Weekend at the lake

I spent the long holiday weekend at Lake Anna with Melissa's parents at a mini reunion: four grandparents (Melissa's parents and good friends), six parents (Melissa's sister, two cousins, and their spouses), six grandchildren (two kids per couple), and me.

We arrived Friday night and spent a couple hours catching up and previewing the weekend activities. The grandparents had planned a treasure hunt, bon fire, boating excursions, and plenty of time on the dock. Sitting in the house Melissa loved, with the people Melissa loved was hard. This group is my family. They've always treated me as such and I'll always think of them that way. But the connection between them and me is Melissa. There was no ignoring the fact that she was missing.

I was definitely gonna need moments of alone time in between the fun times. My first opportunity was a Saturday morning run. I headed out as everyone was thinking about breakfast or getting their coffee. I stretched on the lawn then hit the road. I hadn't mapped out my run, so I decided to go out 15 minutes and come back. The roads along the lake are quite hilly, so it was a good work out.

run-walk pattern in minutes:
5-1-5-1
5-1-5-1-6-2
total distance: 3 miles

It seemed that I was heading up hill every time I came up to a walk segment. I looked around hoping that nobody was watching me and thinking that I couldn't make it up a hill. Luckily, there weren't too many people out. I saw a few cars and one walker. Nobody was paying attention to me.

I skipped the run on Sunday and instead did "active recovery" as prescribed in the training schedule. I swam around the pontoon boat a couple times and played monster to the kids' raft. Good times.

I sure wish Melissa could have been with us. She would have loved it.