Fun Run and Crazy Weather

This past Saturday I ran in the annual Zima Fun Run.  There is a Half Marathon, a 10k and a 6k run.  I ran the 10k.  I can run a long way, and even ran in a half marathon in 2010.  But it was on nice, flat Houston roads.  Here in Zima there are a lot of hills.  Ever since I came here it has been a goal of mine to be able to run the hills.  When I first started running here, I had to walk a lot of them.  Okay, most all of them.  I can't run them all, but at least now I am now able to run the hills that were on the race route.  My other goal for the fun run was to just run the entire way.  I did it!  My time was 1 hour, 2 minutes and 53 seconds.  I beat the time I ran my practice run in, so that was a bonus.

We got sponsors and the money we raised goes to the House of Grace and Hope, a house for older orphans on Sakhalin.  I raised 8300 Rubles which is about 257 USD.

The weather was absolutely perfect for a run.  Cold, but not too cold.  The sun came out right when the race started.  It was a lot of fun.  Max was there to cheer me on and to snap a few photos.

 

We got a T-shirt and a medal.

Like I've said before, Sakhalin has crazy weather.  We woke up Sunday morning to gray, overcast skies and forecasts of snow.  I didn't think it could be possible this early.  It was October 2!!  To my surprise, it started snowing mid-morning!!  What to do as we were having a BBQ for the entire Outpost Team and their families that afternoon.  We decided to go for it.  Here are a few pics of the first snowfall of the season.  I heard it was the earliest snowfall in Sakhalin ever! 

Max is BBQing in the snow.  It had started to slow down a bit later in the afternoon. 

 

We had a cozy fire going on in the house though, and the BBQ turned out great!  We get to do it all over again next weekend as we are having Max's entire department over on Saturday.  

By late Monday afternoon almost all of the snow had melted!  I'm glad as I love fall and am not quite ready to give it up yet!  

Love to you all!

Karen