Mountaineer Pi Run

On Saturday I ran my second 5K of the year.  Couldn't have asked for better weather for this time of year!  Upper 50's and sunny.

Bad picture of me from after the race.
I've got to have someone else take one sometime.

I improved my time to 26:41 and managed to again place 1st in my age group!  I'll call that a success. I took almost 45 seconds off my previous time.  Would still love to get my average mile down to closer to 8 minutes though.

The Mountaineer Pi Run was held at an area Christian school  and they had one of my favorite restaurant's provide pie for the runners.  If nothing else, the butterscotch pie made the run worthwhile (although I was happy with how the race went also).

Fun medal I received for placing 1st in my age group.

The course was rather hilly which I still need to work on training for.  All the roads near me are flat so I have to think of some other locations to run at that include elevation changes so that I can be prepared for future hilly courses.

There currently aren't any other runs I'm signed up for but I am hoping to have my summer schedule finalized in the next week or so.  I've got a list going of runs I'm interested in so hopefully soon I'll be able to add more to my calendar.  Looking at doing my first 10K ever in early May.  Super excited but definitely nervous.

What is your favorite 5K if you are a runner?  Any tips for my first 10K?

Lately

• I had to work this past Saturday and Sunday so I didn't really get to enjoy the great weekend weather.  Every third weekend comes way too quickly.  

• This week the forecast shows the highs hopefully reaching the low 60's.  Now if it can only be dry for a few days as well.  It has been raining a fair amount recently which has greened things up nicely.  But it's hard to enjoy the warmer temps when everything is wet.     

• On Saturday I am running the Mountaineer Pi 5K.  Looking forward to running another 5K and also getting free pie from a local restaurant at the finish.  Hoping they have my favorite butterscotch pie.

• I'm trying to line up a few more 5K's for the next couple months and also hoping to try out a 10K or two as well.  Love the runner's high I feel when the race is finished!

• Rob and I camp every year with some of my good friends from high school and their families and I can't wait!  Still trying to find a couple other times to go camping this summer as well.  I'm behind on getting reservations and most of the state parks fill up on the weekends throughout the summer so we'll see what I can find.  I love camping.  Are any of you campers?  If so, where do you like to camp?

Ladybugs

Generally I think of ladybugs as cute little insects.  Pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things so I typically leave them alone.  Well, no more!  At least when they are in my house.

We have ladybugs everywhere in our house and I can't get rid of them.  ANNOYING!  I don't know if this is just a Midwest thing or if it is a problem all over the US.  They have been around for the last couple months but seem to be getting worse the last few weeks.

A couple here and there are tolerable but we have quite a few in our kitchen and a ridiculous amount in one of our upstairs bedrooms.

This is a picture of one of the windows in the bedroom.  The picture doesn't do the amount of ladybugs justice.  Fortunately we don't use the bedroom upstairs for much or I don't know what I would do.  

I vacuum the ladybugs up in the house at least once a day, but it just doesn't last for long.  This afternoon I vacuumed 177 ladybugs up from just the one bedroom!  Unbelievable!

I think I'm going to have to buy some insect spray that is safe for use inside the house because this has to stop.  Do you have ladybugs or some other insect in your house?  How do you get rid of them or prevent them all together?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  We're heading to church in the morning and then having 

my family over for lunch.  Hoping you are all able to spend some 

time today with loved ones as well.  

Christ has died, Christ has risen, and 

Christ will come again.

He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you, 

while he was still with you in Galilee: 

"The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of 

sinful men, be crucified and on the 

third day raised again"

Luke 24: 6-7