Race Day & Earth Day

Friday April 21, 2017

Tonight after work Andrew and I ran our first spring and evening 5k. One of my Bucket List items is to run a 5k in all 4 seasons. So far we’ve run one spring race, one summer race, and two autumn races. We have yet to tackle the less desirable winter race. This year a 5k was held in Dublin before the annual parade on St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Okay, so that’s pretty much the end of winter, it’s still technically winter, so it counts! Maybe next year….

Anyway, as per usual there was a good turnout for the race with over 200 participants (it’s a rather small neighborhood race), most who completed the race. Not surprisingly Andrew finished before me at just over 29 minutes while I came in a little later at around 36 minutes. That might be my fastest time yet, though I haven’t kept very good records. I probably could have come in a little faster had I not walked part of the course (towards the end). Once I got closer to the finish line and could see the end in sight, I put on the speed so I could finish with a respectable time.

Luckily we don’t live too far away from Ridgewood Elementary School (which was where the race both started and ended) as we were both pretty shattered after the race. Walking back we discussed the race and aren’t sure we’ll do it again next year. It’s kind of one of those things, ‘Been there, done that.’ Andrew was disappointed there was no bottle of wine or even a cupcake food truck to reward ourselves afterwards, so we just raided our own cupboard (freezer) instead.

Saturday April 22, 2017

I had forgotten it was Earth Day. Thanks for the text with the photo from the Science march Leslie! I feel bad that I don’t have much of a social conscience, and I didn’t even know if they were having a march in Columbus (though Andrew said they probably did). I will definitely head downtown if they have a march to protest cutting funds to the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). However, as Andrew reminded me, the Science march was more important since those are global issues that affect all of our lives on a daily basis. Good point. Perhaps next year Andrew and I will pencil in some time to attend one or two of these rallies.

My one token Earth Day gesture was when I took three shirts to H & M at our local mall to donate for their clothing drive. The clothes are shipped to a distribution center where they’re separated by the condition of the clothing. That which is still in pretty good shape is earmarked for resale, while the poorer quality goods are put in a separate pile to be broken down and the fibers used for various purposes. That was about the quality of my shirts – two white work shirts somewhat stained and an old white concert t-shirt that had gone all yellow. You could probably dye the other two and they’d be okay, but the t-shirt was probably a lost cause.

Meanwhile, my husband Andrew is busy with a new hobby (besides playing with his new VR system), and that’s learning how to operate and fly a drone for a company competition coming up next month. He did a demo for me and hasn’t since been able to get it to fly again. I guess they’re delicate little creatures (at least this variety) since he didn’t hit anything too hard. It was interesting putting on the goggles so you get a drone’s eye view of the world. I know it would definitely take a lot of practice to learn how to control one of those things as I’m not sure my hand eye coordination is all that good. Either way, I hope he’s successful getting his drone to fly again so he can participate in the competition (tentatively scheduled for Mother’s Day weekend, sorry Mom!).

Well, that’s about all my news from the weekend. Looks like a glorious week of warm weather ahead, so blue skies abound. Have a great week everyone!