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So fun to see Emma meet her parents'
old friends! |
I don't really have a bucket list for the U.S., but now that we are back I do have a few things that are at the top of my to do list. One is to visit our friends and family. Before we moved I felt like we often made excuses, said it was too difficult, or said that we were too busy to visit people. I want to change that now that we are back and much "closer" relatively speaking. The second "to do", which goes hand in hand with the first, is getting out and visiting new places in the U.S. (figured we should make this a priority considering how much of Europe we've seen now). And third on my list is to keep running marathons, and specifically to run a marathon in all 50 states. That's a big challenge and I don't have a timeline on it, but I figure there's no time other than the present to knock them off the list, and if I can get people I know to run them with me all the better too. So a couple weekends ago we checked all three items off the list as we made a trip to North Carolina, visited a good friend from college, and I ran a marathon!
My friend, Abbie, and her husband, Eric, are both super smart, super buff, faculty in the Exercise and Sport Science Department at UNC. As we hadn't seen them for well over two years (and we had to miss their wedding seeing how it was on Emma's due date!) we were excited to spend some quality time catching up with them and get some time to enjoy the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (aka Research Triangle). Steve had never been there before and my previous visit was during graduate school where we largely spent our time touring athletic facilities and going to basketball games (I know it sounds like a horrible trip).
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| Seven years since I got to watch all the North Carolina basketball, Steve finally got his chance too! |
Although not part of our initial trip agenda, and not part of my bucket list to-do's, Steve scored big when we found out that our trip just so happened to be the same weekend as the ACC Men's Basketball tournament in Greensboro. Seeing how it was only about an hour away, we all made a trip there for the afternoon. The boys got to see two semi-final games (including Duke vs. NC State) and the girls got a lunch outing and trip to a fun children's museum with Emma.
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| Emma the strawberry! |
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| Loving the chickens at the Children's museum. |
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| So cute... Emma and Abbie having tea in the old train car! |
You could also say that running a marathon was not a part of my original trip agenda either, especially considering we started planning the trip only about six weeks ahead of time. However, I happened to find that the same weekend we were looking at visiting there was a small trail marathon, the Tobacco Road Marathon, in Cary, North Carolina (another suburb in the Raleigh area). So, while I was certainly not in peak condition, I did an accelerated training plan and with a little extra company from Abbie along the run, I actually ended up with a halfway decent time of 3:48. Although it was a pretty flat course and conditions ended up quite ideal in the upper 40's on race day, I was still pleasantly surprised by the outcome and it leads me to wonder if I should schedule another last minute race on my calendar this spring (and maybe train a little more this time)...
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| Almost done! |
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| She looked more excited about wearing the medal when we first put it on her! By this time it was too heavy! |
While basketball and running consumed most of our weekend we were able to relax and enjoy a great time catching up with our friends. They also helped us to make the most of our time by showing us around UNC and Duke's campus along with the neighboring cities. We got to tour the Carolina Basketball Museum and Emma made out pretty well with a trip to an awesome children's park in Raleigh.
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