This post brought to you by the Snoopy MetLife blimp

Any golf fans out there? If you’re watching the Quail Hollow Championship, there’s a very slight chance you may see my house in one of the overhead shots, courtesy of the blimp. I live about a mile from the course, as the crow (or birdie) flies. Golf is not my thing – it’s on my list of pseudo-sports, along with baseball and bowling – but it’s kind of exciting to be so close to the action.

That said, yesterday I left all the hubbub behind to go watch 2 of my nieces dance in their annual recital. Little R is in ballet, and Big R is in clogging. (If you’re not from the South, there’s a good chance you have no idea what clogging is. My best description would be that it’s a mix between Irish step dancing and tap dancing.) They’re both in their 2nd year of dance and have improved significantly over last year! I’m so proud of them for sticking with it and having the nerve to get up on stage in front of an entire auditorium full of people!

Especially in those glorified bathing suit dance outfits… Big R referred to her class as the Dancing Cheetos – ha! Little R fared better, with a Disney princess-esque tutu. On a side note, why is it that the older the girls get, the skimpier and tighter their outfits get…? *sigh*

Thank goodness runners aren’t subjected to such exposure of the flesh! Oh wait…

Speaking of running… (how’s that for a segue??) My goals for last week were to run 4 times for a total of 12 miles. I came up short in both frequency and duration, but I’m not too disappointed. I managed 3 runs for 11.9 miles. I could round that up to 12, but I won’t because I’m a numbers person and it would bother me.

Run 1 – 4 miles (average pace 10:12) on the greenway (see post below)
Run 2 – 2.9 miles (10:24) around home
Run 3 – 5 miles (10:14) on the greenway

On Run 2, I missed a turn and ended up cutting about a half mile off my route. I knew I would be short, but honestly my legs had had enough of the hills anyway. This was my first time running hills in about 6 months, and I had forgotten that delightful feeling of huffing and puffing but going nowhere (seemingly).

Run 3 was this morning. The only thing of note here is that I intended to run around an 11-minute pace but obviously failed. That’s something I really need to focus on, especially as I am trying to build the mileage of my long runs. I will say, however, that I ran surprisingly even splits. Surprising because I fully expected to crash in the last mile. I guess my observation for the week is that I am still exploring my running boundaries, if that makes any sense.

And now I’m going to go sit out in the sunshine, sip on a beer, and watch the blimp circle overhead!