It’s all good.

Dodge The Deer

On Sunday, I ran in the 17th annual Dodge The Deer 5K trail race.  The weather was a beautiful 70 degrees to start. My time was 37:05 (11:57 pace).  I was #206 out of 236 total runners, which put me at 87%.  That means 13% of the runners finished after me.

Dodge the Deer (wearing #17 for 17th year) and random lady undressing in background

The Hudson River 

I just discovered that I could attach all my races to my personal profile in my running club's website. I spent a little bit of time doing that yesterday. Oh my, there was some really old stuff in there, from 2003, 2004 and 2009.  To me, that is ancient running history, plus a lot of older stuff is missing. The modern era of my running started in 2016. Almost of the races from 2016 to now are in there.

Finish line  

Beautiful day to run trails

Last year at Dodge The Deer, my time was 41:20 (13:18 pace).  Last year, I was #281 out of 316 total runners, which put me at 89%.  That means that last year 11% of the runners finished after me.

My modern racing history shows that I raced in four 5K trail runs since 2017. My times were:
2017  37:38 (12:07 pace)
2018  41:20 (13:18 pace) Last Year Dodge the Deer
          43:27 (13:59 pace)
2019  37:05 (11:57 pace) Sunday Dodge the Deer

Even though I am still near the end of the pack, it’s nice to see improvement.

Last week's workouts: On Tuesday, I did HIIT with Erin; on Thursday, I ran a 2.8 mile trail run; on Saturday I swam 52 laps; on Sunday I ran Dodge the Deer.  (I felt like I had to swim 2 extra laps because the Thursday run was 2/10 mile short!)


Thanks for reading!

Reading Lately

The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood
The chapters in this book alternate between two women - Claire, a young wife and mother in the Washington DC area in 1961, and Vivian, a 37 year old “spinster” who lives in San Francisco in 1919.

Vivien is the obituary writer; her reputation has spread widely so grieving people seek her out to write the life stories of their deceased relatives. Vivien is well suited for this. She has spent the last 13 years grieving the loss of her beloved David who disappeared in the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Apparently his body was never recovered and Vivien is convinced that David is still alive.

Claire, along with all of America, is fascinated with the President-elect, John F. Kennedy, and his glamorous wife Jackie. Claire is married to Peter who has a prestigious government job and is a good provider, but her marriage is loveless. Claire had been having an affair with Miles, who she met while working on JFK’s campaign. The affair ended when Peter discovered them together. Now Claire is 5 months pregnant and doesn’t know whether the baby is Miles’ or Peter’s.

You know the two women’s lives are going to intertwine at some point. The author gives no clue as to how, so when they do come together I was truly surprised. That was a plus for the book. In addition, the author threw in another unexpected twist at the end. Those two surprises were the best part of this book for me.

The problem I had with Vivien is this - would someone really wait around for 13 years for someone presumed dead? She goes to some extreme measures to try and “find” David as well. I mean, get over it!

The problem I had with Claire - is every married woman in books miserable? Yikes! I don’t blame Peter for being edgy after he found his wife in bed with another man. Considering he has doubts as to whether or not the new baby is his, he seemed to be trying to make things work. Claire also seemed unloving to her toddler Kathy while always gushing over her unborn baby.

The worst part was something Claire does that risks her life and that of her unborn child. I don’t think there is a pregnant woman out there who would do what she does. I suppose we should presume she had a moment of mental instability, but at no time does Claire seem unbalanced. Of course the results of her actions are tragic, yet nobody seemed very disturbed.

The book is about love and loss, yet I did not feel emotionally invested in either of these characters.

The Duggars

Are you familiar with the Duggar family?  If you hate them, please feel free to stop reading now. They used to have a TV show on the TLC network called "19 Kids and Counting". After it was revealed that the eldest son Josh Duggar had "issues" the show was cancelled. It was reinvented by TLC as "Counting On" with a focus on the other Duggar children, who are all growing up, courting, marrying, and having babies of their own.

For the record, I do think Josh is sketchy and I'm glad that he is not on the show any longer. Although to give him the benefit of the doubt, supposedly he has been to rehab and is reformed.

Last week, Grandma Mary Duggar passed away unexpectedly at age 78 after a drowning accident. When I googled it, the first thing to pop up was something to the effect that "Jill Duggar Dillard is exploiting her grandmother's death by blogging about it."

Say what? That is beyond ridiculous.  Jill and Derick Dillard have a blog which you can find here if you are interested: www.dillardfamily.com.  Yes, that blog is monetized, like many blogs are. When you click on it, you will see ads.  I saw an ad for Fitbit watches and one to donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

As I expected, Jill's tribute to her grandmother was beautiful. Jill wrote "My grandma taught me to thank God in every situation, realizing that only He can see the big picture. She would say, “Praise the Lord” all the time, and even talked about how thanking God for tough things that happened helped her release it to Him and acknowledge that he was ultimately in control."

Jessa Duggar Seewald, Grandma Mary holding baby Ivy Jane, Michelle Duggar (photo courtesy of Facebook/Duggar Family)

While I was perusing the blog, I found so many well written, mature and honest discussions about God, marriage, parenting and other topics.  There was a post by Jill about marriage.  Let me tell you that even after 33 years of marriage there were some thought-provoking tips in that article. Two in particular struck a chord with me:
1. Look for ways to encourage your hubby, serve him and meet his needs.
2. Don’t gossip or name call, even if joking.

My takeaway is that people who hate on the Duggars could probably learn a lot from the Duggars.