McQuaid 2012

 

I really can't believe how fast the year is flying by. Today was the annual McQuaid Invitational in Rochester. This was the first year Alex was able to run in the big Varsity race.

 

Over 250 schools (and over 6,500 runners) competed in the 25 different races during the day. Alex's race was the 24th race of the day. Each of the largest schools in the state (and many schools from around the country...) entered only their top 7 runners for the Varsity AAA Seeded Race.

 

 

It was a very fast race, the conditions were perfect.

Here's Alex racing toward the finish.

 

He ended up placing 26th overall, and 2nd for his team. With a very fast time of 15:45.9 for the 3-mile course. Which was 9 tenths of a second shy of earning an "elite runner" badge. Here are the results from his race.

 

He did get a very nice medal and a t-shirt though.

 

I was looking back at pictures of past McQuaid meets and thought I'd show a photo of Alex's first McQuaid Invitational from 8th grade... what a difference 4 years makes.

50th Anniversary Party

Last night Eric and I attended the 50th Anniversary Party for NewsChannel 9, a place I worked for 7 years. It was almost like a class reunion, it was great to see people I hadn't seen in a long time. It was a very nice evening. And I was glad that we got to go.

Here's the "reunion" photo, there are folks in this picture who worked there 50 years ago when the station went on the air. I had some other photos, but posted them on Facebook if you're interested!

Dual Meet

 

Today was a big meet for Liverpool. They ran against their arch-rival Baldwinsville. There were about 100 kids in the race, just from the 2 schools.

 

One of Liverpool's top runners has been out sick for two weeks. He was back today, but still not back to full speed.

 

This was the lead pack for the first mile or so. Alex is in there somewhere.

 

He picked off a few Baldwinsville guys.

Alex ended up placing 7th overall, and 3rd for the team. And ran a personal best 16:58 in a 5k race, he also ended up 21st on the overall leader list for his high school on their home course. He was pretty happy about all of that. Sadly however, Baldwinsville had a better day overall as a team and they won the meet. Liverpool will be back at full capacity the next time they face each other though, and they won't know what hit them!

Team Picture.

Emmy Night Party

 

Last night was our big Emmy Party at work. It was a fun event and most importantly, it looked great! Pictured with me are co-workers Kendall (next to me), Kerri and Jim. We were the ones who did all the hard work putting the event together.

I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Although it was a late evening, especially with work the next day. And I also think that this was the first time I watched an awards show so closely. Usually I'm doing 3 other things while it's on in the background. I think I like the Emmy's more than the Oscars, I was actually familiar with most of the shows.

This Week

This week was a blur. I think I had some sort of activity after work every day. It's that time of year! On Wednesday, Alex had a cross country meet, but he didn't run. He was having some pain in his back, so he took the day off and cheered on his teammates instead.

 

The boy from Central Square (in the maroon) is the son of a co-worker. Alex met him at running camp this summer and did volunteer work with him at the station too. They became fast (no pun intended) friends. Alex is cheering him on here. It would have been fun for them to run together, but it wasn't meant to be. Alex is feeling a little better and is still working hard. There was a big invitational today, but Coach kept the Top 6 runners out of the race and had them do a workout instead. They have a really big dual meet on Tuesday against their rival Baldwinsville, so they're focusing on that. It should be a great meet.

 

 

I ended up working today, so it was good Alex didn't run today. I've somehow started helping out with event planning. Which has really been a lot of fun. It's a lot different from what I usually do. We're having an Emmy Party tomorrow evening. This is what the studio looked like at noon today after all the rental furniture arrived.

And this is what it looked like at 4pm, after we finished setting up the studio. Mind you, there were only 2 of us. That was a lot of work! But, it was fun. I think the party will be a lot of fun too. I'll be sure to take some photos to post. We ended up getting a red carpet for the entry, but I forgot to take pictures of that.

Swanky Black Tie Affair

 

This past Friday evening, Eric and I attending a formal dinner event. It was a fundraiser for a local hospital.(Crouse) Eric has produced the video presentation for years and this year he (and his co-workers) got an invitation to the dinner. It was a lovely evening! It started with a cocktail hour...

Then moved to the giant banquet hall. It was a 'disco' theme. The couple that was being honored apparently had a thing for the disco era. The group "Abba Mania" was even there to perform.

 

This was one of the cool centerpieces on the tables. You can see a purple one in the background. I loved all the fun decorations and the colors.

 

This was a view of the banquet hall. There were around 1,000 people in attendance.

 

This was our main course. I'm pretty sure I was the only one there that took a picture of the food.

 

And this was the amazing dessert.

This was the only picture that was taken of me. We probably should have asked someone to take our picture since we were all dolled up. The man sitting next to me is Bob Papaleoni, he is a co-work of ours.

I took a nice one of Eric. Doesn't he look handsome in his suit?!

This is Eric's work-husband Dave. Eric took more pictures of work-husband Dave than he did of me...

Creative Fun at Beaver Lake

 

Alex's long run today was at Beaver Lake. So Eric and I went up to go for a walk and to take pictures while Alex ran around the lake a few times.

 

It's a beautiful area. Lots of nature to admire.

I was enjoying the interesting shapes I was finding with the trees.

Then I was inspired to see if I could find all the letters of our last name. And I did! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. Click on the image to see it bigger. I didn't touch anything that was there, just coordinated my position to get the best angle. I started on the rest of the alphabet, but ran out of time. Someday I'll have to go back and finish it up!

2012 VVS Invitational

 

Today was the first big invitational of the season at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School. There were 60 schools that raced. They divided the schools into 4 races. There were 217 kids in Alex's race.

After the race he complained that he felt tired and didn't have as good of a race as he should have.

 

But he still had a great showing. He came in 4th for the team again and 8th overall in his race.

Liverpool won their section and came in 2nd overall when they merged the results of all the 60 teams. And one of their top runners was out sick today. They probably would have won the merge had he been there. I'm excited to see what more this team has in store for the rest of the season! Click here to see results from today's race.

Eric was trading photography secrets with one of the other parents. They were admiring each other's cameras... I'm not sure who had the biggest lens...

Off and Running

I can't believe it's already that time of year for Cross Country meets. Today Liverpool had a dual meet against Syracuse East, which is a team that is made of of 2 Syracuse city schools.

 

Syracuse East had 2 really good runners. They're leading the race here. Alex is in the middle of the photo in the lead Liverpool pack.

 

Liverpool didn't allow Syracuse to lead for very long. Liverpool took 1-4. Alex was the 4th runner for his team and overall.

I think Liverpool is off to a great start!

15 Miles on the Erie Canal

 

Alex likes a change of scenery for his "long runs" on Sunday, so today I drove him to the Erie Canal over in DeWitt. There are many places to start your run (or walk or bike ride), but this one I was familiar with because I used to work near there. So it seemed like a good place to go. It was a gorgeous day.

 

Here he is starting his run, I think he ran 10 miles today. I went for a nice walk and hung out. Next week I need to start doing the jogging thing again. Because my dad has asked me to enter us in the annual Turkey Trot this year! So I did. And now I need to start moving! I have 11 weeks til the big day, so I should get going soon. I have to keep up with my 75 year old father who has been in training for months now...

And speaking of running, the official cross country race season begins on Wednesday. Alex is more than ready, and I can't wait to cheer him on! So here is a warning, the next 3 months worth of blog posts will most likely be all about running!

Kiss Me, I'm Irish

Last night we went to Syracuse's Annual Irish Fest. It's our favorite festival. As you all probably already know by now! We met up with our friends Rick & Kathy Falanga.

 

I ate some salt potatoes (and Shepard's Pie, but that was earlier...) I also had potato soup when we went down for lunch... I'd say I had my fill of Irish fare yesterday!

We listened to some fun Irish Music.

We squeezed our way through the crowds of people.

Kathy and I enjoyed looking at the jewelry. I saw lots of things I wanted. But nothing I had to have.

 

 

We also ran into a few more friends...

 

And Eric took a picture of himself. It was a fun time had by all.