This has been a crazy busy weekend (but then really, what weekend in my life isn’t crazy busy?) Friday I spent all day at Jones’ school hosting a “book swap” where every child in the school got to take home at least one “new to them” book. Many of the kids in Jones’ school come from comfortably well off families, but there are a lot of kids that are immigrants, children of immigrants, or from one of the local shelters. While I’m sure all the kids appreciate the books, it is awesome to see how excited the kids who may not own more than a few books are when they get to choose and keep a book all for themselves. This is my third year doing it and it’s one of my favorite volunteer activities (plus spending a whole day surrounded by books makes the librarian and book lover in me happy).
Volunteering and virtual racing
Saturday Jones had an indoor soccer game, then my dad and I ran a fast four miler (8:54 average pace), and then Beer Geek and I went out to dinner without kids.
This morning I volunteered for my first race ever and had a BLAST. It was a new race, Love the Run You’re With, and I had already run the race virtually (allowed because of a snow schedule change). Anyways, this morning, I arrived at the start bright and early. I helped set up the pre-race water and the post race snacks and then was sent with some of my running buddies to help at the water stop. The water stop was just before the turn around in an out and back race, so we had to walk almost 1.5 miles to get there. Why does that seem like a REALLY long distance when you are walking it, but not that big a deal when running? LOL
The water stop was being run by Potomac Runners and they had the situation well in hand, so all we had to do was follow their directions. After standing around in the cold for quite a while, we finally saw the front runners!! It was so cool to see the fast runners leading the pack! Unfortunately, they were on the opposite side of the road from where we thought they’d be, so the water stop ended up being before the turnaround. Despite the cold, quite a few people took us up on the water and shortly after the majority of runners passed, we picked up the tables and moved them across the street so that runners could get water on the way back.
After the last runner passed by and we cleaned up, a lovely runner from PR gave a few of us a ride back to the start, where we got to cheer in the last few competitors. All in all, it was an awesome experience and a very well organized race! There’ll be another 5k in June that uses the same course, so if you are local and love a 5k, I highly recommend running it. Heck, I might even run that one (although I think I’ve caught the volunteering bug LOL). The only negative of the whole morning was that I didn’t take the windchill into account when I got dressed and got so cold at the race that I didn’t warm up until a several hours later and a couple of miles into my run.
I was supposed to run another virtual race this weekend, but I didn’t realize I was supposed to run it yesterday. I ended up doing it with my dad today and while it didn’t “count” it got me out there running when I was not at all interested in running. My dad and I ended up running 5.24 miles in 50:04, which I was quite happy with, considering I’d run hard the day before and been on my feet all morning. All in all, it was an excellent weekend!
Thanks for all the feedback on the ice baths. Seems like it definitely works for many. I plan to do at least a short one when I can, but I know of at least one 20 miler that will start and end at Shoo’s preschool because that’s the only way I’ll get it done in time. Pretty sure our church isn’t equipped with an ice bath LOL. As far as the “Ask Mama”, it’ll happen if a topic comes up that I want to research, so feel free to send some ideas my way.
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Love the sound of that book swap. It must be wonderful seeing all the kids get a book to take home, especially those that don't have many as you said.
The book swap program sounds like a really nice idea.And yay for volunteering! Now as for finding a beer that I'd like, good luck with that. I'm a dry red wine drinker. I'm picky about that too. So far, I haven't met a beer that I've liked yet…
The book swap sounds great. Glad you had fun volunteering.
what a great thing the school does…i am sure many children love it. awesome job on all the running you accomplished.
The book swap sounds like great fun for the kids. Volunteering is such a happy way to spend a day 🙂
Books and running, doesn't get better than that!
Sounds like a perfect weekend – busy but fun :)Good work on the running!
Wow – the book swap is a great idea! We have the Imagination Library here which has been a treat living somewhere we are given free books once a month. We will miss this when we move. Yay for volunteering!
It's wonderful that the kids can have the opportunity to participate in a book swap & share their love of reading.
The book swap is a great way to recycle books!Glad you enjoyed the volunteerring experience. I need to do that one of these days.
Thanks for volunteering! Sorry I didn't see you, I didn't grab water, but you all were great! Hope to see you at Four Courts 4!
Race volunteering is definitely something I want to get into. Glad you had such a good experience!
The book swap sounds like such a great idea!Glad you had a good first volunteer experience. That reminds me, I should line up some volunteer opportunities for this year…
Volunteering….I've done it for some charities but have to get out there again. LOVE The book swap idea, so bringing that up at my school!! Thanks for sharing
I love books too, and that book swap is an excellent idea. I love anything encourages kids to read. That's neat that you volunteered at a race. I want to do that sometime to be on the other side of the table and get to watch everyone run by.
Yay for volunteering! Glad you had fun doing it too. I love the idea of a book swap. I am a book person for sure.