Rock to Victory 1/2 Marathon...

I ran my first half marathon on Sunday and had a blast! I was curious to see if my training is getting to the point that I'd like it to be, and I was pleasantly surprised at the race. The longest I had run going in was about 70 minutes, about 9 miles, so I was a bit nervous.

My plan was to try and average somewhere around 7:30 per mile for the whole thing and through 6 miles, I was about right on but started feeling really good. So for the next 6 miles, I averaged in the mid 6:40s and started really reeling in some of the people toward the front of the pack. After 45 minutes and change for the first 6, I went just over 40:00 for the next 6. Unfortunately, that was about all she wrote for me, and mile 13 was about 7:00.

I ended up 5th in my age group (25-29) and 62nd overall out of more than 1200. Now, feeling much more confident about where I am with my fitness level, my new goal is to average 6:00 per mile for the 1/2 marathon at White Rock in December. While I've enjoyed getting back into shape, now it's really time to start hammering out the miles.

This blog will begin to lean more toward my running since we now have a fantastic website ( www.ceceliaraineallen.com ) to chronicle the life and times of our little angel. It will be a good way to keep myself accountable for my workouts, so I'm looking forward to it!

3rd Month of Fatherhood

I still find it hard to believe that I've been a father for 3 months (officially tomorrow). Day by day, Cecelia is growing and changing, developing her own little personality and expressions. This past weekend has been my favorite so far, the best two days (other than the "Big Day") I've had with my little girl. Yesterday morning, I tried to let Jess sleep in as much as possible, since she takes care of her all day during the week. We had a ball, and she had plenty of smiles and little giggles for daddy. We were up at 5 AM (if memory serves), back down at around 6, then back up around 8; each time, getting a little snack and then singing and playing. It's safe to say that Cece loves her daddy, which suits me just fine. :)

She's also becoming little miss independent. Playing on her little gym mats, sitting in her bumbo, and relaxing in bed, watching her mobiles have become some of her favorite things to do when she gets bored with mommy and daddy holding and talking to her. Songs from both of us bring loads of smiles and good times. It's becoming obvious that she has taken to the singing and should one day challenge daddy in a karaoke showdown (though we all know who would win that battle).

One of my favorite snapshots of the weekend came this morning when I was holding her, and we were having a conversation. Suddenly, she wasn't looking at me anymore and had become focused on my shirt. I realized I am wearing my USA Olympic shirt with the rings on the front, and it all became so clear to me: Cecelia Raine Allen, 2032 Olympic Medalist in the 5,000 meters or 10,000 meters. Mark it down; by then, I should be a halfway decent coach.

I can't wait until she can run around with me at cross country meets, yelling for our runners. I'm not saying that I am going to force her to be a runner but by keeping her options limited, I should have a really good shot (really, I'm kidding... or am I?).

I'm more in love with my family every day. I'm still amazed daily at how wonderful my wife is. Jessica does so much for us; she truly is Supermom. Cecelia is such a little angel, too. Every weekend, I find it harder to go back to work because it's so much fun hanging out with her. I'm so lucky to be part of such a great team!

Oh, I don't want to end this without giving a shout out to Tony, our little buddy, for being such a great dog. His protective side has reared its head, as every little peep that goes on outside our apartment invokes a bark from the little guy (as I write this, he's growling at something going on outside right now, no joke).

Overall, I truly feel like the luckiest man in the world. I hope everyone has a great week!

Jessica + Josh = Cecelia

There has been much debate about who our beautiful daughter looks like. It's amazing to watch her grow and develop her own little features. You be the judge, but I think she is a perfect blend of us both!

Hey Slug, Don't Tilt

Dear Uncle Slug,

Don't tilt. Hang in there. Grind it out, and tear 'em up.

Love, CeCe

Indoor Junior World Record and Get Rick Rolled...

Last weekend, German Fernandez, a freshman running superstar at Oklahoma State University broke the junior world indoor record in the mile, running an impressive 3:56.50 at a track meet at the University of Arkansas.

Understandably, the running message boards were buzzing about the performance. Someone posted "I want to see the race." A response was "dude, it's been posted for a while" and posted this link. What was to follow was quite unexpected for most, I'm assuming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

This was the funniest thing I experienced all week. By the way, congratulations German on a great race. He must have a pretty good coach, too.

2nd Month in the Books

Well, it's been two months (and a few days) since we had our little Cece Queen, and things keep getting better and better. Since we've started to develop a pretty good routine, everything seems to be more organized.

Bath time is still my favorite time because she seems to love it so much. She's all smiles and likes to kick her feet in the water. The baby conversations have become more in depth for infant talk. She coos and smiles all the time and gets a real kick out of it when we try to mirror exactly the sound that she makes. Sometimes, she starts kicking her legs wildly when she figures out that we're doing the same thing she's doing.

In the books I've been reading (The Joy of Fatherhood and So You're Gonna Be a Dad), she's ahead of a few milestones that they say happen in the third month. During the 3rd month, she's supposed to be able to put pressure on her legs if you hold her up, and she's been doing that for almost a month already. This is a good thing, especially because she's a future cross country state champion. The sooner we can get this standing thing down, the sooner we can get out on the track for repeat intervals and some long runs around Allen, Texas. (Just kidding, Cece Girl, you are more than welcome to try out other interests as well as being a superstar runner :) She's now weighing in at 10 lbs, 12 ozs and is 22.5 inches in length. They say she is in the 50th percentile for both, which we think is just perfect!

I still think brown with hints of pinks and purples looks best on her, although she looks great in anything and rather enjoy getting her dressed up for Kodak moments. She may be the most photographically documented child in history.

All in all, I'm still really pumped up about being a father. We're having more and more fun with her, and I look forward to getting out and doing more things as a family. So, stay tuned as I make efforts to continually update the Chronicles of Cecelia Raine!

Indeed...