Memorial Day memories

I feel like I've been hit by a bus!

Three day weekends are so fun, but can be so exhausting.  No one in my family has died while in military service, which is interesting given that both my grandpas were in WWII (one Air Force, one Navy), my dad was in the Army, my uncle and aunt were in the Air Force, and two of my cousins (and one's husband) are also in the Air Force.  And of course I'm married to a former Marine.  But forunately, all living.  I think that counts as a military-heavy family?  I only have one uncle not in the military (and my momma and grandmothers).  So my Memorial Day rememberance was mostly confined to passing thoughts of nameless veterans.  I did read parts of two books about WWII, does that count? 

I spent most of the long weekend at my local bestie's parents' house.  We go out there every year primarily to hang out and to run a Memorial Day half marathon.  But this year there were only two of us doing the half!  The other three did the 5k, which I think is an understandable choice.  It's a half that kind of sucks -- very hilly, usually hot and very sunny.  Oh, and you're sometimes running in one lane on a highway with cars going about 50 right next to you.  But it's mostly the hills and the sun that make it suck.  I ran a solid 6 or so miles and then slowed down some.  When I know there's no chance of a PR, I can lose motivation.  I actually came to a dead stop at TWO water stops to refill my 16 oz water bottle that I elected to carry for an unknown reason.  I was really thirsty so it was nice to have.  The entire race was overcast and it even rained lightly for a couple miles and somewhat steadily for a short time.  It didn't bother me at all.  I'd borrowed a running hat from my bestie's mom and it made it feel cooler and less sticky.  I think I finished about 5 minutes slower than I did last year.  The highlight of the race was this kid that was walking around mile 11.7.  I told him it was only about 6 laps around the track so he should try to run, even just jog.  So he jogged a little and then started really running.  I caught up to him at 12 and he was walking again.  I told him no walking, we're almost done.  So he ran some more.  And walked again.  At that point, I was like, okay, kid, we've only got about half a mile to go, really no walking, come on.  It's sometimes funny to me that kids will just listen to adults.  I was expecting him to say something like, you can't tell me what to do.  But we ran together and chatted some.  He's really excited for summer.  Really, a lot excited for summer.  We got in sight of the finish line, less than a quarter mile to go, and he asked if we could sprint.  I laughed out loud.  We had been steadily picking up the pace and there was seriously no chance I could sprint.  I told him that I was just going to keep running but that he should definitely sprint.  He took off, quite impressive! 

Then we spent the rest of Memorial Day eating.  Stuffed portabello mushrooms, a 7 layer dip, Mexican street corn, "crack" potatoes, a lentil-feta-raisin dip that I made, and marinated mushrooms.  Dessert was cheesecake dip that I made, some kind of strawberry jello angel food cake, fried pies, fruit and ice cream.  Yeah, lots of afternoon napping!  We usually float around in the pool, but it was rainy.  We played Apples to Apples a bunch of times.

It was a lovely lazy weekend.  But something about not being home meant I just came back exhausted.  I have a feeling these 4 days of work are going to feel like 5 or 6...  Should be a good week though.  Track meet, happy hour for a running buddy who's moving away, and maybe a day of a running commute again!