Party of Five: Gingerbread Run and Santa Train

Last weekend, we headed to the northeast side of the state for some visits with Ben's family, celebration of Sophie's upcoming birthday, and a train ride with Santa.

Since we were over there for the weekend, I signed up for a 4-mile race in Fort Wayne that I had found online.

I've been looking for longer races than a 5K, but haven't been able to find many 10Ks in the area. When I found this 4-miler, a bit longer than a 5K, I decided to go for it. Fort Wayne is about an hour south of my in-laws, and I thought this would be a good entry into longer races.

The race started at 8:30, but I made it down there about 45 minutes early.

It was freezing.

I mean, sub-freezing. Eighteen degrees, roughly.

Standing outside on the start line waiting to get the race underway was nothing less than miserable. But, by a few minutes into the race, most of the misery had subsided. About a mile into it, my lungs stopped burning, and I felt pretty good.

I was shooting for 36 minutes (9-minute mile pace) and managed to cross the finish at 35:06. That put me at 52nd place of 206, and 7th of 43 in my category of 30-39 Female. (Plus, I beat the roughly 50 runners that signed up for the race but apparently stayed home in bed, likely because of the frigid temperatures.)

True to form, I slept fitfully the night before the race -- I guess that tradition holds true even if I'm sleeping in someone else's home. I pretty much woke up every hour (at least) starting around 1:15 a.m.; I think I was nervous about oversleeping.

I'm still looking for a 10K to run; then my next big race is a 10-miler that I've signed up for in April.

At any rate, after the race, I drove back up to Angola, showered, helped Ben get the kids ready, then we headed up to Coldwater, Michigan for a 45-minute train ride to Quincy, Michigan and back, along with grandma & pa-pa, Uncle Mac & Aunt Jody, cousins Trevor & Nathan, and Jody's parents. Santa happened to hitch a ride on this same train as well, so the kids got to head back to the caboose and visit with him.

Travis asked for a Nintendo DS.

Noah was too nervous to ask for anything, but he was pretty agreeable to whatever Santa decided to bring him and was ecstatic about the candy cane he got as a parting gift.

Sophie asked for a snow globe.

She loves snow globes.

And people.

And Santa, in particular. I had to drag her off his lap so she didn't monopolize the entire train ride talking to Santa about snow globes and birthday cakes and her friend Colin's upcoming party at Chuck E Cheese that she can't stop talking about.

She's exhausting.