12K's of Christmas

On Saturday morning I raced a 12k in Gilbert, AZ. I thought it would be a good distance (~7.5 miles) to race before the half marathon in January. My goal was to (at least) go the pace I ran my last 10 mile race in (8:17 miles). It was a cool, cloudy day and I felt great. At the halfway point I was just under 30 minutes so I made it my goal to finish in under an hour. I finished in 59:06 which averaged out to 7:56 minute miles. I even beat my 10k PR with a 49:28 at the 10k mark in the race. I felt great pretty much the entire race and am expecting good things for this half marathon!

The race was nice; a new event this year. The start time wasn't until 10am so it was nice to be able to sleep in. Keeper drove us down to Gilbert (about 35 minutes from where we live) and we met my co-coach from North Canyon there as well as one of our high school runners who decided to do the race. Everyone had a good run; my co-coach ended up getting 2nd... in the entire race!

Afterwards we decided to go out to lunch with everyone at Joe's BBQ. It was awesome!!! Then Keeper and I made a trip to LeLe's Asian Market in Chandler to stock up on stir-fry materials for the week. Perhaps the biggest perk of the race was the fact that Santa Claus handed out the awards. I did not win an award (finished 4th in my age group; missed a medal by 5 seconds; d'oh!!!) but my co-coach won 2 awards. The prizes were $50 gift cards to Sushi Roku at the W hotel in Scottsdale. My co-coach gave Keeper and I one of his gift cards. Since the gift card expires on New Year's, we pretty much had to go this weekend. We decided that $50 at this expensive place could get us....appetizers or lunch. We were too tired to go out last night, so we opted for lunch after church today. Yummy!!!! Pics are (top) me (in the middle) finishing the race, my co-coach accepting his award, and (bottom) our student runner posing with his medal with Santa Claus.

More T-day Pics

...Courtesy of Marisa and her awesome camera. Ours sucks.


Keeper with his awesome bird...

Joy and I finding something hilarious...or maybe it was the wine...


Group shot!

Gobble, Gobble

Our 3rd Thanksgiving in Arizona has come and gone. I must say although it stinks not to be able to see the whole family, it is nice to not have to drive more than 20 minutes for Thanksgiving dinner and the weather is perfect. Joy came out to visit us again this year and I did not sign us up for any 10 mile (or 5k) races this year. We slept in, ran on the treadmills at the little gym in our condo complex and relaxed while Keeper slaved over the turkey. I did manage to mash and finish up the sweet potatoes but Keeper did most of the work.

We went to our friend Marisa's house and had a little Thanksgiving party with another one of Keeper's classmates, Michelle, and Marisa's friend who drove out from LA. We had a great "alternative" feast that consisted of veggies, salad, beans & rice, potato & kale enchiladas, and Keeper's turkey & mashed sweet potatoes. We also had pumpkin pie and vegan chocolate pie. Everything was delicious. We had a blast drinking wine and then ventured out to a local bar to top the night off.

Friday was low-key. We all vegged out (picture above is of Keeper and Joy playing Lego Star Wars....deja vu from last Christmas!) and Joy and I went to see New Moon. Yes, I know it is a teen movie but we absolutely loved it. I would definitely go see it again. Saturday morning I took Joy for a run up Central Ave... one of my favorite Phoenix runs because it reminds me of... somewhere other than Phoenix; completely shaded by trees, large mansions on both sides of the road...another world than the rest of Phoenix. Then Keeper and I went to get our Christmas tree. It is our first tree out here! See if you can find Keeper in the Christmas tree forest in the picture above :) The past 2 years we convinced ourselves we didn't need one since we travel for 2 weeks over the holidays but this year I decided we wanted one. We got a nice little tree and Joy helped us decorate while Onyx supervised. Then Joy and I made some Christmas cookies and listened to cheesy Christmas music.

Sunday was a long run and then more vegging out. We did manage to make it down to Tempe Marketplace for a quick shopping trip for some new running shoes but I had to spend a few hours grading tests and Keeper had to study for an exam. Monday was back to work for me, back to school for Keeper, and back to PA for Joy. We had a nice little visit and our looking forward to our east coast Christmas trip!!!