This week starts the 6 week countdown to the marathon! I'm happy to report I survived my first of a few 20+ mile long runs. Unfortunately my long run partner Val had hockey mom obligations all weekend and she did her long run Friday afternoon so I was going solo for this on on Saturday. The plan was to run the rail trail again for 2 hours and than pick up the pace at the end a bit longer this week (last week I survived 5k of tempo at the end). I was absolutely dreading the long run solo - especially since the rail trail is so desolate and remote. The hubby agreed to ride his mountain bike along with me & Grandpa agreed to have a go at his first babysitting gig with the boy. (I don't know what I'd do without my family to support me though these long training hours). I did give the hubby and grandpa a free golf pass for Sunday though in exchange for the ride-along. The run itself was pretty uneventful, long & slow. My legs were feeling pretty sore from a track workout on Thursday night too. I managed to go 4 tempo miles at the end of the 2 hours slow and then 2-3 miles cooldown which brought to 21 big ones. Whew - glad that's over.

Now, onto the more important big news....my niece Madi had her first real theatre "tryout" over the weekend. She was auditioning for a role in "The Little Mermaid" play in San Diego (she was hoping she'd land the part of Ariel). Christy took her to the tryouts Saturday which lasted for hours. I received a text message from Christy right before Madi went on stage and she said her hands were trembling and she was soo nervous as if she herself were going on stage to sing and dance for the panel. Apparently the competition was pretty tough and she was up against very talented singers and dancers of all ages. Madi had to sing a song of her choice (she chose something from Mama Mia). She did an outstanding job and also had to learn a quick dance number in 15 minutes and then come out with the group and show her stuff. The call backs were going to be posted later online. They headed home after the dance number and Christy ended up staying up until midnight (the night before her long run) until they finally posted the call back names online. Madi wasn't in the list! Gasp - the horror! Christy was dreading breaking the news with her the next day since Madi was certain she'd land the role Arial or another lead. So, to make a long sad story short and happy. The bad news was broken Sunday morning, life went on with softball games, etc.
I got a text message in the middle of the night that said "Big News". Christy had discovered that Madi's name appeared, not on the call back list, but actually on THE CAST LIST for not one, but 2 roles!!! A Singing Frog AND a Sea Creature....OH HAPPY DAY! was the message from Christy. Too funny. I'm sure when she is a famous superstar someday we will all look back and laugh about how she got her big breakout as her role as a "singing frog". The hubby and I had a huge belly laugh at the role title "frog singer", too cute! We are so proud of our budding superstar!