Adrian and Leo went to gymnastics today, the first time since the winter break. They were looking forward to it and had a great time.

When we arrived, I got Adrian ready first and asked him if he wanted to walk to the room by himself -- no, he'd rather wait for Leo. The two of them walked hand-in-hand to the teacher, so cute. They sat down on the bench and one of the first assignments was to run to the other side with the whole group. All that time they kept holding hands.

While they were doing their thing I went for a run, which was awesome. I figured out a better route than last time and ran on the Custis trail, which is so much nicer than in the neighborhood there. Lots of other runners on the trail, including at least three groups. I was faster than most of them, a good feeling.

We went to Heidelberg and bought three large breads and some turkey; the boys got a cookie. Adrian was already a little tired and cried when he "only" got one cookie and not something to try from the tasting table. We were discussing that outside, when an elderly couple passed by and asked what was going on. I explained it, "he wanted two cookies but we had agreed, only one" and they laughed. The man replied: "sometimes life if is just a one-cookie situation", haha.

For lunch I made a groentesoep -- I had sliced and frozen some vegetables earlier in the week, so this was easy to make. In the U.S. it's pretty rare for pret-cut "soup vegetables" to be sold in the grocery store, I've found. Over lunch with talked with the kids about several things. "Waarom zijn er piraten?" and "Papa wie heeft het geld uitgevonden". Good times.

A new front door was installed today! We're very happy with it.

The door we had until today was the original 1967 one, and it was at the end of its useful live. Very drafty and it made the downstairs cold. Because our thermostat isn't too far from the door, it would make the rest of the house overly warm. The new door has glass windows, with privacy glass, which gives a little more light in our hallway. And no more noisy and cold mail slot.

The installers came at 10.00 am, and they took about 4 hours to do the full install. At the end I discovered some concrete that needed to be repaired, so I drove to Home Depot to get a patch and they used that to finalize the step.

It was great working with these guys; a marked difference compared to the previous project five years ago.

Leo and Adrian were quite excited to see all the machines and instruments. When they got home from AMH they could hardly wait to get changed and check it all out. The contractors had a power cable going through the window to the front yard, that was interesting for them to see.

After the work was done, the contractor's car didn't start. I helped try to kick-start, but that didn't work either so they had to call their boss.

The old door.

It's gone.

A big hole.

New door in the front yard.

Door being installed.

The new door!

Inside view, in the evening.

Now 2018 is behind us I have 10 full years of data on my running.

I started tracking my mileage and speeds in January 2009 and have been faithfully recording my runs since then: a combined 3,737 miles during 804 runs. In an average year I ran 80 times, with an average length of 4.7 miles.

Some observations:

• My average mileage is 374 miles per year, so 7.2 miles per week or 31 miles per month. Or 1.02 miles per day.
• The years after Nora was born, I ran more than average. Even in the year after the boys were born, in 2016, I ran a lot, but things have been slower since then. 2017 in particular was tough, with only 5 runs per month.
• Thing were getting better last year. Even though I started doing more Pilates, which lowered my 2018 miles, I still made it to 339 miles.
• My longest run ever was from the Dijkgatsbos to Middenmeer, 16 miles. My shortest run was 0 miles.
• My average run is 4.7 miles. This make sense, since for years my training runs have been between 4 and 4.5 miles.
• July through November is clearly the best period for running for me. December and February the worst -- funny enough January isn't too bad, the New Year's resolution effect I guess.
• So in the average month I run 6 to 7 times -- in my top months sometimes up to 13 times a month. That might be a cool record to try to break.
• Before 2009 I don't have as thorough data, but I do remember running in Haarlem and of course my first attempts in Durham, NC
• Running brought me in some beautiful places. Some highlights? I ran with Gerben in Leeuwarden, many runs in the awesome William Umstead Park in North Carolina, on St Maarten, in Holland and Bulgaria, beautiful races in San Diego and Hickory -- too many to name. I ran with Nora in the stroller and later with the boys. I ran with the Raritan Valley Road Runners and the North Carolina Roadrunners Club. I ran races together with Sasha -- great times.