Easter weekend

I hope you all had a good Easter.  We didn't do anything.  I am always rather sad now on Easter.  It used to be a very big thing, as big as Christmas or Thanksgiving, in my family growing up.  We went to our church's sunrise service in a cow pasture (it was cool, they had even put up a cross that everyone walked to after the service) and then home to get dressed in our brand new clothes and then back to church for the Easter service.  After church we would go to my  Grandma's house where we would have a big dinner, take family pictures, and then an Easter egg hunt.  It was always a lot of fun. 

My Grandma died when I was in college, but I still went to my parent's house and they had dinner, but it was never quite the same.  When I moved to western WA I quit going to my parent's house (I don't really know why), but then it was just Damian and me.  Sometimes I would go to my sister's but not all the time.  And then when Chris and I got back together he always worked on the weekend, so we never started doing anything together. 

This year, Damian went to a friend's house for a birthday party on Saturday and asked to stay the night, so since we weren't doing anything I said okay.  Sunday morning was very calm and quiet.  I didn't go to church, but Maddox and I hung out. I made us pancakes, bacon and eggs, of which Maddox ate the bacon (too much Easter basket candy). We went outside and watched a train for awhile, and then we went for a walk and found caterpillars and a garden. 

Damian came home after lunch and found his Easter basket.  My parents alternated ways to hide our baskets when I was young. They would either tie a string to it and then wind the string throughout the house back to our bedrooms and we'd have to follow the string.  It was fun because there were 4 of us, so sometimes we'd get mixed up and find the wrong basket and have to start over.  The other one they would do is a scavenger hunt type of thing.  They would write clues and we'd have to follow the clues till we found the basket.  I did the clue one for Damian this year.  I have always avoided that one because of his reading problems, but I thought he was plenty old enough this year.  I had him going back and forth through the house, down to the basement and up to the attic.  Even if he didn't have fun, I did.  :-)

When Chris got home from work we did an Easter egg hunt with Maddox, which he loved.

Saturday I did the Tulip Run.  I really wanted to place like I did last year but didn't expect to.  I knew I'd be slow and fully expected to be over 9 min/miles.  The first mile I was about a 8:44 min/mile according to my Garmin (which I loved having for the race) and I felt really, really good.  I thought "I could totally speed up" but then thought about the saying "don't judge a run by the first mile" and knew I'd need something in my tank at mile 5 so I refrained. 

I don't remember exactly when but I came up behind a girl that was going my same speed and decided to stay behind her.  I passed her at one point, but she passed me again.  At about mile 3 she sped up and I worked (hard) to keep up with her.  Then (thankfully) she slowed down at mile 4, I didn't pass her again, but I was able to keep within about 30 feet of her.  I finished in 43.58, and was not even close to the first place person in my age group.  In fact, she was 8 min faster than I was last year, so I didn't feel so bad.  Even in my best running shape I couldn't beat 34.41 (that's a 6.56 min/mile, don't think so!), even the third place person was faster than my time last year, she did it at 41.02. 

Oh and it's so good I didn't speed up in mile 1, I was giving it everything I had in mile 5 and that was my slowest mile.

Every mile was under 9min/mile . . . amazing!  Following someone really helps, you just have to follow the right person.  =)

I've done this run 3 years and never had a picture online for it . . . happily this year, I have 3 of me, one full on.  :-) 

I know the picture wasn't of me, but I'm in it. (The
green in the back)

This was the lady I was chasing the whole time.
She clicked her heals but unfortunately the guy
didn't get it exactly, I thought it was hilarious.

I was still laughing from the lady in front of me.

 I have tons more to talk about, including my run on Sunday and my crappy Monday morning, but this is long enough, so I will try to get on tomorrow and type that up. =)