72 & (partly) sunny

sunset at lafayette blue springs, florida
our journey begins

over thanksgiving weekend, i joined some friends (well, 1 friend and 3 strangers-aka-soon-to-be-new-friends) on a canoe camping trip way down upon the suwannee river. the next 3 days were spent driving (we started in TN afterall), telling stories, and of course a whole lotta paddling. in all, it was one of the best weekends i can remember having. too much to recap here, so i'll list just a bunch of memories that may make sense only to me. :)

- stars reflecting on the water
- ninja training
- cherry moonshine
- omg there's rapids ahead!
- the BEST (insert food here) i've EVER had!
- 101 uses for a tortilla
- getting juiced
- random acts of kindness
- brad (heart) 911
- bug + butterflies
- birthday suits vs wetsuits
- stealing trucks & toast
- duckweed
- ambrosia
- kumbuya
- laughing gas
- mitch:1; everyone else: 0

springs we visited:
- Lafayette Blue Springs, our launch
- unknown springs, dinner night #1
- Peacock Springs. great swimming!
- Royal Springs
- Running Springs
- Troy Springs, our take out point. great swimming!
- Ruth Springs, camping night #2

the crew at adams tract river camp: katie, courtney, brad, cathi, mitch

an old swinging railway bridge

my paddling partner

being mermaids at peacock springs

yes we swam in this. duckweed, not icky algae. peacock springs state park

katie at troy springs

mitch getting a ride

old friends & new at "troy springs manor"

more pictures here and here

mini orlando vacation

I came down to Orlando for a few days to visit my sister, brother-in-law & nephews... for some fun and suffering in the Florida humidity.

Sunday, Liz and I woke up early to run the Track Shack's Celebration of Running 3.0 mile race. It was their 30th anniversary, so there was a 70s theme throughout the day (70s funk music, costume contest, and their . They always put on a great race and this really was no exception, with one of the best swag bags I've gotten (next to the Stumpjump!) It was a hot morning, but despite added humidity, wasn't worse than what we've been having up in Chatt. I haven't run any short races since starting speedwork with Joey and crew, so I was really interested to see just how fast I could go. I was hoping to average 7:30min/mile. I think I was around an 8:15 for the country music half marathon, so I thought this was a doable estimate.

The first mile was a great start - 7:11, even with the crowded start (over 1500 runners started!) The second mile was at 7:19... a little slower, but still ahead of pace. Just a bit after the 2nd mile marker, the funky thing with my heart beat happened. I got a bit lightheaded and slowed, but didn't stop (I really didn't want to!) I took about 30sec easy and seemed to shake it off, so I pumped it up for the last bit. My final chip time was 21:57, which translates to a 7:19min/mile pace. Yeah!! Since this was a bigger event, seems like all the speedy peeps came out. I got 13th in my age group (out of 116), 47th overall woman (out of 882).

After we had a chance to cool down, the kid's fun run started. Both Evan & Ethan got shy right before the start and got Liz & Erick to help them across the finish line. They both got bright yellow ribbons, which they thought were pretty cool.

That afternoon we headed to New Smyrna Beach to relax - although the boys kept me very busy! Here's a few shots of the fun...