A Family Affair

"Husband" and I were having drinks one day (don't all insane challenges trace back to a good microbrew?) and we noticed that we were scheduling races like a vacation. We were immediately able to check off (using a handy, dandy bar napkin) states such as Illinois, California, Arizona and D.C./Virginia just in the past 2 years of racing. I said let's try to do a race in each of the states. Afterall, A RACE is less daunting than committing to a marathon in each state. Husband, being the wonderful, supportive person that he is (yes, I'm sure there was eye rolling on his part) said OK - probably not realizing he is signing on as an ACTIVE participant.

So what started out as a "challenge" for HUSBAND and me soon morphed into "A Family Affair" after my first Mother's Day 5k where Kid A was co-op'd and Pablo Honey came along as an uwitting participant in the jogging stroller (she's just not old enough to protest...yet). Kid A still tries to argue with me that she never agreed to this - although she totally "smoked" her mom in the 5k race we did at University of Notre Dame (check off Indiana!).

So by year end 2008, we have checked off the following states:
Ohio
Illinois
Arizona
California
Indiana
Kentucky
Washington, D.C./Virginia
Iowa
Missouri
Pennsylvania
West Virginia
New Jersey

This is a picture from the Toms River Jingle Bells 5k in New Jersey in December with my daughter. I'm the festive elf :)


I'm scheduled to race again in Florida in March at the Disney Princess Marathon...but snowshoe racing in Colorado in January is looking mighty tempting! hmmm....we'll see...