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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Austin Rodeo Carnival: March 2013

We made our first attempt at the Austin Rodeo this year, but only the carnival portion.  Like a dummy I waited until too late to get tickets for the actual rodeo, but in retrospect we wouldn't have made it all the way through anyway, so it was better that we didn't try.

The carnival was a lot of fun, but crazy money.  Next time we will definitely do a week day and get the half price passes to ride the rides.  The kids loved riding everything and would have done more.  Also, we will NOT play any midway games.  I let Jack and Maddy play and they WON, so then Gwen was pissed when she did not win.  That ended the day, but it was my fault.  Though I hope Gwen learned a lesson about midway games and never winning. 

Tractor posing

DOG SHOW

Intentionally trying to ruin the picture - FAILED


John looks creeped out

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Maddy was not happy with her ice cream.  Turned out she was running a 101 temp, so she felt like crap.


WE WON!

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Gwen's Abstract Art

The art work produced by my child prodigies is out of hand.  I have it all over my cube walls at work, posted in the bulletin boards in the playroom, organized into binders for each kids and I liberally throw stuff away when I can.  Gwen's after school program is run by an art teacher and Gwen loves creating her own art work every day.  Which is great, she's super creative and comes up with all kinds of cool things on her own or inspired by the teacher.  But I don't know where to put it all.  I finally convinced her to let me take pictures in case anything happens to any of it. 

Whirly Birds

Clay Heart

Clay Elephant with Tile

Paper Nest and Eggs

Baby Bear in Feather Hat

Cardboard Tubes filled with Confetti


Rockets!

Sherwood Forest Faire

My parents visited in February and we all went to Sherwood Forest Faire.  It was really fun and I think it will be better next time when the kids know what to expect. 

We saw a little show with the cast at the beginning.  Then as we walked around Jack and Maddy were made honorary knights and got little sword necklaces.  We saw the bird show, a puppet show, a parade and some other stuff.  We had planned to leave the park and do an early BBQ dinner, but the kids fell apart right at the end.  The Chocolate Fairy had given the kids each a special coin right at the beginning of the day and said if they found the Sweet Shoppe they could get a piece of candy.  Well it took us all damn day to find it and it was not worth that much time.  Other than that, it was a fun outting.





Maddy volunteered to get on stage during this magic show, she's awesome!





Race Results: Livestrong Half Marathon

Another overdue race report, Livestrong was back in February.

A month and a half later its' hard to remember exactly how the day was.  Jennifer and I ran this together and I had decided in advance I was not going to go all out.  I had (have) a nagging glute/hamstring injury that was bugging me and I knew pushing myself would not be good long term.  The weather was fine, I wore shorts and a t-shirt and my Spartan hat, along with the water pack.  I got at least 3 shout outs for my hat, which was pretty cool.  Jennifer and I ran together for about the first 10 miles until the killer hill.  Then she dropped back and I powered through to the finish.  I was feeling pretty good until The Hill, then my knees started to hurt and my hamstring was pulling.  I knew if I walked I would hurt more, and running faster actually hurt less (weird). 

Final time: 1:54:58, avg pace 8:47/mile, 137 place in my age group

I did not have a goal time going into this, but figured I could finish in under 2 hours.  My primary goal was to finish and then take a couple weeks off to rest and heel.

I did see a sports medicine doctor 2 weeks later.  He looked at 2 things.  First my glute/hamstring he judged as pulled or mildly injured but that the scar tissue was irritating and that was what was bothering me.  He flat out said "I'm not going to tell you not to run, it won't do you any more damage if you do, and you probably will anyway."  Well put.  So he said to take it easy and keep running as long as it doesn't get worse, eventually it will just stop hurting.  The other thing was my B-b-b-bunions.  ~shudder~.  My feet belong to my mother and they ain't pretty.  For this he suggested I see a specialist for an assessment.  He said if I wore high heels I probably would have had surgery already, but for now I'm ok.  If they get 'worse' I should seriously consider surgery which will keep me off my feet for 3-4 months and is no guarantee they will be fixed.  They took x-rays so I will go back in 6-12 months and see one of the guys who does the surgery for an evaluation.  So, that's that.  I wasn't surprised by anything he said.  I went home and laid out a running plan for March that kept me to a low amount of miles and cross training so that I would not over do it. 

Race results: Cupids Chase 5K

Long overdue, haven't been updating at all.

I ran the Georgetown Cupids Chase 5k and kids K back in February with the family.  Prior to that day the kids were dying to run another race, but when it came time to get up and get going in the morning they were not happy at all.  Of course by the time they ran and got their sweet medals and goody bags they were happy.

The 5k was great, I would do this race again.  The course seemed like it might be confusing, but when I was running it they had it well marked off.  Only odd thing was that it was a point to point course, so the finish was not at the start.  John parked near the end so I could walk back to meet them and the race organizers had a shuttle bus to transport folks back to the start line.  The finish also had great food, vendors and a festive 'post race party'.  I did not hang out, the kids were in the car waiting to go home.  I did place 3rd in my age group and got a cool tile to commemorate my win. Very nice swag.  Also - the adult shirts were long sleeve and red, which was great.

Finish time - 22:16, avg pace 7:08, 3rd place in my age group.