As this is now my 3rd Christmas in Colorado, decided it time to put more effort into holiday decorating.
Focused on sprucing up the evergreen on my front deck. Strings of blue lights, red & green ball ornaments, embellished with a few Christmas Stars helped portray a good first year attempt. Tree’s still a bit scraggly – although it’s shot up mighty fast.
ALSO, added my first LED Polar Bear. Hope to accumulate add’l bears in years to come & create a Christmas polar bear habitat.
On Dancer & Dasher, Comet & Vixen – hurry fast, scurry quick or my bears will celebrate with Christmas venison 🙂
Happy Black Friday weekend – only 25 days ‘til Christmas!
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- Christmas Red & Green
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- Holiday Snow
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- Christmas Polar Bear
Better than running my first half marathon since June? Family support at the finish line. The best!
Announced my 60 day Marathon challenge & soon after was down with a cold. ARGH – crummy luck! 3 weeks of steady training later, have hit the halfway point. Time for a half marathon – 13.1 miles.
Longest training run to date: 12 miles – but who can’t gut out an extra mile on race day? 🙂
Took an xtra day & journeyed to Arkansas for a long weekend with family – before winter weather & holidays fill folks’ schedules. Flew into Fort Smith Regional airport via Dallas. Small plane, small airport. 1 seat by 2 seat row capacity – landed in a 2 gate facility (yep, it’s either Gate 1 or Gate 2 🙂 ). BAM – 10 minutes later enjoyed lunch at Williamsburg Kitchen. LOVE LOVE how close & convenient everything is in a small town! And the weather? Sunny & 60’s. FAAAANNNNTASTIC!
Saturday, race day. FCA River Valley Run.
Wait, wait – missing part of the story. Received a TomTom GPS Watch as a belated birthday gift (which should cover birthdays for a decade – thanks James, Collette & Maddie). First run with the watch, a half marathon. Talk about setting the bar high. LOL>
Easy race start – fairly flat ‘til mile 6. Big hill but nothing crazy. Happy to see James & Collette at mile 9 – super nice!
Trick finish. At 10 ½ miles you drop off-road & run thru a wooded area. BIG smile. A mile-half later you’re still gradually climbing. NOT nice. One mile to go – super winded, thinkin’ maybe 2:16 for a finish time. Goal is always 2 hours but hadn’t raced this distance since June, I’m drowning in humidity – yep, full of excuses.
Yards away from the finish I squint hard to see the ticker.
1:54 baby. Assume once I learn how to download my race splits from the new watch, I’ll see a HUGE pace drop-off after mile 10 – but dang, I did it. Finished & finished strong. Confidence high – full marathon in 30 days.
Water, bananas & a purple Bible. First race in the Bible-belt. Check, done 🙂
Finished the weekend with a lotta food, lotta card games & a lotta laughs.
Running in Arkansas – I’ll be back.
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- 34th overall, 3rd in my age group!
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- 2 gate airport – Hello Arkansas!
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- Williamsburg Kitchen’s infamous clown room – highly recommended!
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- pre-race pic w/ James & Collette
UPDATE:
Williamsburg Kitchen celebrates 35 years! CONGRATS!
First day of SNOW! (and so early this year too 🙂 BONUS!)
Sure I’ve cheated & already seen snow in the mountains but first SNOW on my front porch — now that’s something special. Like being 9 years old again. Seriously dude, who doesn’t love first SNOW? Woo-hoo!
Summer’s finally over! Break out the poles & gloves!
early reactions on Facebook (LOVE LOVE my friends & family)
Marla Huffman Lively It’s 81 degrees here in Maryland! It’s supposed to get up to 90 degrees today. Enjoy! You look great! October 4 at 10:44am
Regina Johnson Yeah it is like 85 degrees in VA. Made the stink bugs come out more. October 4 at 11:09am
Mary Jane Allen To be 87 here in North Louisiana. You’re squinting…must be all the white stuff is blinding you. lol Looking good. October 4 at 11:26am
Chuck Lively Really great pic of you!! October 4 at 11:36am
Tammy Greco This is our weekend marathon weather. For once no complaints for cooler weather. Paul is trying to PR. October 4 at 12:10pm
Cammy Carter Lucky! No snow FC yet, just rain. October 4 at 12:49pm
Keenan Haga Best of luck to you & Paul this weekend. Off to South Dakota – climbing Harney Peak, their state’s highest. No Mt Rushmore though – closed because of our inept federal government. Reason 101 – why we should all be Libertarians 🙂 October 4 at 12:53pm
Keenan Haga Sorry for your lack of snow Cammy. Not fair, agreed. Just a teaser here too – gonna be back in the 50’s & 60’s this weekend. Supposed to be an above average year for snow – per the Farmer’s Almanac October 4 at 1:18pm
Keenan Haga Aunt Mary – squinting by way of snow blindness…can’t be an age thing, not possible HA! (taking iPhone selfies maxes my concentration skillz) October 4 at 1:23pm
Kanako-Brad Norris It’s almost gone by my house… The dog loved it! She tried to eat snow as it was falling from the sky October 4 at 2:07pm
Keenan Haga Same here Kanako – my Ro LOVES the snow. Enjoy the warm sunny weekend…just a sweet Friday morning snow to lift our spirits. Summer’s finally over! Break out the poles & gloves! October 4 at 2:10pm
first fall snow – October 4th
