Back to my roots

No, I didn't dye my hair blonde again.  Sorry, dad.  I'm talking along the lines of trail running.  I had the opportunity to run a trail 8k this past weekend, Run Back to Your Roots 8k, benefiting midwifery in North Carolina.  Midwifery is something that is fairly close to my heart (my son would've been born at home, had my midwife not been off the grid), and it was a great excuse to hit the trails.  I hadn't run trails since living in NY, and those trails are a bit different than the ones in the south.  I'm sure that Upstate has some awesome technical trails, but once you get towards the city they tend to be very evened out and graveled.  Which is fine, except you lose the true nature experience a bit, in my opinion.  I had also never run a true trail race.  My only experience was on the Bronx trails, which are awesome, but you can still always hear the passing of 4+ million people down the road.

So anyway, I was very excited to hit some trails on Saturday, and I knew it would be a fun time when i got my lucky number (6) on my bib.  I almost fell twice, but never actually hit the ground.  I also came in third in my age group, which is pretty decent for my slow arse.  And my pace was the same as my road pace used to be.  So all of this was a huge win in my eyes!  Not to mention that the entire place was crawling with babywearing, breastfeeding mamas.  I was in my element, indeed.  I came home totally excited, and we hit up a fun carnival for the rest of the day.  It had rides perfect for young children, and we ate plenty of carnival food too.  So of course, we all felt exhausted and gut-busted when we got home.  But it was worth it because the kids were in heaven!

Sunday, hubby had it set in his head that he wanted to go fishing.  The kids were game, but I knew that I needed to get one last long run in before my marathon.  I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and go with them.  Which means that I got to trail run two days in a row!  Day two was a good bit slower, but it was also longer and I just enjoyed my surroundings.  I had to stop a few times, once to fish my son out of the lake.  If you notice in my new logo shot, he's only wearing a jacket and a diaper and too-small shoes.  Good thing mama is lazy and forgets to take old clothes out of the car, huh?  Once I finished running in the sudden heat (wasn't it jacket weather last week???) we went to the playground, had a picnic, and rented a rowboat for more fishing and island exploring.  It was a wonderful way to finish the weekend outside!

She has a worm, his sunglasses are upside down.  My kids are awesome.

 Oh, and my birthday was Friday.  It was nice and enjoyable--we went outlet shopping where I spent money on new cute clothes, and then we had a cookout at home.  But the rest of the weekend was even better.  I have determined that I NEED to attempt at least one trail run a week.  I'll have to register for a few races to give myself good motivation to practice.  Oh, and I guess I'll need some trail shoes, right?  Any excuse for new shoes!