A Great Day

Yesterday was a great day.  Of course, it was pre-destined to be pretty awesome, since it was my birthday. 😉 I am unashamedly over-the-top about my birthday, which may be annoying to some, but I figure I get one day a year to ensure that I have a great day, so I do my best to make it that way!

I got lots of birthday emails, texts, calls, etc., which was lots of fun.  I also got a special present from Starbucks—a post card for a free drink of my choice! I love my cappuccino, and although I normally make it myself, I was eager to try out the new Starbucks in our neighborhood.  The baristas were enthusiastic about my birthday when I handed them my postcard, and the one who made my drink was more than happy to take a picture of me.

Yes, I not only got the venti (largest) size, I even splurged and got one of my all-time favorite things—an almond biscotti!  There is just nothing like dunking a biscotti in your coffee…yum!!  I was kind of disappointed to see that the biscotti are smaller than they used to be, and yet, they’re more points! 🙁 (Mostly likely because they put whole almonds in them now, which most people probably enjoy, but I’m not really in it for the almonds.)

I had lots of birthday wishes and emails at work, too, since they announce birthdays on our company intranet site.  Well, unless you specifically ask them not to, but God knows I’m not going to turn down an opportunity for people to pay attention to me. (For more information on that, please see the name of my blog. 😉 )

When I got home, I immediately went to check the kids’ homework, which is my normal habit.  This time, though, I was in for a surprise.  DS#1 brought home an assignment for his Health class, which he attends once a week.  It was a packet of papers to fill out by next Thursday, where he had to choose a health or fitness goal, and then go into great detail about why he chose it, what he would have to do to accomplish it, what obstacles he might face, and how he would overcome them.  I just glanced at it at first, and then I looked more closely and was astonished to see what his chosen goal was:

“My goal is to run a 10k.”

(I was going to take a picture of it so you could see it in his 10-year-old handwriting, but he left it at school today!)

I was totally floored that he not only made that his goal, but he had very logical reasons for making it a goal (“I want to be faster when I play hockey”) as well as plausible obstacles (“It might be hard to run on the days when I have hockey practice”) and ways to overcome them (“I can run on the weekends”). He even mentioned his training program (“I train with my mom.”)

Maybe it was just because it was my birthday and I was feeling my age (LOL), but I actually got a little teary as I read this.  I called him over to me and gave him a big hug, and told him how proud I was of him.  He was so serious about this assignment, and took such care to answer the questions, I am absolutely convinced that he is going to reach this goal!

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After that, Jay (my husband, as announced a few days ago) took DS#2 to hockey practice (because after last year’s 40^th birthday debacle at the hockey rink, I refuse to ever set foot in a hockey rink on my birthday again).  I was slated to run two miles yesterday, and so I asked DS#1 if he wanted to go with me for at least part of it. He surprised me by not only agreeing to go, but asking if he could do intervals!

Since he’d had trouble with intervals the first time we tried them, we decided to greatly shorten the distance, from a quarter mile to a tenth of a mile.  This turned out to be a much better training program for him, and he did a great job.

With his warm up and cool-down runs, he ran a total of 1.55 miles.  I was so proud of him!

Meanwhile, before we’d even set out, I’d told him that I was running two miles.  But as we got ready, I had a thought.  Yesterday was my 41^st birthday.  As background, you need to know that I was pretty enthusiastic about turning 40.

I told everyone I was approaching 40 with flair and fabulosity. 😉 As much fun as I had turning 40, yesterday I was really struck by how much different my life is now than it was just a year ago. Specifically, how much better!  Last year, I was running an auction and two hockey teams at this time.  This year…well, I’m just running. 😉  I now weigh 35 pounds less, and I am the fittest and healthiest I’ve ever been.

With all this in mind, I said to DS#1  as we were warming up, “DS#1, I’m turning 41 today. How many miles do you think I should run?” And because he’s my kid, he got a big grin on his face and gave the same answer I was thinking: “Four point one!!”  What can I say, we both love numbers. 😉

(This is my second try.  In the first try, I was holding up my fingers the wrong way and DS#1 said, “Mom, that’s 14!!” 😀 )

I did indeed run 4.1 miles total, with DS#1 riding his bike with me on the last 2.5 or so.  I did some of DS#1’s intervals with him, so that made my time a little lower than I think I would have normally done, but that was the longest “after-work” run I’ve ever done, so I’m willing to cut myself some slack.  Plus, it was my birthday. 😉  I have to say, running with my son on my birthday was a pretty awesome birthday present.

Because I’d let DS#1 use the Garmin for his intervals, I had to use the MapMyRun app on my phone to keep track of my distance. When it was done, I had this:

It makes me smile to look at it, and to know I will always have this visual evidence that I ran 4.1 miles on 10/4/12, my 41^st birthday. 😀

Tomorrow is another exciting day—I’ll be running in a very special 5k.  I can’t wait to tell everyone about it next week.  Until then, have a great weekend, and no matter what you’re age, your fitness level, or your weight, take a page from my book and celebrate the awesomeness that is you with flair and fabulosity! 😀

Thanks for reading!