Bruce's BD and the USATF-NE 12K Championships

Bruce celebrated his birthday with a bunch of his friends this week. All of his toddler buddies came over and played with his toys for awhile, then played Bruce's new favorite game: Ring Around the Rosies. We sang Wheels on the Bus and a few other kids songs and then frosted and decorated train-shaped cakes. Bruce just wanted to eat the sprinkles. We all sang "Happy Birthday" and he made a feeble attempt at blowing out the two candles. I had to extinguish the fire eventually. I'll put pictures of the party up in a few days. These two pics will have to do: my Mother's Day flowers from Scott and Bruce in a shirt given to him from the University itself (Scott helped with a fundraising project) and reading a book about excavators and bulldozers.

I ran a race last weekend. It was the first I've raced since the marathon. I didn't even wear my watch because I haven't done many workouts and felt completely off-pace. It was a 12k race (about 7.5 miles) and part of the New England Grand Prix series of races. The Grand Prix consists of about 6-7 races throughout the year and is like a championship that draws competition throughout New England. Anyway, it was kindof a big deal. I went out with the women's leaders and hung around them for a mile or so. They drifted back and I pressed on. I was feeling pretty tired by the end and in the last half-mile, another woman challenged me for the win. It was a fight to the finish. She pulled ahead, then I pulled ahead, then she pulled ahead.... We switched leads four or five times and then the finish line appeared and I sprinted as hard as I could. I'm not really a sprinter, but I really wanted to win this one. There's a picture of it on the race web site.

http://www.rotarybedfordnh.com/brmrr.html

I still find myself daydreaming about jumping on the trampoline and sleeping in while on vacation in Montana, but I think Scott is completely mentally back from vacation (perhaps I'm always on a mental vacation?). This morning he was kindof spacing out so I asked him what he was thinking about. Without hesitation he replied, "Algorithms for tracing neurons." Huh.