BACK FROM VACATION

Well has always the time went way to fast! I arrived on Thur at 2:00 in the afternoon, flight out to west coast went well just long day of flying. I stayed with my parents and had a great time! It was great to just be there alone with them both and be able to visit with them. Mom is not doing as bad as I thought but still hard to see her in bed most the day. She did get up to eat each meal even though she doesnt eat much. She showed me here exercises that the home health care has her doing, I even sat beside her and did them too. I explained to her that she needs to keep doing her exercises.

March 8th was the 5K at Crater High school in Central point ore. I got there at about 8:00 am and checked in. I met the race director Mike Barret he is 70 and years ago he worked with my Dad in one of the local saw mills. Check in was in the high school gym that was nice since outside it was very foggy and about 35. I kept thinking that the sun would come out about the time we would start at 9 am but NOPE! I did a few warm up laps around the track it is a very nice state of the art track with special coating very well taken care of. Before the 5k started they did the little kids run around the track that was really cute and fun to see these little kids run fast! I really enjoyed that. I was not able to have any friends there at the run to cheer me on but that was ok. BECAUSE when I was walking out to the track the first time I looked down and there was a PENNY! I bent over and grabbed it up! I said to myself, " find a penny pick it up and you will have great luck" those are famous words that my grandmother had told me years ago when I was a little girl and found a penny on a sidewalk. SOOOOOO I thought what the heck I can use all the luck I can get on this run. I knew it was going to be all flat and a out and back course. I was dressed for the fog and chilly damp weather. 9:00 I WAS OFF and running! Throught the parking lot over gravel out on to the local nearby streets in the area of the high school. Legs felt pretty good, ( i had run the day before about 1-2 miles) a little into the first mile there was this man next to me that some how I started chatting with said he was from the area and I told him I was back home visiting family but now live in Colorado. WELLLLLLLLLLL make a long story short I asked him his name and he said. Mark Mayfield! This was my oldest sisters first X husband! I said oh my gosh I know you and he looked at me and said, " your Cindy Hallin little sister Beka! I said YEP I was like still running and watching ahead to make sure I did not trip over a sidewalk LOL, He was there at the run to take some photos of friends. He ran most the run with me as we chatted. It was getting not far from the finish and he took off and I knew that I best picl up my pace since it was not much further and I would be doing the final lap around the track and coming to the finish shoot! I looked at my watch and it said 25 min I was like DAM I am not going to get the time that I want. But I thought well just run hard and do the best that you can! There was a lady in front of me I passed her but I could not stick with her so I let her go. I saw the finish line and the clock and my finial time was 31.00. Mark was there and got a photo of me as I finished. I wont complain about my time since that is a PR last best PR was 31:33. There was about 150 runners and I was number 118. I almost placed in my age group good news is I did get the award for the person who came the furthest! I got a box of Irish Spring Soap! I was so thrilled! what can I say I will treasure that!

The night before the run I went to a spagetti dinner at the local grainge hall there in Grants Pass it was yummy! I won a nice door prize! this large ceramic St Patricks day mug!

This was a trip back to my hometown that I will treasure for years! It was so hard to leave my folks knowing that my mom is so ill. Dad will be 75 in July and doing pretty darn well. I also spent time with my 2 oldest sis and her husband Matt. I went back to work today and dead tired! I did not get in last night till around 12:30! weather here today was great about 65 and sunny. So now got to get back to my daily runs and work outs I have a lot of events coming up in the next 4-5 months!