La Famiglia

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a family reunion of sorts. Nearly all of my family on my dad's side lives in Italy (his mother was born there) but are currently here in Sacramento to visit! The family has a bit of drama in it's past as most families do, and this was the first time having everyone together in more than 30 years. Five out of the six cousins, including my dad, were there - the last time this happened was when they were kids.

The cousins reunited!

Tania & I ♥

With my wonderful "aunts" : )

 

I first met my Italian family a couple years ago when I studied abroad in Italy and immediately felt a bond form, especially with my cousin Tania whom I've become quite close to, despite the long distance between us! Both her mom, Gina, and Gina's sister Lia (both my dad's cousins) were fabulous to me and I spent several weekends with them in the little Tuscan town of Lucca, where my grandmother actually grew up. To this day, those are some of my best memories. Getting us all together is something I've been hoping for ever since then. Our family has strong roots - my grandmother is 94, her sister Annie is 96, and their brother Vic is 90, and immigrated to America when they were in their early 20s. Eventually Vic went back to Italy and his family followed, and since then the family has been split between two countries. So to finally have us all together under the same roof, enjoying great Italian food and plenty of wine, was nothing short of special to me : )

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Now back to running! Monday evening I did a speedy 4 miles after work and since I didn't get started til later than usual I ended up running the second half in the dark : / Next time I'll just have to test out my new headlamp that I bought for my midnight marathon in two weeks!

As I mentioned in my last post, Tuesday night I decided to postpone my run til the morning and do my NMTZ workout instead. After taking so much time off it was much harder than I remembered! I'm also dealing with some pain in my left knee (need new shoes!) which made some of the moves likes lunges difficult to do. I got through it though and was good and tired and ready for bed.

This morning I woke up and immediately noticed that I was sore all over. I was supposed to fit in an 8 miler early in the morning but one thing lead to another and I didn't get out the door til almost noon. Luckily it was a bit cooler than usual so the heat didn't kill me. When I headed out I noticed 7 turkeys that had came from the river and crossed the street! Odd thing to see in your neighbors yard. I ran my usual route on the American River bike trail then ran through Sac State and back home. The run was a little tough because I was so sore, but I maintained a 10:25 pace and finished strong (although now I can barely move!). I was a little apprehensive to do a longer run midweek - so far with this training cycle I haven't gone more than 6 miles during the week. It went ok though, and I was glad to get it done. I also tested out my new outfit that I plan on wearing for my next marathon with it's alien theme : ) The shorts are lime green!