Weekend Misadventures

So, this was supposed to be 5K weekend (the Jingle Bell Run). Note the "supposed to be." Clearly a higher power had different plans for me and my family.
The furnace (or a very vital piece of said furnace) broke at my parents' house yesterday morning or early afternoon- and temperatures here aren't much above freezing (outside- during the day) as it is. Rather quickly, after the repair guy said that it would be Monday at the earliest to get it fixed or a new unit installed, my mom got a hold of someone who thought they could get it done today. So we packed up some things (and the dog) and went to my grandparents' house. Thank goodness they live in town and had room for us.
When I went to bed, I held out hopes that it would be above freezing when we were supposed to run. And then it was 28 degrees instead- and felt even chillier being amongst the downtown buildings. In other words- we skipped the race and picked up our t-shirts (since we'd preregistered) and left. Besides, we weren't sure when the people who were installing the new system were going to be at the house (turns out, we wouldn't have made it by running anyways).
I'm so glad we didn't run- my ears were frozen just after the 15 minutes walking from the car to the registration site and back to the car!! And wouldn't you know- I saw one guy in shorts and a few people in capris. Craziness I tell you! So, I'll try again when it's warmer. I'll even try harder to follow the Couch to 5K plan than I did this time around. At least I gave it a try, right?
We made it back to our house at 11am- and it was down to 46 degrees inside (a whopping 10 or so degrees warmer than outside). So my mom and I huddled under several blankets with a heater on either side of us while we watched tv. We kept ourselves quite warm  that way! And by 1:30 or so, we had heat working again, and at 9pm or so, we were finally back up to feeling warm enough to turn it down!

Couch to 5K

So, last December I had this crazy idea. I figured that since everyone around me was trying to work out or run a marathon (and I wasn't), that I would make a plan to run a 5K sometime in 2009. I even made it my New Year's Resolution.
So all year, I kept thinking, "Oh, I've got time. I'll start next week." Well, guess what, folks? It's October. And I gained just enough weight to make my clothes not all fit. It's terrible. So, I started the Couch to 5K plan last week, in hopes of doing the Jingle Bell run in December. I'm on week 2. I've got to say, I can tell a difference between last week and this week (I no longer want to die at 45 seconds, although at 90 seconds I really start to wonder about my sanity). So that's got to say something, right? So tomorrow I'll finish Week 2. Have no idea how I'm going to do Week 3 with the conference next week, but I'll figure it out.
And Dad, if you're reading this, start getting ready!!! Because it's my goal to jog most of the 5K.