Off to the Races

 The month of October is off to the races...literally! Last Saturday the 3rd, Megan and I ran our annual Bakewell sister half marathon. This race was originally supposed to be in May, but because of COVID, it was cancelled, and we were able to move our registration to another race in the fall. It was hard keeping our training and motivation up through the summer, but we kept running each Saturday in preparation for the October 10th Cannonball Half Marathon. Less than two weeks ago, we found out that this race would not be held as planned. Instead runners could run "virtually" on their own route of 13.1 miles. So that's what we did! Rather than another Saturday of a training run, we knocked it out a week early. Our cheering squad was spaced along the route providing water and encouragement. Instead of talking like we usually do when we run, we really tried to have a race-day mentality and to push ourselves. While Megan still has a faster time under her belt, this one was a new PR for me: 1:55.11! I was very excited to have a new personal best. Since it was barely 9AM when we finished, we celebrated with a big breakfast that Zack made for us. It was a little different than the typical post-race environment, but we snapped some photos and chowed down on pancakes, bacon, and eggs. There was a particularly funny photo of Megan and Eli that reminded us of a similar picture of Maddox and me from several years ago. 

Although the Cannonball Half Marathon was cancelled, they still held the 5K on the originally scheduled date of October 10th. They had staggered corral times, and Megan and I signed up for the earliest time 7:45AM. We had to wear masks during the check-in process, but then we could take them off for the run. This particular course is the one that I first broke 2 hours for the half, and even with the 5K, they still had us end with the same big hill during the final mile - how mean! A 5K is not our typical distance, but we were happy to complete the race with personal bests: 24:54 (8:02 overall pace!) We'll take some time off this winter from long distances and start training again in the new year for our 2021 race. A big "thank you!" to the dads at home that watch the kids during these Saturday runs. I always love getting the photos from Boomer of their mornings together. 

Before

After!

Breakfast at home with Daddy

Aside from races, October has also brought celebrations for our main man. We celebrated Boomer's 35th birthday last Sunday with a simple day at home. Poor guy still had his usual Sunday chore of grocery shopping and then bringing breakfast home to the family. He got a little bit of downtime in the afternoon to watch football, but even then, he still managed to do a load of laundry and run the dishwasher. He sure takes care of us! In the evening, we had dinner over at my parents' house with the Houstons. My mom recreated her shrimp and grits that were such a hit at the beach. This dish is a particular favorite of Boomer's. For dessert, we had three different types of cheesecake, and there were a lot of eager helpers to blow out the candles and open the presents. 

Boomer and I snuck in a birthday date night this Saturday. Grammy came over to watch Emmy and Eli so that we could enjoy a kid-free dinner at our favorite spot, 4th Street Filling Station. We extended the evening by picking up dessert from Cheesecakes by Alex and then ate our cheesecake and ordered some coffee at Starbucks. We aren't regulars at Starbucks (we didn't even know the names of the different sizes!) but we got the seasonal drinks Pumpkin Spice Latte and Salted Caramel Mocha - yum! We were still home by 8:30PM so that we could relieve Grammy and watch some college football before falling asleep. Such is life at 35! :) 

Here are a few other photos from our week. We had dinner Friday night at Chipotle to celebrate when we met 12 years ago at Chipotle in Winston-Salem on October 9th, 2008. There is a different date that we celebrate in February for our dating anniversary, so really it's just an excuse to eat Chipotle! It has been rainy all weekend, but we enjoyed the sunshine earlier in the week with walks outside and a visit to our neighborhood park.