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Thanksgiving Edition

I am one blessed momma! Four super sweet kiddos that shower me with love every single day and a husband who loves me! I’m especially thankful he tolerates my mileage and everything that comes with that mileage like exhaustion, mood swings and runger. Thanksgiving is particularly special to me because 16 years ago, it marked the beginning of me becoming a mom. We brought Jacquelyn home on Thanksgiving Day 2001. Three boys after her and I have so much to be thankful for in my life!

A little update on the Eagles since we were heading to state last time that I checked in.

Both the girls and boys teams competed at the Florida High School State Championship on November 11. It didn’t end quite as we wanted but we really need to keep perspective in what we accomplished this season. Our girl’s team were the runners up in the 1A division and our boys placed 3rd as a team. Lydia and Jacquelyn had solid races placing 3rd and 5th individually with times of 19:01 and 19:05. Then our amazing runner Trevor ran a 15:47 for a win! How exciting to watch him win his first state title and be apart of watching him train this whole season. This is just the beginning for all of these Eagles!

It appears that Jacquelyn’s season is over right now. She ran some awesome mile repeats Friday night at a cross country park in Lakeland. She hit 6:02 for the first one. Then 5:54, 5:56, and 5:52. These were not road mile repeats but up a hill on grass and sand…she looked strong and comfortable. The kid was on FIRE! I intended for Jacquelyn to travel to North Carolina to get her feet wet at Footlocker but it looks like we had a change in plans. She woke up the morning after the mile repeats with a fever and ached from head to toe. We’ll just consider that an early birthday present from her brothers. The boys had been sick and it appears that the germs have not left my house. I will say that is one of the worst parts of being a large family is when one person gets sick, there are a lot of us to get sick.

I am super proud of Jacquelyn’s first season of high school cross country. She had 2 wins, 2 runner up finishes and the lowest finish was 15th at Prestate. She posted 3 times sub 19 with times ranging from 18:25 to 19:17. She can definitely walk away from her freshman year excited about what she accomplished and looking forward to a bright future if she works hard.

The really good news is I get to focus on my training! Jacquelyn and the team will continue to log winter base miles until their first track meet in February which is around the same time that I plan on racing. I didn’t necessarily plan it that way but it seems to look awesome on the calendar. I do believe in God’s timing so wait until you hear this fun story! I have had race commitment issues and just couldn't seem to push the register button on any race. Heather and I had been doing a lot of research on possible marathons for me and after considering a bunch of factors, I was leaning towards Phoenix. My friend, Ryan ran it two years ago and had plans on running it again this year. He was encouraging me to give it a try. Basically I wrote a marathon plan and began training for it but couldn’t seem to register. A little over a week ago, I saw an IG post for a free entry to Phoenix and I entered. I WON IT! What? I don’t win things! I’m officially registered to run the Phoenix Marathon on February 24! I’m a little sad to miss the biggest race weekend in Tampa but there are other years for Gasparilla and after so much time with the Eagles, it is my turn to do my thing!

Here is a look at last week:

Monday 6 SLOW miles @8:50 pace biceps, back, core, 20 minutes treadmill walking

Tuesday 12 miles @7:12 pace plus 2 miles PM

Wednesday 8.58 miles @8:13 pace plus abs

Thursday 8 miles total (5 tempo @ 6:44)

Friday 8.25 miles @ 7:54 and 1.25 miles PM

Saturday Core and push ups

Sunday 16 miles @ 7:28

Total of 61.83 miles

Next weekend is the Space Coast Marathon and I plan on running the half. I think for right now my goal is to hit marathon pace for it and add on 5-7 miles for a long run to complete the day. Since we are no longer traveling to North Carolina, Space Coast is a nice bonus that I hadn’t planned on running. I’m excited to put closure to the five year medal series! Here is a throwback to last year's finish pictures at Space Coast and all of the awesome medals!

I promise next week that I'll stick to Heather's two sentence Tuesday theme!:)

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings,

Jolene

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