Thursday, September 22, 2016

Random Stuff and Race Reports



In July I did the Sundae 5K with P-Diddles! It was warm out that day and the course was a lollipop shape! There was a two loop circle at the beginning, then the stick was out and back. It was pretty fun. Each mile you had the option to ‘become the Sundae’ with chocolate sauce at mile 1, whipped cream at mile 2, and sprinkles at mile 3. I skipped the first two but did get sprinkled. I was pretty sweaty at that time, so they stuck just fine. Of course, a race called the Sundae 5K had ice cream sundaes at the finish, brought to you by Scoops 2 U!! What a fun idea! There was also a portable shower for those that needed to wash off. You can read the Team Rabbit report about that weekend here.

So back in August, at the end of the month, I did a double. That is two races in one weekend! Saturday August 27 was the Lincolnia Super Sprint Triathlon that I did with STUR and RBud. Sunday was the South Lakes 10K, that I’ve done I think three times now. An interesting note: my father managed the Lincolnia Park Pool when I was a baby!

Lincolnia Super Sprint: The 300 meter pool swim was a nice change from open water, and they gave swimmers a nice distance between each other, before starting the next one. I got lapped just once. The bike course was somewhat flat, but there was a little climb. It was a rectangular loop, not quite 1.5 miles long that we did 6 times! The run… I guess this is what high school cross country running was like for my son!  A good portion of the 2 mile run was in a field, some of which had not been mowed and was about a foot high, damp, and then flopped over. For me a trip hazard! I had to walk a lot of that. The middle portion was a short bit behind Holmes Middle School in the parking lot, then back to more field, but this was mowed! The last portion was on sidewalk/road and while the finish was flat we did have a hill to climb! All in all it was fun and RBud and I managed to sneak onto the podium. I was 6 seconds way from being first overall even. Shouldn’t have taken that last walk break! Haha

South Lakes 10: My goal for this race, which was to be a training run for me, was to run the entire 10k. No walk breaks! Aside for a very brief walk at the mile 4 water stop, I ran the entire race. I even managed to get a negative split. I did not have descending miles, however, because of that pesky mile 5 hill climb! But it is a good race and a nice course. It was pretty warm, that day, but what do you expect at the end of August? I saw a few people I knew on the course: Kim was out there as a marshal and it was a nice pick me up to see her; Tina (who I know of through Kim) was out there with her friend - running in their always fun outfits! They always pick cute stuff!

You can read the Team Rabbit recap from that weekend here

Early in September I went on vacation! I visited my god child out in San Diego and we had a blast and fit a TON of things into the four full days I was there.

Wednesday 9/7 – arrived that afternoon and after lunch I did a drop in at a local CrossFit - CrossFit 858 Uptown. This place was only a .8 mile walk from my cousin’s place!

Thursday 9/8 – Roberto’s for bean burritos for breakfast; errands with my god child; Padres game that night. Padres won! Busy day!

Friday 9/9 – Snorkel with Leopard Sharks. Yes, SHARKS! This was through UCSD and the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. We had a class beforehand where we learned about them and their habits. Leopard Sharks are bottom feeders and swam in waist deep water. It was very cool! You could almost reach out and touch them! After this we had lunch – some authentic Mexican cuisine. We worked off lunch walking around the San Diego Zoo! We crashed that night…we were exhausted!

Saturday 9/10 – First up was a 4 mile hike at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve then a Segway tour of the San Diego waterfront. What a beautiful afternoon! There was no time to rest, because that night we hit up a Bluegrass Festival in Santee and enjoyed lots of free food and drink.

Sunday 9/11 – We got to sleep in! But then we relaxed during pedicures and had a late lunch / early dinner with my god child’s mom. From there we had to rush out to get ready for the Lion King at the San Diego Civic Theatre. That was a last minute addition and well worth it. I cannot wait to see it again!

Monday 9/12 – Time to head back East. But not before visiting Old Town San Diego and getting fresh tortillas with butter and salsa and picking up my fortune from Zoltar!

So very sad to leave SD and my GC, but I am already looking forward to my next visit!

I’m clearly not one to sit still, because the weekend of September 17-18 I headed to the City of Brotherly Love with RBug! We were doing the Philly Rock N Roll Half Marathon on the 18th . I definitely could have been better trained, but still had a blast. It was of course a fun way to see the city, and I look forward to going back as a tourist and checking out some stuff. Like the Eastern State Penitentiary! Besides the run we did fit in a Phillies game the night before the race. What a cool ballpark that was! And they won!!Now my ballparks visited list is up to 12! This includes three that no longer exist…

So, that brings this blog up to date! I cannot believe September is almost over! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this Thanksgiving I’ll be able to run a Turkey Trot. I really missed being able to do that last year

Happy and Healthy Training!