Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day!

My Sunday began with 9 mile run with the running club. Before leaving the house, I had a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest with almond milk and a banana. I brought along some blueberry Luna Moons and ended up eating half of them (50 calories worth) during my run. I liked the flavor, but they seemed to get stuck in my teeth. I also learned from my last long run that I’d probably be starving afterwards, so I packed some water and a Lara Bar for the ride home.

It was cool (low 50s) and cloudy this morning, and my hands were a bit cold during the first mile. I warm up pretty quickly, and had no trouble after about 10 minutes. And the run itself felt great! I ran the first half kind of by myself, because I ended up right between 2 groups of runners. Since we were all running about the same pace, I decided to punch it up a bit to catch up with someone I could chat with for a couple of miles. I ended up running alongside a seasoned runner who completed the Lincoln Marathon last weekend, so we had a lot to chat about – it was nice and made the time fly! Most of the group was doing a 7 mile loop, but since I wanted to get in 9, I tacked on an out-and-back mile at the end. I noticed my pace decreased while I was chatting, so I decided to challenge myself to do the last 2 miles in under 10 minutes apiece. I really surprised myself when I my last mile came in under 9 minutes – my fastest mile of the run! I didn’t have any pain and definitely felt like I could have kept going. Yay!! Here are my splits:

• Mile 1 – 9:50
• Mile 2 – 9:21
• Mile 3 – 9:06
• Mile 4 – 9:34
• Mile 5 – 10:02
• Mile 6 – 10:00
• Mile 7 – 10:33
• Mile 8 – 9:53
• Mile 9 – 8:53 (woohoo!)

After my lovely run, I headed home, cleaned up, downed some coffee, and headed to my sister’s house with Katie. My sister, Jenny, was hosting a Mother’s Day brunch for our family! She made an incredible spread of food. I was so happy to be so hungry because I wanted to try everything!

Baked Garlic Cheese Grits (Soooo good! – you can’t go wrong with a Paula Deen recipe, right?! And my sister subbed vegetable broth for the chicken broth for me!)

Fruit Pizza on a Sugar Cookie Crust (My nephew was so cute, pointing out how he used a pattern with the strawberries!)

Vegetable Egg Casserole on a Hashbrown Crust

Mixed Greens Salad with Pecans, Mandarin Oranges, and Orange Vinaigrette

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake

I had some of everything…plus seconds of the grits!!

Coffee and Mimosas were also served!

Oh my goodness, everything was SO good! Thanks again, Jen!!

Here I am with my sisters and my Mom. Love these ladies!

(my younger sister Emily, my Mom, my older sister Jenny, me)

And here’s a funny picture of Katie playing Rock’em Sock’em Robots with my nephew!

After brunch, we headed home and I took a little nap (long run + full belly + cloudy skies = perfect nap time recipe). Around 4:30 we went to Katie’s parents’ house to celebrate Mother’s Day with her mom and dad. We had salad and an awesome veggie pizza for dinner and a delicious coconut cake for dessert, but I forgot to take any pictures. We also spent some time outside getting Katie’s mom’s new bike adjusted for her. Katie’s parents live downtown in a very walkable/bikeable neighborhood, so Katie surprised her mom with a brand new bike for Mother’s Day! I think it’s safe to say she was shocked and elated – it was a lot of fun!!

Well, ladies and gents, reading in bed will pretty much sum up my evening. But I’ve got something exciting to share with you tomorrow! (Is that mean?)

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