Where’s my Mussel...

This weekend is Musselman – a half distance triathlon in Geneva, New York. And thankfully I have an ok base because due to life and vacation, ok, life, my workouts have really not been a priority. At all. But I’m not really worried. I had previously wanted this race to be an “A” race but when I realized that would not be the case I just want to go and have FUN! It is a Team Z event where apparently 1 in 7 half racers will be Z, so how could it not be fun? I’m excited!

Anyway, a LOT has gone on since my last post on June 6!
1. My younger son graduated – yay!
2. My younger son had college orientation – yay! I went too, and had a grand time!
3. My sons and I took a vacation to London(!) and Paris(!!)!!! Paris was a sort of afterthought – it was a day trip planned on our last day in London. We also took a day trip earlier in the week to Windsor, Stonehenge, and Oxford!

On our first full day in London I ran my first international race: Regents Park 10K Summer Series. Originally I thought I placed 382 out of 537. But those were just preliminary results. Out of actually 564 finishers I was 402 based on gun time and 407 based on net time. Regardless, I was happy as I came in under 1 hour: 59:57! (My last stand alone 10K was just over an hour.)
This was a three loop course in Regents Park and my splits were: 19:27, 20:17, 20:12. I was very happy my laps were somewhat consistent because it was unseasonably warm that day! My son said he heard people complaining about the heat as they crossed the finish line!

Here is a link to the official results!
And here is the official map of the course!
Below is a picture of the Happy Finisher - me that is:

As you can see by my picture I cracked(!) and had my first Diet Coke since May 1st! I did make it just over 2 months. I did have a few more while on the trip, but did not get excessive about it. I had one final diet soda (ad Diet Pepsi) when we returned Saturday night, but I’m back to being DC/ds free. I will possibly reward myself with an occasional ONE after something say as finishing a race! (Like this Sunday’s Musselman – but nothing excessive!)

Our hotel was situated in I think the best place! We were close to an underground station - and speaking of which, I find London's public transportation incredibly easy to navigate - and we were able to visit some fun places all on our own!

We did some very touristy things like cross the Abbey Road intersection that the Beatles did for their album of the same name, stand on the Prime Meridian Line (0* longitude), take pictures of the guard (but not the changing of the) at Buckingham Palace. And since I'm a big Harry Potter fan it was great fun to see the snake cage in the Reptile House of the London Zoo where a scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (aka Philosopher's Stone) was filmed! And even more Harry Potter - we visited Christ Church College at Oxford and walked through the dining hall which was home to the Hogwart's Great Hall. They did not actually film there but took pictures of it and used it in the films. So cool! And of course, we went through Trafalgar Square on Monday (3 times at least on our open top bus tour) where on Thursday the Harry Potter cast was going to be for the London Premiere of The Deathly Hallows Part 2! Great fun!

Anyway, our trip was so much fun! I’ve wanted to do this with my kids for so long and was really happy to be able to do so. They are both heading off for college (War Eagle!) and technical school (Gentlemen, start your engines!) out of state in one month. From today. I will be sad when they leave but I am super excited for both of them! I cannot believe they are both so grown up!

Excited for Musselman on Sunday and the following Sunday - July 24 - where I'll be volunteering and cheering for some Team Z folks while they tackle Ironman Lake Placid!!

Happy and Healthy Training!