Youth Villages 5k

So here is my first race report - hopefully, the first of the year!!! :-)
Saturday, April 18, 2009, I woke up to the sound of RAIN!!! ARG! My first 5k in a long time...and it was raining! That didn't dampen my spirits as my excitement of running in a race far exceeded the thought of running wet. However, by the time I began running - the rain stopped. YAY!!!!
I met Cheryl, my running buddy, and her son Kenneth at the starting area and we got our timing chips. (I felt so much like a 'real runner' then!) We took part in the aerobic warmup lead by some guy from the military - a real "boot camp" warm up! About 5 minutes before the start of the race, we headed over to the starting line. Alexis Grace - from American Idol - sang the national anthem. Very Cool! Then we heard the sound of the horn - we were off!!!
Our goal was to stick to our training plan: run 1:30 walk 1:30. Mark, our coach, was very adamant about that! We did and the run was great! I felt wonderful! The neighborhood we ran through had some very humongous houses. Some very rich people live around there!!!!! We talked, admired the view, laughed alot and we even stopped to take a picture at mile 2 - just for the fun of it. :-) My time was 41:11, which is REALLY SLOW, but I really don't care right now. I feel like I'm back into running now. :-)
Here are some pictures from the day....

Here we are at the finish line


Mile 2 :-)


This is Cheryl.

More family traditions

This time at Easter!
We dye eggs and then the "Easter Bunny" hides them for the girls to find. They also get Easter baskets from the "Easter Bunny". It's one of those traditions that we just keep on enjoying! :-)
Here are a few pics from yesterday.

A few days in Tampa

One of the things I really LOVE about teaching PE is the great conferences I get to go to. In the past I have been to: Atlanta, St Louis, Reno, Orlando, New Orleans, Mobile, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, Ft Worth and now Tampa. It's like a mini vacation, but I get to go to these awesome workshops taught by some of the best PE teachers in the country. I usually take away 3 -4 great ideas to try in my classes.

Seeing old friends is another thing I love about it. Since moving from Tulsa, I get together with the Oklahoma crowd at the conventions every year. And now I have my Tennessee friends to hang out with too! :-) I'll put some pictures up here later...

This year - with it being in Tampa - we had to go to the beach!!! Yay! So Thursday afternoon I went with my Memphis buddies and Friday afternoon I went with my Tulsa buddies. The sand was awesome!!!! It was white, soft, and did not burn your feet!!! The water was actually warm enough to swim in! I love just sitting, listening to the waves and smelling the salt air. I could have stayed all day!

Here's a game that I will try next week with my PE classes. It's called 3 team kickball. It's very crazy!!! Basically it's two games being played at the same time. You play in a gym (or on the field) with one team on defense and the other two teams are kicking.
1. Divide all students into 3 teams.
2. 2 Fields set up on a basketball court.
3. 1 team will be in the out-field, playing both fields at the same time, while 2 teams are up to bat.
4. The pitcher of one field is the left fielder for the other field, etc.
5. Each team will get 5 outs, then rotate to the outfield. Teams rotate quickly once the game gets started.
6. Facility rules (various per gym) Example:
• Ball hits the ceiling, (basketball hoops, speakers) automatic out.
• Unlimited fouls, or 3 foul balls is an out, allow kicker to kick a
stationery ball.
• No bunting, unless the facilitators allows.
• NO CHUCKING the ball at a runner, MUST TAG with ball in HAND for an out
(baseball rules).

The cool thing about this game is how the kids have to work together to get anything done. I'll try and video the game during my classes and post it here for anyone to watch...... Should be a blast! :-)