Holy Moly, it was Fabulous!

So I turned 50 three weekends ago. Today I received an AARP card! Hard to believe as I don’t feel 50, nor do I act 50! But really, how is 50 supposed to act? I think of my parents when they were these ages and they seemed so much older. Actually, I was only 4 when my dad turned 50 and I was 16 when my mom turned 50. Heck, my ‘kids’ are 23 and 21!

I started my birthday weekend off on Friday with an early bike ride that included 4 hill repeats! There is a street in Ravensworth – Ellet Road – with a nice .21 mile hill! So I can go up Ellet then come down Foote Lane (they are connected) then turn on Queensberry Avenue and right on Ellet to do the loop again. Foote Lane is a pretty good hill on it’s own – maybe a bit worse, but things flow better going up Ellet and down Foote. On my four trips up Ellet my speeds were: 8.2, 8.1, 8.4 (my max!), and 7.5. What a great way to start the weekend!

Saturday was my actual birthday! My cousin Lynn and her friend Marcy came into town for the festivities. That was AUsome! You may have read the Team Rabbit rap from my birthday weekend, but we started things off Saturday morning with a 5k! My friends Kathy and Leanne came to my house around 6:30 and we headed out at about 6:45. We included me, my sons Andrew and Patrick, Lynn, Marcy, Kathy, and Leanne! I am not sure I’ve had my car that full of people before! Thankfully Patrick knows how to work the rear seat…

Once at the race site we caught up with Kim (who told me about the race), Sally, and Carol! And Carol had already been out putting in the miles since 5:25AM! She ran about 9.25 miles before the race, did the race, and then ran another 18! She is training for the Can Lake 50 – miles this year! Last year Team Rabbit ran the 50K! Sally ran 3 with her right after the race.

Here is my birthday run group! We are all wearing "Happy Birthday" crowns! It was so much fun!

Birthday Runners!

The race…

The race – the Women’s Distance Festival 5K – was fun but hard! It was pretty warm – even for 8AM. Per my workout for the day in Training Peaks I was supposed to race it with everything I had! Turns out that was harder than I thought. The speed work on Wednesday followed by the bike hills on Friday probably did not help. But I did race hard and did not walk at all.  I wanted to walk the last hill but did not, and in the final stretch the 10:00 minute per mile pacer hung back and encouraged me to sprint! So I did! I came in just under 30:00 and was 6 of 25 in my new age group! So far 50 is fabulous!

Finishing Strong!
(Courtesy of the free race flickr photos!)

The race was a nice event and it was targeted just for women! I have not done a women’s only race since 2007 and the Iron Girl triathlon. Another interesting thing, it was run without timing chips! I have not done a race that manually recorded time in ages. It was kind of a nice throwback. I think the race is the culmination of the Reston Runners Women’s Training Program –the women who do the program run the race. What a great opportunity for mentors and new runners!

My friend, Kim, does these posts on her blog about the "Runners Box" subscription that she gets. Here is the post on her June box! Well, I received a surprise in the mail recently: a "Tri Box!" What a fun surprise. There is a lot of cool stuff crammed into this little box:

TriBox Goodies!

Here are all the goodies spread out:

The Goodies!

I've tried a few things so far - I'm a little slow: The Good Bean bar and the Cookie Bites! So far so good. A few items I've actually used before: nuun, Salt Tabs, Honey Stinger chews, and the Sports Beans. But the chews and beans are different flavors, so I'm looking forward to trying them. This is a really great box of samples! 

And since I’ve been slack in posting about the Fabulous and 50 weekend, I’ve since raced again. Twice! Well, the first wasn't really a race: the kickASTtri on July 4. There's a bit on this Team Rabbit rap, here. This is a fun and free community event that I usually do as long as I'm in town. It's more of a social training brick! The second race was just last weekend, the Colonial Beach Oly! I did this race in 2006 and 2007. I don't remember the bike course being an out and back like it was. Maybe they changed the course, or maybe my memory is foggy. Anyway, it is a fun event in Colonial Beach, Virginia!

You can read about it on the Team Rabbit rap, but all I will say is Holy Moly it was hot out there on the run! The pizza at the finish was fantastic, and my friend Margie kicked @$$ and was the overall winner in the Women's Aquabike division! She rocked!! 

Finishing Colonial Beach!
(Photo courtesy  of Margie!)

Next up: VACATION! Stay tuned for the 2014 Ballpark Tour post...