My First 5K!

Boy, I am WAY behind on my blog-my last post was January 30, and a lot has happened since then. In particular we've had two big things that I need to write about - one very good and one pretty bad!. The good one first: I ran my first 5K race yesterday. It was the "Tooth Trot 5K" in Melbourne. I would say there were 300-400 runners - not a huge run, which is one of the main reasons I selected this race. OK, I know some of my followers are athletic, so they'll think my time is pathetic. But I had been timing myself and I thought I was running 5K in around 42 minutes or so. But on Saturday I did the race in 38 minutes 21 seconds. I am VERY happy with that time for my first event. PLUS-I came in third in my age division, which made it even more fun for me. (OK-to be honest-I don't know how many women were actually IN my age division, but it doesn't matter! I STILL came in third!) Dave came with me (and we had to get up at 6:00 to get there, so I was even more impressed that he came along!) It was very fun to have him there cheering me at the beginning and then at the first little loop through the parking lot, and especially when I came across the finish line. I'm just bummed because I didn't even think to bring my camera so I don't have any pictures. But there was a photographer there, taking pictures as each person crossed the finish line, plus he took pictures when the awards were handed out, so somewhere out there should be two pictures of me. When I find them, I'll post them unless they are TOO awful! I had a BALL doing it, and felt GREAT afterward. Plus I did the whole thing without walking one single step-I ran (...OK, maybe it's more of a jog) the entire time.

So now I've picked out my next one - it's a St. Patty's Day 5K up in Jacksonville on March 18th. I think it's really important for me to set another goal immediately, because otherwsie it would be easy to slack off, and I don't want to do that. I definitely want to improve my time by 2 or 3 minutes minimum, which I think should be pretty doable. And then I would love to do the Tulip Time 5K when we get home. FUN!

OK-now the not so good thing that happened. We got big-time ripped off the other day. I don't remember if Imentioned it, but on Jan 10th we bought a new Winegard Carryout portable satellite TV antenna. It's a little satellite dish inside a dome that you just plug into your cigarette lighter and it spins around and around and finds a satellite and locks in. When you move, you just pick it up, throw it in the back seat of the car, and plug it back in when you get set up at the next location. It's absolutely wonderful and I LOVE it! Finally-the perfect TV solution for us. So we are now at Long Point county park, across the inlet from the Sebastian Inlet State Park, and we were only here two nights and when Dave got up Friday morning he looked out the front window and sae that our satellite dish was GONE!!!! Someone came in the middle of the night and CUT THE WIRES and stole it, along with the tripod. The set up was worth around $800-$900. The dish sat on a tripod, and Dave had hung a milk jug filled with sand underneath it using a little S-hook - this was to keep it from blowing over or anything. Well, the bastards just cut the wires, left them laying in the yard, and left the jug of sand. They took everything else, including Dave's S-hook! We were just SICK about it. Dave immediately reported it to the office, and they called the police. The police officer took down the details, but it's absolutely impossible to catch the guys. But then we got some good news!!!! I called the insurance company and found that this is covered under our "personal effects" coverage and there isn't a deductible for that part of our coverage. So all we had to do is buy a replacement and send the receipts to the insurance company for a full reimbursement. So that is good news - but it was still a nuisance to have to find a replacement unit (about 60 miles round trip), and get it set up. Plus we had to order the tripod and will have to make another trip to pick it up next week. But primarily it's just the PRINCIPAL of the thing-what a crappy thing for someone to do! Dave put the new one up on top of the roof and tied it down with a zillion bungee cords - nobody's going to get this one unless they literally climb up on top of our roof! This is the very first time we've had anything stolen in seven years of trips, so the whole thing has been very upsetting to us.

So those are the two big things to report. We did one other fun thing last week - we went about 25 miles south on Vero Beach and visited our friends Barb and Dan. Barb is our good friend Theresa's mother, and we knew they stay in this area for about six months. They had told us to contact them when we got down here, so we did and went over and spent the afternoon and evening with them. They gave us a golf-cart tour of their gorgeous park-Ocean's Resorts, I think it's called. Barb fed us a great supper and we drank yummy wine and admired their absolutely beautiful fifth wheel (...it is REALLY nice!). We had a great day with them and will definitely see them again before we leave the area. Unforunately I didn't take my camera there either (I'm gettting REALLY bad about remembering the camera!)

So, other than that, we've been loving this area, doing lots of fishing, biking, hiking, walking the dog, kayaking, and just relaxing. We really do love it here right on the side of the ocean. I've been to the beach a few times, but the last few days have been kind of rainy and colder and extremely windy, so we're hoping for a weather improvement this week. In the meanwhile, I'm posting one picture of Dave and me, visiting the Barrier Island Sanctuary, and a BUNCH of pictures of some of the mailboxes here on the island. Apparently one of the requirements for living out here on the island is that you must have an appropriate "ocean-themed" mailbox. Cute, aren't they?