The first Saturday in August is reserved for Beach to Beacon, a 10 kilometer (6.2 miles for you non-runners) road race in Cape Elizabeth, founded by Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, that draws international runners. This year the field was populated by runners from 41 states and over 10 countries. The race is so popular that online registration of 5,500 participants, the only way you could register, filled in 26 hours this past year! Luckily I made it in! This was the ninth time I have run this race, and it went really well. My good friend Christine was sidelined this year with an achilles tendon injury, so it was very strange not to have her there to warm up with and start the race with, as she's run it nearly every year, too.
My stats: 44:50 overall - 7:12 min./mile - 684/5248 overall, 32/347 in my division, women 25-29. I was really happy with my time and how the race felt, considering I have not been training all that much compared to what I used to. This time was close to what I ran the year before becoming pregnant!
Some pictures of the event:
The men who claimed the 1st and 2nd spots. Matt said it was an intense finish!
Payson loved watching all the runners! She clapped, pointed, and cheered, and had a great time. Next year I hope she'll do the Kids' Fun Run!
Here I am, right before the finish (purple top, black shorts). Look how many people surround me! It was like that the entire race.
My faithful cheering squad. Darrian, my niece, has taken Matt's t-shirt over and has come the past two years. Ray and Shirley, my in-laws, have come to all nine races!
This year a huge picture of Joanie (I can call her that because we're buddies) hung on the Portland Head Light - it was really cool! You couldn't see it all that well due to the fog.
We hung around after the race with some friends that received awards, and had a little snack. Payson was being pretty silly!
One of Payson's new favorite pasttimes - "Climb mommy's seat" - where she loves to "drive," press buttons, and explore.
Payson loves being a helper - I decided to see how she'd do with salads one evening when Matt was late arriving from work and I had to start dinner. She did a great job tearing the lettuce and placing it in the bowls!
The weekend of August 9th our niece Darrian spent the afternoon, night, and next day with us. We had so much fun! Sunday morning we went to Mackworth Island in Falmouth to check out the Fairy Houses, and even built one ourselves! Apparently we went the "wrong" way around the loop and missed the more obvious fairy house village, but we looked very carefully and found several houses along the path. It was great!
Payson and I met up with Lisa and Leah again on, sadly, our last Monday adventure (Lisa's a teacher and returns to the grind soon). We were supposed to head up to Lisa's family's camp but our summer monsoon season continued and we decided to stay closer to home. The girls had a blast "biking" around Leah's neighborhood.
With the exception of our camping trip last weekend, I am now officially caught up! Phew. I promise to be a more devoted blogger, especially now that my new memory is officially installed! I've got to say, my computer is now operating at super-duper light speed.
Payson continues to be so much fun and is learning new things at an astounding rate. Last evening we were making some birthday cards and Payson reached for the "yellow color" and actually grabbed the yellow. I thought is might be a coincidence, but then she pointed to the orange one and called it by its correct name. And this morning when reading a book she pointed correctly to a circle, star, square, moon (crescent), and triangle. She is constantly speaking 3-4 word sentences, and recently has started describing things with adjectives more. We are just amazed by her and how quickly she is growing and learning.
I hope to post pictures and commentary of our camping trip soon!
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