The four day weekend is over and while there is never really any true time off for me during the holidays (hello, online retail), it was overall a great holiday. The Oiselle holiday design is my favorite so far, it was so much fun to launch that on Thanksgiving. How our designer brings my loose, crud sketches and ideas to life so beautifully is beyond me. Because… really you should see the sketches. She is a mind reader.
We hosted Thanksgiving here for the first time. It was about how you'd expect. No big disasters, a lot of work, the overwhelming concern of 'is everyone having fun?' and stuffed happy bellies in the end. Plus a toddler dance party that just wouldn't quit. Success.
Because of hosting responsibilities, it was the first year I didn't do a turkey trot in many years. Turky trotting has been a MacKay tradition for my entire running life. And in the past three years I've looped Owen into the fun! It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving. This year though I just felt stressed thinking about taking the time out of hosting prep to race.
Luckily I did find a way to run off some of the holiday stress thanks to Meghan who texted me the night before, in the midst of my pre-email-blast-send-insomnia. She had one last workout before CIM and was going to hit Roosevelt Track in the AM for 4x200, 8x1000. I jumped in. My booty is still sore.
Friday was spent lolling around and obsessively checking that the web codes were working for Oiselle shoppers online. Saturday we started some shopping but ultimately ended up going to the movies (Dallas Buyer's Club: strongly recommend) and eating a delicious dinner at Capitol Cider.
Sunday morning I woke up at 5:45a to get ready for the Seattle Marathon. Not to run but for water station duty in the I90 tunnel! I've been wanting to volunteer for a race ever since I got into half marathons and marathons. The water station is so crucial, and it's amazing to me that people would give up hours of their Sunday mornings to support racers like me. I wanted to pay it forward.
I arrived at the mouth of the I90 express lanes at 6:40am and followed three figures in the dark along the edge of the highway lane and into the tunnel. Everyone was already working. And immediately I got started doing what I saw everyone else doing: opening liter water bottles and dumping them into double lined trash bags. Yep. Stirring up Gatorade with giant spoons. And filling layer after layer of cups.
We finished filling our third tier of tiny Gatorade cups around 7:35am, got the pep talk and within minutes the elite half marathon men were flying past. I yelled "Ga-tor-ade!!!" for approximately the next 2 hours of my life. There were surges of people, hands flying in from everywhere. There were lulls. There were really kind people with 'thank you's. There were cwanky people with grabby hands and annoyed faces. It was like standing in a stream full of fish, if the fish were all completely different fascinating characters.
It made me love the marathon all over again. And it was the nail in my running-slump's coffin. Well the water stop and the #RWRunStreak! Which is so rad. Just run at least one mile a day everyday from Thanksgiving and January 1st. There's an awesome community getting out there everyday. Just search for #rwrunstreak on Twitter and Facebook. Instant inspiration! Didn't run one of the last 5 days? I'm easy, join up now! Let's go!
We hosted Thanksgiving here for the first time. It was about how you'd expect. No big disasters, a lot of work, the overwhelming concern of 'is everyone having fun?' and stuffed happy bellies in the end. Plus a toddler dance party that just wouldn't quit. Success.
 |
| we call this move the starfish |
Because of hosting responsibilities, it was the first year I didn't do a turkey trot in many years. Turky trotting has been a MacKay tradition for my entire running life. And in the past three years I've looped Owen into the fun! It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving. This year though I just felt stressed thinking about taking the time out of hosting prep to race.
Luckily I did find a way to run off some of the holiday stress thanks to Meghan who texted me the night before, in the midst of my pre-email-blast-send-insomnia. She had one last workout before CIM and was going to hit Roosevelt Track in the AM for 4x200, 8x1000. I jumped in. My booty is still sore.
Friday was spent lolling around and obsessively checking that the web codes were working for Oiselle shoppers online. Saturday we started some shopping but ultimately ended up going to the movies (Dallas Buyer's Club: strongly recommend) and eating a delicious dinner at Capitol Cider.
Sunday morning I woke up at 5:45a to get ready for the Seattle Marathon. Not to run but for water station duty in the I90 tunnel! I've been wanting to volunteer for a race ever since I got into half marathons and marathons. The water station is so crucial, and it's amazing to me that people would give up hours of their Sunday mornings to support racers like me. I wanted to pay it forward.
 |
| water! ga-tor-ade! |
We finished filling our third tier of tiny Gatorade cups around 7:35am, got the pep talk and within minutes the elite half marathon men were flying past. I yelled "Ga-tor-ade!!!" for approximately the next 2 hours of my life. There were surges of people, hands flying in from everywhere. There were lulls. There were really kind people with 'thank you's. There were cwanky people with grabby hands and annoyed faces. It was like standing in a stream full of fish, if the fish were all completely different fascinating characters.
It made me love the marathon all over again. And it was the nail in my running-slump's coffin. Well the water stop and the #RWRunStreak! Which is so rad. Just run at least one mile a day everyday from Thanksgiving and January 1st. There's an awesome community getting out there everyday. Just search for #rwrunstreak on Twitter and Facebook. Instant inspiration! Didn't run one of the last 5 days? I'm easy, join up now! Let's go!