Alright, I know I haven’t blogged in almost a month. But I have been SO busy lately. I have been working a lot, but also trying to enjoy what little free time I do have. I made sure to celebrate finally passing my CPA exam(!!!!!) and I asked to have the weekend of October 1st off way in advance because I had lots of fun things planned! First I ran a scavenger hunt race with Becca, then I went to a fun dinner at El Vez and the Matt Nathanson concert with friends from college. It was a blast! Here’s the recap of the scavenger hunt race!
I woke up on Saturday morning around 9 and vegged out for the whole morning. Becca picked me up a little while later and we drove over to Northern Liberties where the race started. Becca and I wore crazy socks, but some other people had some really great costumes. My favorite was the 2 people dressed up as sharks.
At noon they told us we had to run to a near by parking lot and find a ping pong sized ball with our number on it and run back to get our list of clues. Everyone ran off to the parking lot to the area with all the balls. It wasn’t a large area but after a few minutes Becca and I were the only two left looking for our ball. It became quite apparent that there was no ball with our number on it! One of the race directors told us to go on ahead anyway.
We got our clues and quickly started trying to figure them out. Since we got a slow start we decided to run on ahead and figure out the clues on our way. They said we could take public transportation or use our feet. We didn’t know how far exactly we were from Center City so we hopped on the train.
Becca on the train
After a quick ride we made our first stop to Reading Terminal Market. We took a picture with a statute of Philbert the pig and did the YMCA with strangers.
YMCA!
Then we headed over to Love Park and took pictures with the wheel barrow.
Playing in Love Park
Becca holding the wheel barrow on one finger. Not my best work as a photographer...
After, we ran over to a Jimmy Johns for a napkin. Then we ran to a small park on 11th and Pine. We had to walk around a tree with a golf ball on a tee.
Walking with the ball on the tee
Next, we ran to another park past South Street and had to pass skittles from one bowl to another using straws. It was pretty funny! Then we had a few stops on South Street.
We found the squirrel
Then we headed to Old City and stopped at Betsy Ross’ house and the oldest residential street.
Our new friend was not very good at being in character.
Then we ran to Franklin Square and looked for a brick with the saying “Always Find Time to Play”.
Found it!
Then we headed back to Northern Liberties. Our last stop was throwing frisbees in a park and then we ran back to the finish line. They weren’t giving out awards for a couple hours so we decided to leave without finding out how we did. We got tee shirts and dog tags instead of finishers’ medals.
The race was a ton of fun and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to run around outside! When we got home Becca mapped our route and said we ran about 7 miles! I would definitely do another race like this again!
Since then I’ve been closing down the gym pretty much every night because it’s the only time that I can make it there. Some noteworthy recent work outs include the night I ran 3 miles in 25 minutes and the morning I ran 7.5-8 miles (not completely sure of the distance because my watch broke).
Yes, I took a picture of my treadmill
I have a 10k in New York next weekend, and after my 8ish miles I feel ready!
I’ll try to post again before my race, but if not I’ll be back soon with a recap!
–Melissa
Running In The Real World 