22.4 miles or Bust!

It's all because of Liz.

If she had not posted about the excellent time that she was having at Disney World at Princess Weekend, I never would have become hooked on races at Disney.  Thanks a lot :).

My first princess weekend was in February 2013, so our trip tomorrow marks the 5th year of this annual pilgrimage.  In 2013, Fay and I started small with a 1/2 marathon.  We were unprepared, overwhelmed and totally lost.  The expo was huge, we had no costumes for the race and the 2:00 am wake-up call was a shock to the system.  We were spot on with bringing Kimberley to hang out with us, taking a Canopy Cycle Tour, enjoying Pasta in the Park and being able to see Liz.

In 2014, Kimberley joined the 1/2 marathon fun and Fay was busy being National President.  It was awesome, we had our first "family vacation" in years, played like kids at Magic Kingdom and had matching t-shirts.  Progress was made!

We got Mom to join the fun in 2015 and we stepped up our game and did the 5K and 10K races.  Fay, Kimberly and I dragged Mom ahead of the balloon ladies laughing all the way.

In an effort to reduce the stress of trying to get registered within the 30 seconds of the race being open, I decided to raise funds through Children's Miracle Network.  I also had a temporary lapse in sanity and signed up for the Glass Slipper Challenge and the 5K.  I pulled Jamie into this madness and she did the 5K with Mom and I as well as the 10K.  We were family of the day at Old Key West, crafted the hell out of the family center, rode a bike for 3 with me driving.  What a hoot!

My sanity returned and I decided 2017 I would return back to only the 5K and 10K so I could actually "enjoy" my vacation.  Jamie cajoled, persuaded and twisted my arm (😄) and we are committed (or will be shortly) to to the Glass Slipper + 5K again (22.4 miles over 3 days)!  Training has been spotty, so T-30 hours to the final showdown!

A Look Back on 2012

Well another busy year has come and gone!  Sophia is an incredibly active and smart little 2 year old who amazes us everyday.  We have been blessed with good health, great family and friends, fulfilling jobs and many fun adventures.  Here are the highlights from 2012:

• Tom served as 78th President of the Ann Arbor Jaycees this year. 
• Many of our friends welcomed new little ones this year - Greyson, Jack and Sadie.
• We visited with many far away friends - Amanda, Emilio, Ray, Mike, and Bob.
• Sophia took swimming and gymnastics classes.
• We went to a variety of plays/shows such as Cirque du Soleil: Quidam, Cirque du Soleil: Nouba, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Shrek.
• My new hobby of walking turned into an obsession with a 1/2 marathon in Detroit in October in addition to 2 - 1 mile, 1 - 2 mile, 13 - 5Ks , 1 - 8K, 5 - 10Ks and 1 - 15 K races.
• We tried some new adventures: Sushi making, dog sledding, hang gliding, paint ball, pottery class and zip lining.
• We spent winter break in Florida, Easter in New Orleans, took a weekend trip to Ohio, and spent Christmas in Florida.
• I served as the Ten Outstanding Young Americans Chair for the US Jaycees.
• Our good friends, Scott and Sheri were married.
• We spent lots of time at the zoo, cooling off at the water park, going to baseball games and searching for fairies in Ann Arbor and Northville.
• We spent our 5th Anniversary in New York and Montreal and we got to see a lot of my family while there.
• I got to go to Chicago, Des Moines, Traverse City and Arizona this year and Tom spent some time in Kansas.

Can't wait to see what 2013 brings!

My Baby Just Turned 2!

A lot has happened in the past year with Sophia.  She is walking, running, jumping and talking up a storm!  She has made such strides - she counts to 10, she can sing her ABC's, she is recognizing letters and she wants to do everything by herself!

Sophia has been quite the traveler.  She visited Chicago for the first time with the whole family (Nana and Papa, Auntie Kiki and family).  She went to Florida with Mommy and Auntie Wendy for a nice December break.  We spent Christmas in Kansas with both of her aunties and her grandparents.

We went to Frankenmuth for the weekend with the Fernandes, Murphy-Stillwell's and Auntie Fay in February.  We spent 10 days in Florida in March and visited with Nana and Papa, Auntie Amanda and Uncle Jamie, Uncle Emilio and met some of Mommy's cousins.  We spent Easter in NOLA with the Murphy-Stillwell's.

Nana and Papa came to visit in June and we went on a mini-vacation to Ohio to the African Safari and water park in July.  We went to NY to Nana and Papa's in October and Sophia got to meet my extended family.

We went dog sledding for Daddy's 40th Birthday and spent the weekend in Petoskey.  Sophia participated in her first races - a 2 Mile walk with Mommy and Nana in Florida, a 1-mile walk with Mommy and Daddy at Comerica Park and a 5K at the Detroit Zoo with Mommy, Auntie Fay and Auntie Wendy.

We spent some time at the water park this summer to beat the heat.  We hunted fairies in Ann Arbor and Northville and went to a fairy tea.  Sophia took a dance class and a swim class, which she liked and is getting ready to start gymnastics this December.  Sophia has become quite a fan of Jump City and the Chelsea Tree House, as she loves slides!  Sophia attended her first Roller Derby, which kept her quite intrigued.

Sophia had her 2nd Birthday party at Goldfish Swim School, which was awesome!  Halloween has become Sophia's favorite and we watch Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin at least every other day.  Lucy is her favorite character.  She went trick-or-treating for the first time with Greyson and Jack.  She attended her first play with Mommy, "The Frog and the Toad."

Sophia also loves the Toledo Zoo and the carousel, we have a membership, and we have visited at least 5 times this year.  She loves to ride the Tiger up and down!

Some of her cute sayings are: "Going to play a little bit," "Ridiculous," "Oh, my Gosh!", "Oh, my Goodness!," "Okay" and "Uh huh!"

She is still attached at the hip to her Cabbage Patch Kid, Mimi, who goes everywhere with her.

I can still remember the minute she was born.  I can't believe it has already been 2 years!  I can't imagine or remember my life without her in it!

It's Out of the World!

Now, that I had done one 10K race, no need to wait too long to do another one.  So, I waited one week and Fay and I were off to the Martian Invasion in Dearborn.  This race had no alcohol, which was a bummer, but it did have creepy blow-up martians lining the race course that were oddly reminiscent of the old Region F Jaycees days.

The piece de resistance of this race - chocolate milk at the finish line!

Oddly underestimating how tired I would be from this, I signed up for the 1 mile Big Heart, Big House race with Tom and Sophia.  Thunderstorms and a sleepy baby forced an early morning call to Fay to come with me!  We had our best mile time thus far, under 14:30.  We both think it was due to the fact that we just wanted to get the hell out of there and pass out!  Finishing on the 50-yard line of the Big House was cool however!

Lessons learned from this weekend of races:  1) One race per weekend is probably enough; 2) We are suckers for any races that give us finisher medals and 3) races with alcohol really improve our  mood, but not our time!

Laissez les Bons temps Rouler

Tom, Sophia and I decided to join Christa, Sean and Jessie in NOLA for Easter this year.  What a great idea, until Murph and I decided, heck why don't we do a 10K while we are there also?  No matter, that I had never done a 10K, or that I was getting in about midnight the night before.  Why let details stand in our way?

So we were up early on Saturday to go race through the city with 26,000 other nuts ready to run around in 85 degree heat.  The bellhop at our hotel cautioned us to bring a sweatshirt as it was "chilly out", but we rebelled and went out in our race clothes above.

Once we got started, we determined that this was not your "average" race.  Instead of water stops, there were beer tables.  There were Jaeger trucks and margarita stops and we became best friends with the "Jello Shot Brigade."  When Murph asked me are we going for time or fun, I just smiled and had another jello shot!

We finished the course in a very respectable time, despite the heat and the drinking.  We decided to stop at Jester's for a frozen slushy drink to cap off the morning as we chuckled over our "funny" of the day - "We have no knuckles!"

You Have to Eat Twinkies at the Race?

Seems hard to believe that this is true.  But it was, and Fay and I found this race and it was in Ann Arbor to boot!

The rules were simple:

• Eat a twinkie before crossing the start line
• Walk/Run 1.65 miles
• Eat twinkie
• Walk/Run 1.65 miles
• Collapse at the finish line with a stomach ache

We persevered and posted our best 5K time today - who says we can't overcome adversity?

Shamrocking and Rolling

Next up a 5K in Plymouth, called Shamrock and Roll.  Finally, a place to wear our hats from our friends from JCI Ireland and not look like complete goobers!

As we were walking to the race area, a man stopped up.  Due to our matchy-matchy shirts, our hats, and our shamrock face tattoos, he wanted us in the race video.

We had 1 line, "How do you like us so far?" and of course I got excited to be in a video, I said it before the guy, said "3,2,1!"  Some much for following simple directions!  Take 2 was perfection though!

Our Cool Video (check out our 15 minutes of fame at minute 3:36).