Ethan is 9!

What a great day we had at Whispering Pines Park for Ethan's birthday! So many friends came out with only 2 days notice! Thank you guys for making Ethan's birthday so special!

Wow! Where has the time gone!? Still running. Ran 6 miles this morning because I couldn't squeeze it in over the weekend. I've got to get back into the habit of getting up early in the morning now that the heat is coming on. I've been running mostly in the afternoons for the past few months. Those days are over!
No races on the calendar coming up. I haven't been doing much speed work because of it, I guess. I'll jump back into a "Hal Higdon 5k Schedule" for the Citrus Showdown in July!

Expert running advise

Thanks for these great tips, Kate!

1. Don't forget to stretch:

2. Let nothing stand in your way.

3. But don't be over-confident!

We have officially seen the close of the cross country season with the final Awards Banquet held at the coach's house.

Daniel and Coach Nelson.

Daniel received the "Rookie of the Year" Award!

One last shot of those crazy guys.

Inverness Jingle Bell 5k

Ran the Jingle Bell 5k in Inverness today. It was nice and cool but the sun was shining enough to get a big sweat going!
3 Gandees ran this race today: Me, Daniel(14) and Jaret(11)
Jaret did a great job on this tough course with a time of 27:05. He has only been running steadily for 2 weeks for this race. He did awesome!
Daniel was 1st place in his age group and had a good time with his cross country buddies.(and he refuses to let me get any pictures!!)
I was the 3rd overall female to come in and also the first female over 40 to come in so that means I was the Master Female Winner. Yippee! This was my course record at 22:32.

Mom and Jaret

Some friends...

One of my faithful running partners, tina.

Connie and Brooke

Joanne and Connie

Jacqueline...Kerri...Chloe! We missed you!

Half Marathon

Up at 5am, meet up with the gilrs, drive to Gainseville, a bit nippy....very tired.

We made it to the Tom Walker Half Marathon and we had a great time. (I don't know who Tom Walker is)

Kerri and I both grabbed third place in our age goups. Jacqueline had an awesome run as well and was fourth(we're in the same age group) We all made it in less than 2 hours!

Here we are:

Kerri, Jacqueline and Me(post run and looking it)

Jacqueline's daughter, Chloe, is running the state meet today in Dade City! She's only in 8th grade and is the top runner in our county and is ranked pretty darn high in the state!

13.1, here I come.

Today I ran my first 11 miles. It was grueling. Jacqueline and I started out a bit faster than usual and we were certainly toast by the end of it. We're shooting for the half-marathon coming up in 3 weeks. Our goal is to knock this thing out in 2 hours. We shall see...