Happy Halloween / I'm so fast it's SCARY!!

Happy Halloween!  I am currently sitting around waiting until it is time for the trick or treaters on the compound to come around.  I am not really sure how many kids we will get because I am really not sure how many are on the compound.  We will see!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but weekends here are on Thursday and Friday.  Saturday and Sunday are just any other business day.  The kids go to school Saturday through Wednesday.  It's kind of weird to get used to.  We have kind of started calling Saturday "fake Monday."  But again, that gets confusing as well.

Normally when the Embassy has a party, it is held on a Thursday night.  (fake Saturday Night)  However, due to respect for the death of the Crown Prince, and the funeral, the Halloween party was changed from Thursday night to Saturday night.  Since this was a regular business day, they also closed the party up an hour early at 11 PM instead of the usual midnight.  (Were they to just cancel the event, they would have had to refund everyone's money.) Anyway, I am glad that the event wasn't completely cancelled because I would have been really bummed, considering the amount of effort that I put into my costume.

I went as Medusa and Matt went as a Pepsi Delivery Man.  (I found a Pepsi tie at the Second Hand Souk and then I colored a Pepsi logo on a paper and pinned it onto a hat.)  It was at least better than no costume at all.  Anyway, here is what I wore.

 It's kind of hard to tell but I have a really cool snake bracelet on.  It had a wiggly head and everything. I was trying to get the shoes in the picture but it's hard to see.  Anyway, the dress turned out mahvalous!  I sooo love that dress.  I will figure out a way to wear it again!!

Here is a close up on the hair.  I needed bigger snakes, but one must make do with what one has!! Also, the earrings weighed a ton but they were just too good to pass up. So glad that the party didn't get completely cancelled!  Anyway, had a very good time! It was a typical American Halloween party.

In other news, we were supposed to have a 10 mile race last Friday but I think they figured that it would be too soon so they switched it to a 5K.  I decided to try and see how much I could improve on  my time  from first race (also a 5K.)  Since it has cooled off a lot here, I have started running more outside and that has made all of the difference.  Also, I worked out a new route that is longer and not quite so repetitive.  Two laps equals 3K and one lap is just under a mile.

My last time for the 5K was just under 33 minutes. (This was actually not all that bad for me.)  This time, I was determined to break 30 minutes.  I practiced beforehand and according to my Nike+ I came in at 29:58.  Of course, this was not officially measured and it wasn't a race so it was really just to know that I could do it.

On race day we were running late and got lost to boot!  Luckily, a quick phone call (or 3) got us back in the game.  We got there with enough time to check in and go to the bathroom before we took off.  They were doing something called a staggered start where the slower runners started first and then the faster runners all started later.  The race was two laps.  To get an idea of how fast the winner is you need to know that we finished our first lap (2.5K) and he hadn't even started yet and he still won!

Here I am before the start of the race.  We had a 2 and a half minute wait.  I probably should have been with the 3 minute group based on my last time but for some reason I am never on the list.  My husband always is but I am not.  It was kind of a fun way to start because you had to try and catch the people who started ahead of you.  I had a new strategy since the race was so short.  It was start fast, slow up a bit in the middle, and end as fast as possible.  I am happy to report that my strategy paid off and my final time was around 27 minutes.  27 MINUTES!!  Now that may not sound all that fast to some of you, but for me, it is almost unbelievable.  (When I first started out a little over 3 years ago, I was running a 13 minute mile when I was feeling lucky.)  So when Lance Armstrong came on over my Nike+ when I was done and said that I had just set a new personal record for my mile, I was thrilled! (New time for the mile is 8:24) I don't have my official time for the race yet because they have not yet sent me the results.  It is probably going to take a while since they are going to have to subtract everyone's start time to get the official times.  But I managed to take a picture of the timer after I finished.

So subtract 2 minutes and 30 seconds from the time and also subtract the time it took for me to get over there and and take the picture and I am pretty darn close to 27.  That is 6 minutes off of a 5K time! 6 MINUTES!!  Also, today I ran 15K (9.3 miles) and my previous fastest time for that was 1:41:59.  Today I ran it (on the compound street) in 1:34:30.  That is 7 and a half minutes off my time.  Was just a practice but it has been a while since I did that distance so I just wanted to see how I was doing.  Apparently, I am doing FABULOUS! Toot toot!!

And last but not least, here is what I am handing out for Halloween.

I made homemade caramels and little ghost cookies.  Back home I would never dream of handing out anything homemade because everyone is always so worried that crazy people are going to try and poison the kids.  Here I can do that because my neighbors know exactly where to find me!!  Anyway, had quite a few kids stop by.  Trick or treat officially ends here in about 25 minutes.  I will wait until then to break into the leftovers but it looks as though it is probably pretty well over by now.  But you never do know!  HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

This just in!  Official time just sent!  27:07!!  Woo Hoo!!!