Ocean City Maryland Half Marathon

This past weekend, Mom took part in her second ever half marathon:  The Ocean City Maryland Half Marathon/5K.  The event is a point-to-point race that begins at the Inlet and ends at Assateague Island.

Our adventure began Friday night when Mom and I said "au revoir" to the kids then raced down the peninsula to pick up her runner's packet at the Francis Scott Key Resort.  The resort was mobbed with runners and their support coming in from all over the globe.  With packet in hand, we were then off to the condo to turn in and rest up for the soon to arrive 7AM start.

We awoke around 5:30 Saturday morning.  With the sun not yet up, we prepped quickly then dashed out the door.  At the Inlet, we snagged one of the few remaining parking spots, then made our through the crowd to the start line.  Mom stretched, tweaked her music playlist, and the next thing we knew, the siren sounded and away she went.

The course started by snaking around the parking lot, dog-legged around the pier, headed north up the concrete portion of the boardwalk, then banked left at N. Division St, passing under the Ocean City Arch.  From there, Mom and the other racers crossed the Rt 50 bridge then diverted through a few neighborhoods while basically working southward on Rt 611 toward Assateague.  Overall, the course was very flat, save for the whopper of bridge entering Assateague near the end.

When Mom crossed the finish line, she found herself placing 1173 out of 1876 total runners and 106 out of 231 in her division.  She completed the course in 2:14:24 (chip time), notably shaving about 2 minutes off her time at the Delaware Half last year.

The post-race party was held at Seacrets night club.  While the club in and of itself is something to behold, the parking situation was bad, the line to enter the building worse, and apparently the wait time for food was atrocious.  We benefited from heading to the condo first to allow Julie time to clean up then heading over to the club.  By the time we got there, a lot of folks had cleared out and we actually had a decent time.

The rest of the weekend consisted of walks on the beach, movie time, an amazing meal at Ruth's Chris Steak House, and ice cream at Dumser's.  Yum.

Congratulations, Mom.  You never cease to amaze me.

NJHS - Abigail's Induction

On Tuesday, April 24th, Abigail was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society.

Membership in the NJHS goes beyond just having good grades. The society is looking for specific qualities in its inductees: Service, Leadership, Character, and Citizenship.

Congratulations, Abigail.  Mom and I are both very, very proud of you.

Carpe Vacationum Diem

With the kids on Spring Break, we decided to seize a couple of vacation days and head to the Delaware shore Tuesday and Wednesday.  While we didn't expect to be frolicking in the ocean and working on our tans, the brief respite would be greatly welcomed by all.  So with Grammy and the girls already en route Monday afternoon, Mom and I loaded down the new family truckster with the boys, Sadie, and supplies and made our way south Monday night.

Highlights include our trip to Lowe's to purchase a shower head (no, seriously, this was great fun), heading into Rehoboth both days to just bumb around on the beach, and our quest to find the Jusst Sooup Ranch recently constructed by the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew.

Happy Easter

Easter this year shared the same piece of calendrical real-estate as Alex's birthday.  So aside from celebrating another year of Alex, and all that accompanies being Alex (hobos, internet memes, etc), we were careful not to forget this, the most important and holy day of the Christian calendar.

As with Christmas and Thanksgiving before it, Nana most graciously opened her home for dinner to not only my side of the family, including my and my brother's broods, but also to Grammy and Granddad.  We are truly blessed beyond measure to not only live close to our families, but to be close to them in spirit as well.  May we never take this blessing for granted.

Happy Easter...

Happy 15th Alex

It is difficult to fathom that 15 years have passed since Mom and I ushered our first born into this world.  In such a brief span of time, he has grown into amazing young man who is incredibly bright, incredibly loving to his younger brother, and incredibly...tall.

Happy Birthday, Alex.  May God bless the next 15.  And the 15 after...