Busy Day With the Fam

79 mins.
10 miles

This morning I was excited to have the opportunity to take my dad out to McAlpine for the first time. The beautiful weather rolled in with my parents' arrival yesterday, and this morning we were greeted with clear blue skies and warming temperatures. He was looking to put in an easy hour on the feet and I had ten miles on my schedule, so we set off from the Old Bell parking lot with the hope of getting in 5-6 miles together.

Due in no small part to the weather, the park was unusually crowded this morning with cyclists, dog walkers and other outdoors enthusiasts. Add to that the sights and sounds of birds, frogs, squirrels, ducks and other animals, and it's obvious that spring is finally here. Dad and I ran together for five miles--two from Old Bell to the start of the Footlocker course and then one loop around the 5k course--before parting ways; he in the direction of the parking lot and me to take another spin around the Footlocker course. My legs definitely appreciated the relaxed pace while we were running together, and they were none too pleased when I tried to pick it up a bit on the second half of the run. I was pretty beat by the last two miles and was perfectly happy to call it a day just short of 80 minutes.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent with my parents, as we strolled around uptown Charlotte (I've recently learned that only complete idiots call it "downtown"), enjoyed manicures and pedicures (Pops excluded) and ate lunch. In the afternoon we were fortunate to have the opportunity to sit in on Thomas Friedman's lecture at Queens. He is a well-known author and New York Times columnist, and he also holds the distinction of having been pied in the face while delivering a lecture at Brown last year. Coincidentally, this occurred in the exact same auditorium and on the exact same stage where a certain group of fellow bloggers and myself hid in a rather cramped A/V closet for an indeterminate amount of time prior to Campus Dance last spring to avoid paying the steep entry fee. So basically what I'm saying is Tom and I were pretty much BFFs prior to today's presentation are even more so after it. All kidding aside, it was pretty cool to see him in such an intimate setting (~100 people) and to hear his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing our nation and world at the present time.

I opted not to skip class for the second night in a row, so the rest of the evening was rather anticlimactic. Fortunately I have the entire day off tomorrow so I'm looking forward to more quality time with the 'rents.