Kangaroos are Slow

Most people who know us know that we love animals more than people, especially when the animals are snugly.  It is no surprise then that we chose to participate in the Zoo Run Run, a 5k put on by the Nashville Zoo.

Here is Lia and myself posing with Twigga the Giraffe.  You can tell it is before the race, because I am still standing.

We all know that Lia secretly aspires to become a donkey one day, but since a donkey was not available to play with, Lia decided to become friends with a miniature horse instead.  Also, look carefully at this picture and see how many zebra print items of clothing you can find. It is only a tad bit disturbing.

The Champ is here!  Champ is the mascot for Monroe Carrell Jr. Childrens Hospital at Vanderbilt.  Go Dores!

The run was exceptionally fun, especially considering that running is really just socially acceptable torture.  They had free food, juice and beer after the race and we got a ton of sweet swag such as band aids, small towels and t-shirts.  The actual race went right through the middle of the zoo, so we got to hop next to kangaroos, wave back at elephants, growl at tigers and the adults even got to peek behind the bamboo at the breeding area for giant ant eaters (just kidding.. they wouldn't let me.)

This was an exciting day for me for a couple reasons.  The first is that I've never run an organized race before.  For most of my life I haven't felt the need to work really hard to end up where I started. Now that Lia has suddenly become a super hardcore runner, I've felt the need to show my acceptance of her condition by getting my toes wet with an easy race.  I believe my husbandly obligations have been met in full, so I have permanently returned to the couch.

The second and probably more significant reason that Saturday was such a big day for me is because with the completion of that 5k, I accomplished my final short term goal.  I set a ton of goals for myself to measure my progress towards being awesome, and running a 5k in 30 minutes was my last remaining item before I rolled on to stage 2 of Plan Perfect.

In the interest of full disclosure, I technically ran it in 31:14, but that doesn't account for the rotation of the earth and the fact that we had to run by super awesome animal exhibits, which was actually really distracting.  I kid you not, Lia would point and yell whenever we ran by something cool.  The adults were annoyed by her antics, but the children and myself appreciated the heads up.  I would have run right by the lynx if it wasn't for her yelling and pointing... and if I missed the lynx, why even go?

So I am going to go ahead and count this run as a win.. so I've run a 5k in a moderately competitive time for a non-runner, I've created my own company and brought it to profitability, and I've gotten a good score on the GMAT (standardized test for business school.)  Now I am on to my next three goals, which are getting a Masters in Business Administration, buying a house (for us, not another investment property), and finally being skinny enough to look like I belong next to my super hot wife.  It'll be a few years before any of those are possible.

Now I know at least half of you are asking... WHAT ABOUT THE DOODLE?  The answer there is that the doodle is not a goal, but rather a tool that the Lord has provided us to keep up our cheer and good spirits as we work hard to build a better life.  As long as we have Pippa, adversity does not stand a chance.

Now that I've got a rhythm going with these posts, I'm going to start reaching back in time to provide some updates on the past.  I think next week I'll cover Christmas with my family.  Here is a teaser pic to show you why you don't wanna miss it...