1/2 Marathon- Done!!!

On Sunday Shane and I completed Boston's Run to Remember a 1/2 marathon honoring Massachusetts Law Enforcement Officers killed in the line of duty. Proceeds from the marathon are donated to kids at risk across the city of Boston. This was my first ever official race, or run of any kind. When Shane suggested it in the dead of winter I was pretty skeptical. Picture yourself training for a 1/2 marathon when it's only 30 degrees outside... not something you really want to do with your Sunday morning... But, we did it. We were lucky enough to train at the gym until it was actually warm enough to go outside. And last weekend I made the mistake of mis-reading our running map and forced us to run 12.6 miles when we were only supposed to run 10 miles... opps! I wasn't sure I was going to live it down. Mostly because I SWORE that we had only run 9 miles and it took 2 hours and 10 minutes, which meant we were running WAY slower than we had been running. But... to my dismay, we came home to realize we had run almost the full length of a 1/2 marathon and did it at about a 10 minute mile pace. So, Sunday we woke up early, after barely sleeping- I think at 1am I jumped out of bed thinking we were late for the race and proceeded to wake up every hour on the hour after that. OOO the nerves!!! But we got up, got some breakfast, did some stretching, etc and headed down to the parking lots near the race. We got there in plenty of time, and started to take in the energy of all the runners. If you have never run a race, even a 5k , I really recommend it. There is something really exciting about being in a group of people all set on one goal. We managed to finish in 2:03:39. I was VERY happy with the results and could not have done it without Shane's support. He is an amazingly supportive running partner. I know he could have run much faster than that, but I wouldn't have been able to finish without him. Huge thanks to Mom and Vincent for being there at the finish line cheering us on and grabbing this action shot.

Mom and Vincent come to visit

After being in Boston for 1 year and 8 months Mom and Vincent made their way East. And we made the most of it! I was able to take two days off work and tour them around Boston, cook them dinner at the house, (Shane, once again, was the master of the grill) we took a quick trip up to Marblehead, wandered through the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, they watched us cross the finish line of the marathon and we headed out to Provincetown for the night. It was very busy but great to be able to hang out with them so much and just enjoy each others company.

Steph's Graduation Dinner

After a quick night up in Maine in order to get the camp ready for the season, I headed out to dinner with Stephanie and her family at Lucca, thanks to Uncle Mark for dinner! It was such fun to see the Orrico's! I feel like I have seen a bunch of them since hanging out with Stephanie more and it has been so great to get to know them better. Stephanie is an amazing woman with so many talents and I can't wait to see where her life takes her. Congrats to Steph and remember- "We're all counting on you!" ;-)

Shane's Birthday

We ran down to Newport, RI for the day- about a 1.5 hour drive one-way and we picniced on the beach. It was a beautiful day, and so nice to be on a beach. We finished off the day with a great steak dinner (courtesey of whole foods and Shane's perfect grilling skills). All in all I think he had a fun, low- key birthday.

Trip to Atlanta

Shane's sister celebrated her "28th birthday," again, in real style Mother's Day weekend. We all flew down to Atlanta, where she and her family live, and headed out to Barnsley Gardens where she and her husband threw a very fun birthday bash- see sunset picture below. We also did a mini celebration for Shane's birthday on Friday night, with his favorite: chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, and of course the niece and nephews!!

Jackie Greene Concert last night

So, I stepped off the plane at 7pm got luggage and was home by 7:30pm. Shane had bought tickets to see Jackie Greene at the Paradise, and we headed over around 8:20pm. We got to hear the opening band The Brakes, Shane bought their CD and called this morning offering rave reviews! I love Jackie Greene, and many of the readers of this blog will agree with me, just click on the link above and enjoy! This guy has a great voice, writes amazing lyrics and is timeless. He has this deep soulful voice that makes anyone of any age get up and move. It's the perfect music for Sunday morning breakfasts, windows open, trees in bloom and music flowing through the entire place, filling you with the urge to just groove. And to top it off, the guy is 28... So if you get the chance, check him out!