Pandas, running, and the election, oh no!

It's been a crazy busy few days around here. The madness started on Halloween when we had 3 different parties to attend. The first was at a friend's house and was chaotic with toddlers everywhere, but very fun. The second was at a Retirement Community in our city. I was prepared for it to be depressing, but instead I was very pleasantly surprised. The community center was clean and new and there was an open bar for the residents! Anya trick-or-treated around the tables and then sat down to watch the belly dancers and listen to the Blues band. From there we headed out to another friend's house for delicious soup followed by trick-or-treating. Anya was so excited to trick-or-treat, and she was quite the task master making sure we got in and out with out any unnecessary stops. After each house she would say, "Next house!". She was scared by one person in a scary costume, but soldiered on, unlike some of her friends who were too frightened to keep going. It was a great success and after eating a few pieces of candy she left her bucket by the door for "Jack O' Lantern" who exchanged it  for a present.

Saturday was filled with rain and errands. Chris and I left Anya with my mom for the night so that we could stay in the city before my half marathon on Sunday. Luckily we arrived at the race expo just before they closed and I was able to pick up my bib and timing chip. Unlike other races that I have done the half required that runners pick up their stuff the day before and not on the day of the race. Unfortunately they did not make that very clear and one of my friends and closest training partners didn't pick up her number and therefore couldn't run. We were all quite sad about that.

The race on Sunday went ok. It was pretty poorly run with too few porta-potties, so I was stuck in line when the official start happened. Since timing was by chip I decided to stick it out (I had to pee during the entire 12K last time and didn't want to repeat that experience). So when I started I was essentially by myself, which was pretty anti-climatic. Because I started at the end of the pack, and am a slow runner, by the time I (and a bunch of others, I wasn't totally by myself) reached the third and fourth water stations they had run out of water. I was pretty bummed by that, especially by the fourth station since it was at the top of a large hill which had been preceded by hills and was followed by hills. So I was pretty thirsty by that point. There also weren't very many mileage markers, which wasn't really a problem for me since I had my Nike+, but was irritating to other runners.

But it wasn't all bad. I finished just 5 minutes slower than my goal, it only sprinkled a few times and there was an amazing rainbow over the Golden Gate Bridge as I was approaching the span. I was exhausted at the conclusion, but haven't been too sore since. I'm not sure I'm cut out for running that long of a distance, but I will keep running more moderate, for me, mileages (more like 10 miles/week instead of 20).

Today has been filled with work and election stuff. Anya and I took some time to stand on a corner with No on 8 signs. It was great to see how many people honked and waved to us. I wasn't sure what to expect from this community. I'm looking forward to putting the Anya the Grouch (no nap today) to bed early and watching the election returns!