Sunshine Saturday

Today turned out to be a pretty great day. Largely, because I feel especially lucky to have some pretty great friends.

The big event of the day was helping Phil with his marathon volunteer duties - neighborhood notification. Phil & I recruited our friends to meet at the Runtex Annex at noon and then break into small groups to "take on" parts of the marathon course. The goal was to place door hangers on all affected houses along the course. When I pulled up to the annex, we had gathered 30 friends to help! This was the most we had ever recruited, and I was just amazed at how many people were there, ready to help us. Thanks to such great support, we finished the notification in record time. So... thank you to everyone who came out. I am so appreciative, and I feel really lucky to have such amazing & thoughtful friends.

By the way, I'm officially naming Wiley "Grand Master Mike" since he now has an official marathon logo/KKK shirt.

Anyway, today was good for other reasons too. I was supposed to ride with Lulu this morning, but we both agreed it was too cold to venture outside. So, I got on my trainer and rode for 10 miles, then took Olive with me for a run around the neighborhood. This was her first time running with me, and she did so great. I was so excited to have a new running partner and be able to spend some quality time with her. I must admit that I was kind of upset that my workout only totaled about an hour, but I wasn't upset enough to get back on my bike to finish my suggested mileage!

I also finished - and I mean completely finished - three crossword puzzles this morning. Sweet!!

After volunteering, Phil & I had lunch with our friends Terry & Pat. Aside from enjoying seeing them, I was really proud of how I ate. (More details on this later.) We went to a mexican food restaurant called Elsi's, and I didn't eat any chips (surprisingly easy to do, I must admit!) And since I'd already had my official lunch and only needed a snack, I found the only healthy thing on the menu and ordered it. (A cucumber and jicama salad.)

When we got home, I mapped out my run from this morning and learned that it was actually exactly 3 miles. I had only thought it was about 1.5, so I am extremely excited to have found a perfect 3 mile loop in my neighborhood. And it had it's fair share of hills, which makes it challenging yet fun. I'm really excited about this!

So, now I'm hanging out until we go to an art show at Yard Dog with Terry & Pat. This was supposed to be girl's night with Lulu & Banana, but we had to reschedule for later. So instead, I'm keeping my art-themed weekend alive. Last night, we went to B Scene at the Blanton with Tim & Rhonda - so much fun! And I found a new section of the museum that I fell in love with - the ornamental prints section. If you haven't been to the museum, what are you waiting for?? It is so awesome!

Tomorrow I'm ditching my bike ride and instead running with Stephanie. My schedule says bike, frankly, I don't wanna! I'm taking Maggie's advice and doing what I want so that I don't get burned out later in my training. This is just the base period anyway, and I'm so excited to be able to run again that I'm taking advantage of it!