32:55

I did it. And unashamedly, I will tell you I am so proud of myself because I made a personal best by about 12 minutes. The 5/3rd River Bank Run was such a great experience. There were around 15,000 runners for all three races combined and the weather was beautiful. I am not an emotional person, but I felt tearful twice. At the beginning of the race, I just felt so happy to be finally be running the race and to be a part of such a big event. Everyone was so joyful. At the end of the race I had tears on my cheeks, which may have partially been from exhaustion, but also knowing that I had the willpower to push through. So, thanks to you all for your support and for listening to my boast.

Brian, Meagan (my sister), and Jill (Meagan's college friend) were also completely awesome. Meagan ran the race (her first also) in just over 25 minutes. Way to go!



After the race, we enjoyed some free Michelob Ultra and music before heading back for Tulip Time. We visited Veldheer Farms, and payed our entrance fee before we discovered that most of the tulips were past their prime. We still found some nice "late bloomers" to admire.







Before the girls departed, we wanted to drive down to Fenn Valley to stock back up on wine.



Luckily, we arrived just in time for a tour by the owner/winemaker. He taught us so much about the process of winemaking. We've been on tours before, but definitely picked up a lot of new information. For example, did you know that some of the French wine casks cost more than $700? If they're using the barrel to flavor the wine, it will only do that for one season. Now they have discovered a way to add oak "beans", small cubes of wood to the wine, it ages in the large stainless steel tanks. The barrels also impart an oxygenation process, so they supplement this by hooking an oxygenation tank up with a bubbler going in to the wine.

We tasted some fantastic wine out of bottles, out of the tanks, and straight out of the barrel. He had to use a "wine thief," which looked much like a turkey baster, to serve us.





We purchased a case (got to get that case discount!) and headed home. I have to get back to work on our Mother's Day feast...more on that later (and the knitting).