Whew!

Talk about a long day!

I was up at 5 am to get out to the HMSA 25K for my volunteer duties. Right after parking, I saw speedy Steve, Jake and a couple of their friends in the parking lot. I made my way over to the Wortham and was greeted by what sounded like thousands of chirping birds...that made me a little nervous, as I really didn't want to end up with a nice surprise on my head. LOL! After getting the run down on how the relay area worked and my duties for the morning, I headed over to the club tents to looks for familiar faces. I ran into several of my Houston Fit buds - Fred, Rebecca, Bob, Gaye among many others. Finally, it was time for the race to start. I headed to where all the runners were gathering and waited for the gun. After all the runners passed, I ran into June and chatted for a few minutes before heading to the port-a-cans before my volunteer duties started.

I have to say that since I've never participated in a relay, it was interesting to see how everything works. We had a volunteer out on the course who would radio in the bib numbers of relayers, so that we could notify the next runner that they needed to start getting ready for the hand-off. For the 1st hour or so, my job was just to direct relayers to the relay area. During that time, I finally met Barbara!!! It was great to meet you and chat for a little while! Next I had the radio, waited for bib numbers to be called and notified runners that their teammates were on their way. Since there was a lag between runners, the morning did seem to go much slower than when I was calling out splits at the 1/2 marathon. But, I was able to pass the time by cheering...which was something that was difficult to do while calling splits. Congrats to everyone who ran yesterday and finished. It was hot as heck out there, so kudos for getting it done! It was definitely one race I was actually happy to not be running. As I was leaving, I ran into Pony...it was great talking to you!!!

After the race, my parents, the kiddo and I headed to the Veteran's Day Parade. It was a great event and I was happy to see that so many people attended. My mom and I went to the parade a few years ago and the turnout was really disappointing. My favorite part was the helicopter flyover and then the F-16 flyover. It was amazing to see the helicopters flying so low between the downtown skyscrapers! The kiddo had a great time waving at all the soldiers, hearing the marching bands and waving her flag.

Next, we headed to Party City and Arne's to get all the goodies for the kiddo's upcoming birthday party. I was disappointed that Party City did not have any Wiggles stuff (her choice for the party), so as we headed to Arne's I asked the kiddo what she would want if the next party store didn't have any Wiggles decorations. She shrugged and gave me an "I dunno". I asked her if she would like to pick something different - maybe Little Mermaid, Strawberry Shortcake, Cinderella..."or Sponge Bob?" she asked (I don't even know how she knows anything about Spongebob..school I guess!). After giving it a little thought, she said "I really do want Wiggles Mommy". So, I'm sure you can imagine how relieved I was that Arne's had a tiny section of Wiggles decorations! So, we bought Wiggles plates, hats, party favors, table cloths and a banner. Hooray...one thing to check off my list of things to do!

I don't know if it's a preggo-thing, or just the long day, but I was pooped by the time we made it home. I ended up going to bed around 9:00....for the 3rd day in a row! I did manage to squeeze in a little time on the treadmill this morning. I figured I better try to get back into the morning workout/study routine, since I can't seem to stay up past 9 pm. :-)

Workout Stats
Treadmill, 6 am, 25 minutes