Yellow Flowers and Daylilies

If you've read the other two posts where I took the kids out in the double jogger, you may have noticed a pattern.

Today was the same:

"Mom, look at those yellow roses!"
ME: Those aren't roses
"What kind of flower are they?"
ME: I don't know
"They sure are pretty."

These yellow flowers are low-growing and small and grow in bunches all along the road on our course. As you can tell, I don't know what they are but I am going to take a picture of them and post it so you can see what I'm talking about. Inquiring minds now need to know.

Wild daylilies were blooming along the road today. I ran Wednesday and don't remember seeing any but today they were everywhere and very beautiful.

Our time was 35:18.

32:02!

It seems like running while pushing the kids really pays off because I feel super speedy the next time I run by myself.

And I might have even run these 3 miles in 31 minutes and some if I hadn't stopped to pick up a baby horse chestnut that had fallen prematurely from its tree (a present for Larsson.)

Road Kill

We left the house at 7:00 am and I put them in the double jogging stroller.

"Mom, we should call this the donkey, pig, cow run."
ME: But there aren't any pigs on this run.
"Oh. We should call this the donkey, cow, horse run. No, we can call this the donkey, cow, horse, RABBIT run!."

Then we were off.

"That car didn't stop at the stop sign! He should be taught a lesson!"
"Why is there all this traffic?!"
"Where is everybody going?"
"Are they going to work like Daddy?"
"Look at those yellow roses! Those are wild!"
"Oh, what kind are they?"
"Look more of those yellow flowers! They sure are pretty!"
"Why does that sign say Children At Play?"
"Why didn't we eat breakfast yet?"
"Look at the flowers on my side!"
"I hope we see some farm animals and some rabbits."
"Look, that car drove through the big puddle!"
"THAT car, the one I am pointing to!"

We'd gone about 2 miles when we saw it.

"Mom, what is that lump in the road?"
ME: Probably a dead animal.
"Probably a dead raccoon or something."

We got up closer.

ME: It's a dead groundhog.

"It probably got hit by a car."
"Maybe it wasn't careful."
"It should have been in the crosswalk."

Silence for a few minutes as we jogged/walked up the big hill.

"I couldn't tell whether that was a boy groundhog or a girl groundhog."

Thankfully, we didn't talk about it anymore.

I walked up more of the big hill than I would have liked and our time today was 35:37.

Rainy Marion Village 5K

We're visiting with Grandma and Grandpa in Marion, Massachusetts and Larsson, Nora and I ran the Marion Village 5K this morning! Since it's a Saturday it was, of course, raining. But the double jogger has a rain shield and we all had hats and we were not afraid of a little rain.

Here's a picture of us before the race started, with the scenic Sippican harbor as a backdrop:

(Larsson was trying to pull down the hood of the stroller since it had started to rain.)

Here's another one with the rain shield firmly in place:


Braman was our designated race photographer and took this action shot shortly before mile 1:


I didn't feel very fast but we were steady and, thankfully, Larsson was distracted by all the action and didn't talk too much so I was mostly able to conserve my breath. Before the race started I provided Larsson with a bag of goldfish which he snacked on and which he doled out sparingly to Nora throughout the race. This kept them busy and I only had to tell them to stop poking each other once.

The race course was pretty flat with one very small uphill and one barely noticeable downhill. I don't think the kids noticed but I enjoyed looking at all the well-kept shingled seaside houses with tidy, seaside-y landscaping. We ran through Tabor Academy (where Braman went to high school and where Grandpa works), part of the village of Marion, along the water and then back to Tabor. The race ended at Hoyt Hall which is where Braman and I had our wedding reception.

The sights that we ran past included the Marion Mallet Club (a member of the United States Croquet Association), the Sippican Tennis Club, and the Beverly Yacht Club. It was a fun run with beautiful scenery.

We finished the first mile in 10:58, the second in 11:16 and the third in 10:53 (I sped up for the third mile!). Right at mile 3, I unbuckled Larsson from the stroller and he hopped out and ran the last .1 mile with me.

Here we are coming down the homestretch:

(It was really raining here.)

Still running...


Almost to the finish line:


And all done!

(Nora was asleep in the stroller.)

Our final time was 34:52 (we started in the back of the pack and it took us about 13 seconds to reach the start line so the time on the finish line clock you see in the picture above wasn't accurate for us) which included stopping to take up the rain shield when it stopped raining, stopping to put it back on again when it began raining again, and stopping to take Larsson out of his seat so that he could run to the finish line. It wasn't my fastest time but it wasn't too bad. I was 246 out of 269 runners and 27 out of 32 in my age group (30-39). Larsson was 28 out of 36 in his age group (1-13).

As promised, I continued to run after the race. Instead of running the race course again, however, I ran back down along the water to Silver Shell Beach and then back up Front Street to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Braman told me this distance would be about the same. From the start of the race to the end of my run, I was gone for an hour and ten minutes which is probably about six miles.

The only problem with the day was that we stepped in a BIG puddle right before the finish line and my shoes were completely waterlogged so I squished for the first part of my post-race run. And I had to wring out my shorts which completely reached their water absorption capacity in the race downpour. Overall, a very fun time.

Bunnies galore

This must be baby bunny time because I saw so many this morning on my run. Everywhere I looked a tiny bunny was hopping across the road or running to hide under a bush. Very cute.

I didn't feel as speedy today as yesterday and I wasn't. I finished the 3 miles (still without stopping) in 34 minutes and 5 seconds.

I hope to do a little better than this in the road race on Saturday since the course is flat. I haven't pushed the double stroller in a race since I ran the Interlaken Steeplechase last November (where I finished in 39:28) so it should be interesting, and fun. Wish me luck!

Blazing speed!

Pushing the stroller yesterday was pretty taxing so I decided to give myself a break and got up at 5:30 to run by myself. I guess those kids had really been slowing me down because I finished the course in a non-stop time of 33:37! I almost felt like a real runner.

Nature sightings included:
a rabbit in our front yard
two slugs on the road
and a hairy woodpecker (male) pecking on a section of dead tree.
(Thanks to our participation in Project Feederwatch I could identify him.)

I'm not sure if I can keep this pace up for tommorow's run but stay tuned for the exciting results.

My arms hurt!

Since I'm going to be pushing Larsson and Nora in the double jogging stroller for the Marion Village 5K road race this Saturday, I figured I better get some practice in. So this morning, instead of getting up super early and running by myself, I got them out of bed, took care of potty needs, put sweaters on over their pajamas, gave them a drink and a snack for the road, put them in the double stroller and left for our training run at 7:30 am. I took the digital camera so that I could document some of the sights on our course.

Larsson is quite a talker so I knew I couldn't listen to my audiobook (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke) like I usually do. Instead, this is what I heard:
"Where is all this traffic coming from?!"
"Those are daisies!"
"Can I pick them?"
"What does 'wild' mean?"
"There's a rabbit!"
"Why are you stopping?"
"That is corn growing over there!"
"That sign says 'Stop ahead'!"
"Why aren't we going that far?"
"Why are we turning?"
"This is a quiet road."
"Oh no! Nora's hat!"
"Why aren't I running?"
"When is our race?"
"Am I going to sleep over GrandmaGrandpa's?"
"What are those flowers?"
"They are yellow like my marigolds."
"Do coyotes live over there?"
"Coyotes live in woods and fields."
"Oh look! A cute kitten!"
"I drank all my drink."
"I saved some goldfish for Nora."
"Am I going to see anything interesting?"
And on and on and on.

One of the reasons I was stopping was to take a few pictures. Here are a few of the views we enjoyed:
A glimpse of Cayuga Lake as we went down the big hill

Corn growing in a field on our left

Grapevines from a local winery

A donkey at the next corner

A scenic stream on our way up the big hill

And our cow friends once we got to the top of the hill

(They were looking again but none of them wanted to come close to the fence.)

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the kids in the stroller but I didn't.

And we finished in 41 minutes 30 seconds, partly because of taking pictures but mostly because it is hard to push the stroller with the kids in it uphill. With 22 pounds of stroller, 35 pounds of Larsson and 20 pounds of Nora, my arms are sore! I hope things are easier on the flat course in Marion.

Second Group Run

This was the fourth run that the group did but the second in which I was able to participate. Unlike the past two Saturdays, this one was dry and warm and I didn't have to huddle in my car to avoid the rain before the run started. We did 5 miles this morning and it felt pretty good.

We're slowly starting to increase the mileage. This week I'll continue to run three miles three times during the week and then next Saturday we'll do 6 miles. The week after that will be the usual three miles and then on July 1st we'll do 7 miles. I'm not sure what the rest of the July schedule is like because the coaches don't want us to look too far ahead and be intimidated. Which given how I feel about doing 7 miles is probably a good thing.

And I'm now 46% of the way there with my fundraising! Thanks, everyone, for being so generous!

Cows and Corn

Yes, I got up to run this morning. The alarm went off at 4:45am but I didn't get out of bed until 5:21 and left the house by 5:35. I ran most of the 3-miles but walked a small portion of the uphill. My time was 37:35.

I had some early entertainment in my run this morning as I passed by a group of cows out to pasture. They were mostly Holsteins with one light brown cow (a Jersey? a Brown Swiss? I'm not sure) in the bunch. The cows belong to the local dairy farm and sometimes I see the cows outside but far away in the field near their barn. This morning, though, a group of them were right up near the fence near the road.

I don't think the cows see many joggers, particularly at this time in the morning, and they weren't all sure what to do. The first two cows that saw me--a Holstein and the tan cow--ran towards the fence and, if I hadn't been trying to maintain my slow and steady pace, I would have stopped to try to pet them. Some other cows looked up with interest and I was surprised to see a few more start to amble towards the fence. I'd never seen so many outgoing, friendly cows before. But I think I startled the last two because when they heard my shuffling on the road, they took off quickly (for a cow) in the opposite direction. Aside from scaring the cows, which I felt bad about, this cow encounter was a nice distraction on my run and gave me something to think about.

And the corn is starting to come up! I can't wait until we can eat fresh corn on the cob.

36:37!

Yesterday I ran my regular 3-mile course without stopping once! And was faster by 10 seconds.

Cornell Reunion Run

It was another rainy, cold (41 degrees!) June Saturday morning here in Interlaken and we all got up super early so we could leave the house by 6:15 to get down to Ithaca for the 7:30am Reunion Run at Cornell. It was my 10th Reunion and I figured this would be a fun way to get in my weekend run.

There were about 80 people who braved the elements for this event and, surprisingly, it turned out to be fun. The 5-mile course was fairly scenic, looping through the Plantations and ending up with a lap around the track at Schoellkopf Field, home to Cornell's football, field hockey and men's lacrosse teams.

During the race I ran by the Class of 1901 Nut Tree Collection but didn't see any nuts. But I did run by several Tulip Poplar trees in bloom. I'd always thought that the tulip-shaped leaves were what gave the tree its name but evidently it's the orange and yellow tulip-like flowers which I had never seen but which I thought were quite beautiful.

What I found most amazing is that I didn't have to walk at all in this race. For 5 miles! Up some steep hills! I don't know how I managed it but I have to think that my usual 3-mile run involving the big uphill must have something to do with it.

And I finished in 58 minutes and 30 seconds, faster (by 38 seconds) than the 5-mile Lowell Spinners race from two weeks ago.

Larsson, Nora and I are pictured above after the end of the race. We were all wet and freezing, Larsson's eyes are closed, and there are obvious raindrops in the picture but I think we all had fun.

Progress!

I ran my usual 3-mile route this morning: down a big almost 1-mile hill, across a shorter way, up a big almost 1-mile hill and then across again. It's the course for a local 5K race so I know that the whole thing is actually 3.1 miles. I've been running this course since I started training and each time I've run it in 38 minutes and some seconds. While I can usually run a 5K in less than 38 minutes, I'll admit that, when it's time to go uphill, I take breaks and will run to a road sign and then stop and walk to someone's mailbox and then run again to someone's driveway, etc. It's not pretty but at least I'm doing it.

Well, today, I don't know what came over me but I ran down the hill, ran all the way across and then ran almost halfway up the big hill before I stopped. I only took one break and then I started running again and ran all the way up the rest of the hill (in the steepest parts!) and kept running until the end of the course. I didn't run up the hill quickly (a casual observer might have thought I was standing still but my feet really were shuffling along) but I kept going and I finished the course in 36 minutes and 47 seconds. I'm getting faster! I really do feel encouraged.

And I saw the biggest frog I've ever seen in person in the middle of the road. It must have been about 8-inches long, smooth and shiny green. I didn't even know we had frogs like that around here. Sadly, it was a victim of traffic but seeing this frog and the snakes and the other things I never seem to see on later morning or afternoon walks makes getting up to run at daybreak all the more rewarding.

First Group Run

Woke up this morning at 5:30 to pouring rain. Left the house at 6:15 in pouring rain. Drove down to East Hill Plaza in Ithaca in pouring rain and, you guessed it, ran 4 miles in pouring rain. Still it was fun to run with the group for the first time and the run seemed to go a lot faster than the 3 mile ones I've been doing by myself. (Of course, I don't know exactly how fast it was because I forgot to start my watch at the beginning of the run.) Made it back home by 9am but was already starving. The group runs begin and end in a plaza that has a great bagel shop so I think that I might make eating a bagel and having a cup of tea part of my post-run routine.

And I want to thank everyone who's donated so far. I really appreciate it!