Been A While, Remember Me?

Wow, where have I been!  It has been about two weeks since my last post.

Well, lets see, we survived the blizzard and this past week we took a trip to visit my parents.  We had a great time and I was able to take the kids to the Franklin Institute which is a place I loved as a kid. It was awesome to see them run through the giant heart and have a good time.

The Titanic exhibit was also there, which is the main reason that we went.  In 1984, before they actually found the Titanic, my dad took me to an exhibit that had some items that were pulled out of the water and they had a women there who was a survivor.  My memory is not great, but I think her name was Eva Hart.  I have been fascinated ever since. My dad and I just loved the exhibit and I highly recommend it.

I did get to run on the treadmill at the hotel.  I counted it towards Livin the Sweat Life's Grandma Lil's Birthday Virtual 5k.  It was not my best run but I was happy to get it in and get the exercise done.  For those of you who have been following and know my family, know that you gain 5lbs just by walking into my mom and dads front door.  Oh, you think I am kidding? I am not.

One of the things that got me really excited was the fact the the Franklin Institute is right near the start/finish line of the Philadelphia Marathon.  We drove right past the Museum of Art and I got chills.  This is my race and despite the struggle to get to 5 miles right now, I know I will be at that start line.

On a not so good note, they changed the date of the race.  This is not a big deal for me, but Barb is supposed to run this race with me.  It will be her 5th marathon and she wanted to be there for my first.  What an awesome friend and I am lucky to have her in my life.  Anyway, she and her husband bid their vacation around the initial date.  Not sure if it will work out, but I hope it does. I will keep you posted.

Now, remember a few weeks ago, I participated in Andy's Chilly Cheek's Virtual 5k?  Well, that race not only had one of the coolest medals that I now own, but he gave away some incredible prizes.  I am so happy to say, that I won one of the Allied Medal Displays!  Woohoo!!!

I was emailed from them right away asking which one I wanted. They were nice and so pleasant to work with.  The medal displays are cool and I narrowed it down to two.  I decided to go with, Give a Girl the Right Pair of Shoes and She Can Conquer the World.   My next one will be Always Earned, Never Given.  It is now hung up and it looks just as awesome as I thought it would.  I wish I had as many medals as I have race shirts though, LOL.

Super cool, right?  Andy's is the big medal right in the middle.

If you are looking for a way to display your medals, you should check out their site. There are some really cool ones to chose from and you can also have one custom made.  They were friendly and my display shipped quickly.  It was a pleasure to work with them.  You can also like their FB page here.  Say hi from me when you head over.

Ok, well it is the end of school vacation week and I hate to see it end.  I will be running tomorrow as part of the Anywhere 5k Team Challenge.

My team consists of  Andy, Darlena, and Barb.  We combined our blog names for our team name and came up with My Happy Running Ass, super funny right?  Are you doing the Anywhere 5k team challenge?  I think you can still sign up and run tonight or tomorrow.

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend.  There is more snow coming tomorrow, yuck!

Run Strong, Think Big! ~ Nicole