Fast run and test prep

Went for my first run after the Humdinger last week (felt like I needed some time for the bleeding to stop). Knowing there were no killer hills made me feel lighter on my feet than I've velt in a long time. I ran the fastest 5k since I started running again last year. It's anywhere near as fast as I used to run, but it was a step in the right direction (a bunch of them really and they basically led me in a giant circle...) and I didn't feel terrible afterwards. I just signed up to do a 10k trail run on the oldest rail-trail conversion in the country. This is a distance I've never run before. After my fast 5k I sort of wish I were doing that distance instead, but I'm interested to see what I can do with a longer distance without any rock climbing and foot-skiing along the way.

The Humdinger was unbelievable this year. Somehow, they managed to fit more uphills into the course. There was a lot of snow of varying conditions all along the trails, and there were some downhills that were so snowy and steep, that we were actually sliding the whole way down. Gravity still works and was doing its best to take me down. It nearly succeeded once, but I tucked and rolled and came back up in stride. That felt good, considering it was about 5 miles into the race. My brother surprised me with a visit and ran it with me. He was nice enough to stay with me when he probably could have finished 10 minutes faster without much effort. The end of the race was a blast too. They covered a short, steep hill with plastic and snow and turned it into a giant slip-n-slide to the finish. That with beer and chili post-race was a great way to end it. I'm definitely going back next year.

Were' approaching that time of the year again - state testing. This year, in their infinite wisdom, the state has decided that 8th graders don't need to learn during April. Instead, we are having 3 tests in math, 3 tests in reading (concurrent with math), 4 tests in writing and 2 tests in science. That pretty much takes up the entire last 3 weeks of April, with the first week being our very abbreviated spring break. At the end of this week, we have about 2 class weeks left before the math tests start, so we'll be ramping up the test prep. Good times.