Fun Photo Friday - kid stuff, #SFM2013 stuff, random stuff

1. I've been attending "graduations" for the last two days. Apparently it's a Thing to celebrate graduating Kindergarten, 6th grade (elementary school), and 8th grade now? That's new to me.

Kindergarten...

I know. Can you handle the cuteness?

2. And 6th grade....

3. #1 spent the day at Knott's Berry Farm with her friends (it was a school trip, I'm not just randomly cool enough to send her to a park on a school day).

Unfortunately, no pictures of her. But here's a giraffe selfie.

4. While I was playing in San Francisco last weekend, The H hung up my new Allied Medal Hanger, and reorganized them!

He's great. I guess I need to register for some marathons to fill up that hanger....

My next hanger purchase, I believe, will be one of Allied's new Magical Design hangers.... maybe... this one?

Magic, it's true.

5. This kid sure has the pinchablest cheeks ever.

Brooke is the cutest. A bunch of local friends/bloggers had dinner a few days ago at a local mall.

Pam, Janae, Kristina the non-blogger, me, Skinny Runner, Faster Bunny, Striding Mom

6. While in San Francisco for 36 very short hours (womp), I spent a couple hours working the tech center at the expo....

And watching all the runners leave their mark on the SFM #SF4BOSTON banner.

The expo this year felt MUCH better than last year - more space for everyone and the vendors.

I spy BicBands!

7. At the expo, I finally got to meet some of the other Ambassadors, and attend the SFM tweet up.

Ambassador Meg, me, my favorite/weekend host Renee, and Ambassador Courtney

 The Uniform of Awesome... 

Court, me, Alisyn, Meg, Elise

So much sparkle!

8. One of the best things about running the first half, is I got to finish the race early in the morning, pick up my delicious finish line goodies....

...and hop on the transport buses down to the finish area to watch the marathon and second half finishers coming in. I love spectating - racing PLUS spectating in the same race?? Fantastic.

I was able to see my friend Sandy from BicBands finishing her first full marathon strong...

I also got to see a few other SFM Ambassador's finishing - check out their recaps...
Paulette PR'ed in the 2nd half
Alisyn helped pace Paulette to that awesome PR
Meg finished crazy fast in the hilly 1st half
Average A tried to be stealthy about running fast, but she destroyed the marathon
Chris nailed an insane PR in the full
Janey ran the full
and Krissy LOVED her first SFM experience

San Francisco, I love you.

And your coffee.

And your pretty buildings.

And all your pretty bridges.

And the best race course ever.

I had a GREAT time in SF. Marathon weekend there is just magical. So many runners, so many friends, a really WELL run race... it's just great. It was a bright, sunny, beautiful morning. Perfect. Just... perfect.

The race was interesting for me - I haven't run a half (besides Disney races) in over a year. I haven't run a race without Becka in, like... Gosh. A year. I was unsure of my fitness level. I pretty much went in with very little expectations regarding my performance, and was pleasantly surprised. Recap to come!
Brace yourselves now, because I took over 100 pictures on the course....

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Plan for the week.... maybe.

Last week I was very lazy! Actually, I feel like I was very busy in the evenings last week, and I'm not sure why? I can't remember anything specifically that would make me feel that way. Weird.
Monday: Nothing
Tuesday: Yoga sculpt, tank top arms, core (40 minutes)
Wednesday: 3 miles easy
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: More Nothing
Saturday: Travel, worked the expo for a few hours, and walking SF surely counts, right?
Sunday: 13.25 miles (I am terrible at tangents)

I am an expert at the taper?

This week:
Monday: Easy walk/jog to shake out some achy quads.
Tuesday: Cross training
Wednesday: 3-4 miles easy
Thursday: Cross training
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Trail run with The H!
Sunday: Unsure. Rest? Easy run? Eh.

Now comes the time in my "training" where I have nothing really coming up.

The next race I'm registered for is July 11, race #2 in the Renegade Summer Trail Run series. It's a 5 mile trail run, and I'm not exactly racing it.

After that is Race #3 in the series on August 1st, and then nothing until Dumbo Challenge Aug 31/Sept 1.

And possibly some fall plans that I'm not quite ready to pin down/talk about out loud.

There may be some trails in my future. We'll see.