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Little series of Chris Surfing the remains of Bertha’s wrath…
That’s how many miles you have to run to complete a half marathon.
We were invited to participate in the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Quechee Vermont by some friends in our neighborhood. They have an annual gathering in Hanover New Hampshire around the race.
I registered myself and Chris in the race, online from Belgium, on December 10, 2007. That gave us plenty of time to train for the event. We did pretty well with our training. We started running in Bruxelles and then started a training program in earnest when we returned home in April. Then two weeks before the race, I got that nasty cold/bronchitis that I had back in Italy. And I am still dealing with it.
Here are a few photos of Chris on an 8.5 mile training run in the hills around his parents house.
Up the Hill
Down the Hill
We arrived on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed some canoeing and then a delicious pasta dinner.
Sunday was beautiful, though maybe a little warm for a race. The beautiful weather did bring out a lot of cheering support, and made the day better for the very important volunteers, which made it a great day. The excellent weather also made for great photos.
I wasn’t feeling in the best of health. I knew that my only goal would be to finish the race. So I brought my camera. This actually turned out to be a great idea as it gave me a little cause for distraction during the run. I’m not sure I’d carry the camera again, but it was fun.
They should probably call this race the Covered Bridge (singular) Half Marathon as we only ran through ONE covered bridge. And I only noticed one other bridge along the route. They also seemed to imply that this race was downhill except for hills at mile five and mile eight. So not downhill. Another runner mentioned this to me during an ascent of a non-hill during the race, it was pretty funny.
Everyone in our group finished the race, in spite of injury and illness. Chris did very well for his first half marathon. Actually, this was the first time he’d ever run 13.1 miles. So a time of 2:14:26 was great! I didn’t do nearly as well, but then I walked quite a bit in the later miles. I still passed people, and ran the hills. Respiratory illness does not enhance performance in distance races, I assure you. This just means I’ll have to run at least one more half marathon to get a real personal best. If I keep training with Chris, I’m sure we can get our time down under 2 hours. I’ll keep you posted.
Kate and Rick, our neighbors, along with Kate’s parents hosted a great weekend! The excellent pre-race pasta dinner and the post race BBQ was held at Kate’s parents beautiful riverfront home. And the group that gathered for the weekend was crazy and fun. It really made the whole experience to be surrounded by an excellent group that were either running or cheering us on. Kate even had team shirts made! Look for the green shirts in the photos.
Here are some of the photos from the race:
The toilet line
The Runners
Lined Up for the Start
Me and Chris at the Starting Line
At Mile 2
The only covered bridge we ran through…between miles four and five
The beautiful view between miles 6 and 7
Another Covered Bridge along the route (that we did not run through)
The Hill at Mile 8. Notice the cones…see how they go way down hill.
A beautiful day in Vermont
Mile 10, two plus hours into my race
Pipers near Mile 11
Beautiful view of the river along the course
Mile 12!! They’ve mercifully removed the time clock…
Eeek! This is what I look like at Mile 13?!
The team cheering me to the finish…thanks guys!
I can SEE the finish line! And more friends cheering, yea!
As much pain as we’re in today, I’m already thinking of next year…
So yeah, the holidays were a bit stressful for us this year. Mostly because of the travel and coordinating gifts.
I’m still jet lagged, so this post will be more photos than text…I’m sure you don’t mind.
Here’s a few Christmas treats we enjoyed while still in Bruxelles:
Oooh, St. Nicolas doesn’t melt when you throw water on him, but put him in some hot pudding…
Wheeeeeee! Chocolat Chip Panetone…Italy and Bruxelles all in one!
We also enjoyed the Christmas fair in Bruxelles, but I’ll share more about that in another post.
Chris and I both had some sort of stomach virus or reaction to food the weekend before we flew. We were still not feeling well while packing and getting to the airport.
Our flight was on USAir from Brussels to Philadelphia, then Phili to Boston. And our house is about an hour drive out of Boston. Here’s a little tidbit from our inflight “meal”:
ewwwwww!
We were greeted by a beautiful New England Snow Storm! Our first morning home we awoke to beautiful trees and fresh blankets of snow.
We were lucky to have a lot of family around this year. Chris’ parents drove up and stayed with us for 5 days (through the 26th). It was the first time we’d seen them in a year. They brought their dog Bobbi with them. She’s always fun to have around. Here she is making herself at home on the kitties window seat.
She really enjoyed the snow!
Even though we weren’t home for very long, my Baboo still got me a tree! I love my baby tree!
We had a lot of fun at the Christmas Eve party for my Dad’s side of the family. It was at my Aunt Sue’s new house. She just built it this fall and it was cool to finally see the house. My cousin Stacey’s girls were there and provided entertainment all night.
CJ’s the boss!
ME in her Christmas PJs
We do a Yankee Swap, everyone contributes a $25 gift card. Then the fun begins.
CJ was “helping” this year by distributing the choices and transferring swaps when necessary.
She was also very interested in what people got. Sometimes she provided a premium “gift opening service” so the gift card was carefully unwrapped for you.
On the way to the party, I explained to Chris’ parents the rules of Yankee Swap.
Everyone gets a number. Then, according to the number you selected, each person chooses a gift. The person with #1 selects a gift first, then opens it. Then the person with #2 selects a gift, opens it, and decides if they want to keep it. If #2 likes the gift that #1 selected better than their own selection, they can swap their selection with #1 (hence the Swap).
This selection of wrapped gift, opening it, and then keeping or swapping continues until everyone has a gift. At that point, the person who went first (#1) gets to select from any of the gifts opened! So #1 is the best number to have (this was stressed to my in laws).
Guess who got #1 at the swap? Chris’ Mom!! This is her swapping her gift card with my cousin Julie (who ended up with the card she brought)!
Ah, to be a kid again and remember the pure excitement of Christmas.
One of the great things about these parties is that I get to see my Grammie Mac.
In my family we traditionally open stockings first thing on Christmas morning. When someone is born or married into the family, they get a stocking. Here are our stockings…
Here is Bobbi modeling one of the items that came in her (and Chris’) Mom’s stocking.
We went to my Dad and his wife’s house for Christmas morning where we exchange gifts and begin a long day of eating. Always have pilsbury cinnamon buns. This year we brought a panetone too.
We traveled to my Mom and her husband’s house for Christmas dinner. She made an amazing Beef Tenderloin. Once again a fantastic meal. Preparing the meal was a team effort this year as she had stayed up until 4AM to finish knitting her husband’s stocking (it’s a new tradition for them)!!
We returned back to our house Christmas evening to exchange gifts with Chris’ parents.
It was a good, although long, day!
It snowed several times while we were home. The yard looked beautiful.
One morning Chris got all excited and wanted to know if I saw the Owl out back. He kept pointing to the trees. I couldn’t see anything…until the Owl moved! So cool. Here’s our Owl.
Even though it was pretty stressful and we didn’t get to see everyone, we still had a lot of fun this Christmas.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays and may 2008 bring you all the good things.
