Spring in Berkeley: Running, Knitting, and Sunshine.

Its been ages since I've written, and so much has changed in my life with so many changes on the horizon.

Despite my best efforts, my children keep growing faster than I can keep pace with. It is a pleasure and a joy to watch them grow and change day by day. My son, Little Hawke, is now 18.5 months old with a headful of floppy dirty blond curls and a taste for mischief and adventure. One of his favorite games is

"Chasing Sister." Here he is wandering into some one else's yard to smell their amazing roses. Some of the blooms were as large as his head, hair included!

My DD, Roo, is also continuing to blossom and change day by day. She's now 4 and 3/4 as she'll tell anyone will listen, and is getting ready to start Kindergarten this August! I've had her mostly to myself now for almost 5 years, and I'm already fearfully anticipating the loss of my little adventure companion. Here she is at Aquatic Park, showing me how she was able to remove some of the pavement with her awesome strength. She was rather impressed with how strong she is...I didn't have the heart to tell her it was crumbling away without her best efforts. We had a great afternoon of duck watching, walking, and hot chocolate. 

In other news, I'm still running and designing new things all the time. This morning I woke up extra early to go out and tackle a half marathon's distance before the family was up and about. I actually successfully managed to sneak out before the sun was fully up and the kids were awake. :D I left the house at 6:27 and began my run at around 6:40-6:50. I was home by around 9:15. Two hours out on the trail. It was a beautiful morning for a run. 

 Here I am before the run started, at the Emeryville Marina. My destination, the end of the Bay Bridge.

About 1/4 of the way through...This sign warns me that if I chicken out on the running thing and decide to walk, it'll be 3.5 hours to the end of the bridge back to this sign...Good thing I was running!

I made it to the halfway point with no problems. I was running a bit slower than I had hoped, but I at this point I figured I could make up some time on the downhill back to the car. The view was amazing from out there. I wish I had a better camera.




Here I am at the turnaround point. I didn't have quite the milage I needed for a half, so I did a few back and forths at this point followed by some loops of the parking lot at the end to make up distance.



On the way back to the car, I played a few speed games on the trail. I hadn't brought any music, and I was running solo, so I needed something to keep my mind occupied for the hour run back to the car.

I made it back a bit slower than I wanted, but with a negative split. All in all a good run!

I've got a marathon coming up in August, so I'm trying to stay active this summer. Hopefully this run will be the first of many great runs on my journey back to Marathon fitness. I haven't run a marathon since before the birth of my son, the last one being almost 3 years ago.




 In knitting news, I'm also designing lots. Here's a glimpse at one of my current projects, a set of fingerless mittens for a swap. It worked really hard on making a fun heart-shaped lace and cable motif. I'll post more when I'm ready to design these into socks!

I'm planning to have a really busy summer. I hope to blog again soon...I miss writing sometimes.

Until next time~!