Eight is Enough

What a crazy weekend. My wife is out of town so her sister and I played tag team on watching kids. I have 3 and she has 4 of her own (single mom even). She originally offered to watch all 7 for the entire weekend and give me some alone time, but I wasn't having any part of that. Instead, I picked up all 7, plus a friend of the oldest, and headed for the woods.

But not until after I got a long run in with my running partner. He had texted me and said he wanted to do 15 miles with 3 or 4 of them at a 6:30 pace. I said sure, why not? It was a great morning for a run. When it came time to pick up the pace, he began to leave me behind despite my Garmin reading 6:26. Eventually he slowed down, but so did I. I ended up with miles 12 through 15 being between 6:42 and 6:59. And our route ended up with 16 miles with an overall average of 7:27.

Then I showered, got last minute things together and went camping with 8 kids ranging from 2 to 12 years old. Saturday's forecast had showers and thunder showers in the forecast. Luckily we experienced both while there, but only mildly. I even managed to start a fire as it began to rain, thanks to a good tree canopy. Two packs of hot dogs and a package of marshmallows later, they were happy campers.

The good: Talking to the deer that looked at our pancakes forlornly, seeing the kids work out the tent arrangements without my intervention, and sleeping in a hammock with one of my daughters.

The bad: Watching my nephew fall out of a tree (though I semi-caught him). He was fine and back in another tree 2 minutes later.

The ugly: The bump on the 2-year-old's head that appeared after he threw a fit and learned that head butting asphalt is not the same as the carpet at home.

Mileage this week (still aiming for 4 minimum):
Mon - 4.13 in 31:34
Tue - 4.25 in 30:30
Wed - 6.37 in 48:40
Thu - 4.01 in 30:13
Fri - 4.14 in 16.14
Sat - 16.14 in 2:01:04
Sun - 4.18 in 32:40

See also: CAMPING SLIDESHOW