Going down without a blaze of glory

Once I missed out on a day of NaBloPoMo I made my way down the slippery slope of "maybe tomorrow." Obviously that was a lot of tomorrows ago.

The recap:

I went to Richmond for the weekend to race in the NTelos 8K with Buildermama. She and the Builder family were there usual fantastic and entertaining selves. I love having friends where you can just go, hang out and not worry. BM says I was the one who was all into the race, the only reason was I felt like I *had* to do it since I'd signed up months ago, drove 2.5 hours and told everyone I know that I was doing it. The night before the race there was a 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms. During the night there were storms and we had agreed, lightning equalled no race. Race morning was warm--68 and 100% humidity, in November, go figure. We made it through the race. BM was having trouble early and since I'd practiced to run all 5 miles I smugly kept going figuring she'd catch up. Around the beginning of mile 3 I had some aches and pains and everyone around me was walking so I bowed to peer pressure. I never lost my breath or felt like my HR was super high, I just felt, well, lazy. I finished in 1:09 and BM finished exactly 2 minutes behind me. I should have waited for her, it would have been loads more fun to chat with her than to run alone. I endured Monkey Man's birthday party, the perfect opportunity to get up close and personal with the Badasses. The lesson, kid birthday parties are the same everywhere, kids, adults, which birthday doesn't matter--loud, chaotic and that is even before they get sugared up. Thanks to BM, MM and BJ for the great weekend. Love ya, mean it!

Then it was home for a week of the grind before my parents and sister came to visit. I was really looking forward to their visit and the Dazzle Dash. DD is a walk through the light display that is a lot of fun. Unfortunately my sister got the stomach flu and didn't get to go with us. Needless to say she was not happy about driving 5.5 hours to lay around my house and run to the bathroom over and over. We had a good time at DD without her, especially since we ran into several friends there as well. By the next morning Mom was sick as well. And, lucky us, they left the germs behind. Abby threw up at the gym on Monday night, Ellie threw up in her bed later that night and I spent yesterday running to the bathroom. Here's hoping that we can all keep Thanksgiving dinner down!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I feel blessed this year as every year for my family, friends and all I have.