Fredericksburg Battlefield Jr Ranger

I just love how River is trying to copy Sunshine's pose :)

Monday was a field trip day, and since I'm an overachiever and despite it being the third field trip in three weeks (Shenandoah and Ft Monroe/Yorktown), we headed out on the road. Before we even headed home I'd decided it was a bit much for all of us. We're all tired and off kilter. Our next field trip Monday is in a week and a half, but we'll be staying home that day, and I'll make sure we have sufficient time to recover in between field trips in the future. Messing with our schedule is just hard on all of us.

the lone section of original rock wall - they've re-built the other sections

We went on a ranger-conducted tour of the Fredericksburg battlefield area, and it was very informative. Unfortunately, I didn't hear it all because Ocean lost it and screamed through most of the presentation. So I stood a distance away with the boys while Sunshine listened to the presentation. Ocean was just exhausted and wanted to be in his own bed, which I can't blame him for.

 more than 15,000 Union soldiers were interred in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery after the war. most graves are only marked with numbers as the identities of most are unknown.

The battle at Fredericksburg and the surrounding areas was so much bloodier than I realized. We've visited Wilderness Battlefield (though we didn't do the Jr Ranger program because we didn't realize there was one), but I somehow managed to gloss over the sheer numbers of deaths involved. It's very sobering to realize so many died fighting for our country. The video reenactment we watched was a bit intense for River, but luckily he lost interest and wandered around the room. I think Sunshine found it a bit overwhelming.

Four battlefields make up the Fredericksburg Spotsylvania Battlefield area and kiddos can earn a rocker for each battlefield. One down, three more to do.

Ft Monroe and Yorktown Jr Ranger Badges

Ft Monroe Jr Ranger

Last week we had a tour scheduled at Yorktown with our history club, so being the overachiever I am, we went to Ft Monroe in the morning before the Yorktown tour. The over-optimistic side of me even thought we could do Jamestown that afternoon after the Yorktown tour. Sometimes I can be so out of touch with reality :)

River got bored while waiting for Sunshine to fill out her booklet

I'm not sure why, but Sunshine wanted a picture of her hugging the cannon balls :)

Reality set in, of course, and we ended up rushing through Ft Monroe to make it to the Yorktown tour on time. Luckily, we've been to Ft Monroe before (we visited with my sister years ago, but we didn't realize back then that they had a Jr Ranger program), so it wasn't completely new. Even so, there's always some hunting to find all the answers for the Jr Ranger booklets and the little boys don't appreciate the down time while Sunshine writes everything down.

After we finished at Ft Monroe, we went to Yorktown and started the Jr Ranger program before the tour. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, so we sheltered under a tree during the ranger's presentation. Well, most of us sheltered under the tree. River ran around looking for puddles to splash in and got soaked. But he was happy, so I wasn't complaining.

it started sprinkling and River went looking for water to play in

it started raining harder and we all got a bit wet

After the presentation we did most of the driving tour of the surrounding area, visiting the significant locations of the siege at Yorktown. It was getting late and the boys hadn't taken good naps, so we hurried a bit so we could get on the road and back home.

Yorktown is part of Colonial National Historical Park, along with Jamestown and a couple other smaller sites in the area

We learned a lot at Yorktown, but we shouldn't have crammed in the visit to Ft Monroe on the same day. Both visits would have been more enjoyable if we weren't rushing through things, and we wouldn't have had to skip parts. My efforts to save time and gas money backfired. Lesson learned (I hope).

Yorktown Jr Ranger

Yorktown is part of the Historic Triangle that is made up of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. We visited Williamsburg two years ago and Jamestown this spring with our history club (but I never posted about it since I didn't get good pictures). Williamsburg is owned by a private non-profit, so it doesn't have a Jr Ranger program. Jamestown and Yorktown are operated by the National Park Service, but when we went to Jamestown I didn't realize there's a Jr Ranger program there, so we didn't do it then. We'll be heading back so we can check Jamestown off our list.

And just for comparison's sake, I pulled the pics from our visit to Ft Monroe more than 5 years ago and put them next to our most recent visit. Sunshine has grown so much!

8k Trail Race Recap

beautiful sunrise before the race started

Saturday I ran a race that was supposed to be 8k (just under 5 miles). It was the second year of a small fundraiser race, and the race director got a bit confused. Before we began he told us we'd do two loops through the trails and around the soccer fields. As I started the second loop I looked at my Garmin and realized there was no way I was going to be doing 5 miles- the loops just weren't long enough. I thought maybe it would be 6k, but it was a little shorter than that at 3.52 miles. After I caught my breath after finishing I asked some of the other runners if the race was short, or if my Garmin was having issues. They confirmed that the race was short. A little bit later the race director came over and apologized for the short race- we should have run 3 loops rather than just 2.

Despite the problems with the length of the race, I liked the course. It was fairly flat, with most of the course being double track through the woods and the rest of the course along the perimeter of some soccer fields. The surfaces were grass, dirt, and mulch, with minimal roots and rocks in the wooded trails. I can totally see myself running this race again.

I've been increasing my mileage lately, and I noticed the difference during this race. I was able to run the first 2 miles before I stopped to walk. I'd realized by that point that the race wasn't going to be 5 miles, and I thought about trying to run the whole race, but my legs were feeling too tired. I didn't sleep well the night before- waking up every hour does not make for a restful night's sleep. I was tired from the time I woke up, and my legs felt leaden for the whole first mile. They felt better the second mile, but exhaustion got the better of me. I walked most of the third mile and ran the last half mile or so.

3.52 miles in 41:07
   1st mile: 11:07
   2nd mile: 10:57
   3rd mile: 13:35
   .52 mile: 10:32 pace/5:30 actual

This was a super small race- only 19 or 20 participants, with some of those walking a 4k (though that would have been short as well). I was the last runner to finish the longer course, but there were several 8k walkers who finished after me, so I wasn't the last finisher overall. Though that has happened a couple other times :)

I'm still debating how to classify this race. It wasn't 8k (4.97 miles), it wasn't 5k (3.1 miles), and it wasn't 6k (3.7 miles). The numbers are just awkward: 3.52 miles is about 5.7k. I may have to just call it 3.5 miles.

Last week's mileage:

Monday- I walked 4.1 miles on the treadmill while switching laundry loads in and out (great use of time that I need to do again!)
Wednesday- I walked 2.75 miles on the treadmill & worked for a couple hours building pallet compost bins and shifting a brush pile from the site of our future greenhouse
Thursday- we walked around while visiting Ft Monroe and Yorktown (post to come), but not as much as I thought we would since it was raining. I didn't have my Garmin, so I'm guessing at .5 mile, though it was probably more. I had Ocean strapped to me, so I got a little bit more of a workout than I would have otherwise.
Saturday- 8k 3.52 mile trail race

35th race towards my 40 by 40 goal

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run
14.	March	4k Walk	4k	Walk
15.	March	March 5k	5k	Road race
16.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k Walk
17.	March	10 mile race	Not applicable	Water stop volunteer
18.	March	Obstacle Race	5k	Obstacle run
19.	April	Glow Run	5k	Glow Run, 1st of 2 races in 12 hours
20.	April	April 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 2nd of 2 races in 12 hours
21.	April	Evening Run	5k	Evening run
22.	May	10k Kayak Race	10k	Kayak race
23.	May	May 5k	5k	1st of 2 races in same day
24.	May	Evening CC Race	5k	Evening cross country, 2nd of 2 races in same day
25.	June	June 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 1st of 2 races in same day
26.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	1 mile	Pushing jogger with both boys, 2nd of 2 races in same day, glow run
27.	June	Vineyard 5k	5k	Vineyard run
28.	July	July 5k	5k	Road race
29.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	5k	Predict your time
30.	August	August 5k	5k	Road race
31.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	10k	Virtual 10k run
32.	August	4 Mile Run	4 miles	Road race
33.	September	Labor Day 5k	5k	With all 3 kiddos
34.	September	1 Mile Color Run	1 mile	Color run, Sunshine’s first solo race, River’s first race
35.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	3.5 miles	Trail run

23rd race in 2016

	Month	Event	Time
1.	January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
2.	February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
3.	February	Mud Run	1:35:37
4.	March	4k Walk	33:19
5.	March	March 5k	33:49
6.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	1:01:30
7.	March	Obstacle Race	44:06
8.	April	Glow Run	35:16
9.	April	April 5k	41:15
10.	April	Evening Run	34:59
11.	May	May 5k	35:18
12.	May	Evening Cross Country Race	43:17
13.	June	June 5k	39:21
14.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	11:38
15.	June	Vineyard 5k	39:10
16.	July	July 5k	35:53
17.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	37:41
18.	August	August 5k	35:45
19.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	1:49:17
20.	August	4 Mile Run	45:20
21.	September	Labor Day 5k	46:54
22.	September	1 Mile Color Run	18:25
23.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	41:07