Fourth of July

This year the Fourth of July was a little different from all the ones in the past for me. It started bright and early with waking the kids up and getting them over to MiMi's house so that she could watch them. Then Jennifer and I headed to downtown Lexington to run the Bluegrass 10,000 or 6.2 miles. This race had me a little nervous because just about a month ago I injured my right calf muscle. I wasn't able to consistently train for this race which was frustrating. The week before the race I was able to finally start jogging again. Then the night before the race I was out playing with the kids and I slightly injured it again. I taped it up the morning of the race and hoped for the best. I knew that at the first sign of pain while running I was going to stop and just finish walking the race. Thankfully, I did not hurt at all during the race. I didn't finish in the time that I really wanted, but with everything that had happened I was just glad to complete the race without further injury.

The Bluegrass 10,000 is a nice race through downtown Lexington and then a out and back run down Richmond Road. The course doesn't have any real steep hills, but it does have some gradual ones. I tried to snap a few pictures along the way of some of my favorite spots. Goodfellas Pizzeria is one of mine and the kids favorite places to go downtown for lunch or before a ballgame. I got a picture with Coach Cal's house along Richmond Road. I even spotted Jennifer a little bit after I made the turn. The old Shriner's Hospital was another place I snapped a picture with. Then of course I was really happy to see the finish line too! Jennifer finished a little over 2 and a half minutes behind me. I couldn't help but take a selfie on the way back to the car with the most famous downtown landmark, RUPP Arena!

We are glad that the rain held off until near the end of the race. We had a pretty good experience running our first Bluegrass 10,000, but I am excited to do it again next year and hopefully can finish it with a better time.

In the afternoon the weather outside was pretty nasty so we asked MiMi if she would like to go see a movie with us. We were all excited to see Despicable Me 3. The movie was pretty funny, for what I could stay awake for. Getting up early and running the race made me pretty tired.

Landon couldn't get enough of the popcorn. Never seen a better way to eat popcorn, especially if you don't want to get your hands dirty.

While Jennifer was cooking dinner, the kids and I decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood and see all the people setting off fireworks. Landon drove the dune racer and Brinley rode along half the time and rode her scooter the other half.

 We ate dinner out on the back deck and watched all the different neighbors setting off fireworks. There were a couple of groups that put on a pretty nice little show.

Landon enjoying playing with some sparklers. They could have done these all though the night, but unfortunately we finally ran out. 

Brinley also really enjoyed the sparklers, too. 

We had a jam packed day and we all had a lot of fun. I think running the race could become a new tradition. Maybe next year we will try to head downtown and see the fireworks show instead of watching the neighborhood ones. Also in a few years we will actually be able to tell them the real reason why we celebrate Independence Day. Hope you and your family had a wonderful 4th of July. Thanks for reading and God bless!