Double trouble...

My weekend training called for 6 miles running and 40 miles biking. Swimming was as always, optional. And there was no trouble, really…

Friday night, July 2 at 7:30 PM Pacer’s hosted the Independence 5000! It was an inaugural event – my second inaugural event in less than two weeks! This twilight race was at George Mason University. I learned of the event from Holly, fellow Team Z’er and knew that Z’er Priscilla would be attending, too. I headed over around 6:00 PM for packet pick-up the looked around for my teammates. Based on the total finishers (654), I think that close to 700 entries for a Friday night inaugural event sounded like a pretty decent number of registered runners! Priscilla found me in the ladies room line – actually real restrooms indoors! She had on *the* coolest holiday themed head boppers! (She had really fun ones for the Shamrock Half, too!) I can’t wait to see what she does next. We found Holly shortly after then took a few per-race photos before we headed to the start with another friend of Holly’s from Cancer to 5K, Amy and her husband Ben. At the start Keri showed up to cheer and handed out cute American flag rings! Right before the start we met a new Team Z-West person, John.

The start was very low key – I almost did not realize we had started! The course took a little lap around the parking lot then pretty much went in a big loop around the campus. There were some rolling hills and flats and all in all a pretty nice course! I had no time goal, other than ‘beat my last 5K time’ from May – 29:43 – at the ASFS 5K, but I tried not to look at my watch too much. I have been doing speed work and just kept telling myself ‘it’s only a 5K’ so I would not let up. There was one water stop on the course, so I did slow down enough for that! Shortly after the water stop I did look at the watch and saw about 15 minutes and was not sure I’d get to where I wanted to! Anyway, that was the last time I looked at it. Anyway, I kept pushing and soon it was the last rush to the finish. Which of course had a downhill. But that was followed by an uphill! I saw Keri and Ben at the finish – thanks guys – and hit the line then my watch. It said 27:36!! I knew I had started the watch a teeny bit late so I figured it was not too much off that time. Yay! I had done it! They also POPSICLES at the finish line. I had orange – my favorite. Awesome! We took a couple of post-race pictures and headed out. My official time was 27:38.17! They did not split out the age groups but overall I was 298 out of 654 finishers.

Saturday was just a bike ride – I rode about 15.5 miles through Annandale, North Springfield, and Ravensworth. At the end of the ride I wanted to do my double-hills, Killebrew and Regina. Ha! That was hard! In fact, my legs were feeling the 5K when the ride started. I rode with Jeff, who is just getting back into the exercise thing. He seemed to fly right up the hill. Brat!! All in all it was a nice ride. Later in the afternoon we went to see Eclipse! I really enjoyed it and thought it better than New Moon, too. I’m looking forward to the final of the series…and Harry Potter, which I saw the trailer for that yesterday!

Anyway, Sunday, July 4th I met up with my old Masters friends for the annual kickASTtri – a Sprint distance-ish event: 800 meter pool swim, 12.4 mile bike ride, 2.71 mile run (according to my Garmin on the bike and run). Mike opened the pool (Annandale Swim & Tennis) at 7:00 and we started showing up then and prepping our ‘transition’ areas up under the party tent. My friend Marlene from Team Z met me and it was nice to see her before she starts her next chapter. The water in the pool was 84 degrees, but as it was outdoors it was quite nice! After the swim we all prepped for the bike ride and left together. The ride deviated slightly from past years as there was construction going on along one of the roads. I barely made it through the last light to get back to the pool. All in all we got 12.4 miles in. The run had three options, basically, a nearly 3 mile loop with or without a hill at the end, or a shorter about 2 mile loop. I took the 3 mile hill option! After we all finished back at the pool the Masters swimmers were done with their workout and we all enjoyed a post workout breakfast of bagels, fruit, pastries, and orange juice. It was a great start to the Independence Day holiday! Oh, and as in past years, there were no entry fees, no registrations, no tee shirts, no times, and no places. But we did have race numbers! And for the first time I forgot my camera so have no pictures! But Tammi brought her camera, so there are going to be pictures. Later…

Later on in the day we had a nice quiet cookout with the boys and Jeff’s parents and sister.

Happy Independence Day and Happy Training!!