Weekend Warrior, Week 2

Once again, I went last week without running during the week.


I went up and walked the new 5K course for the Labor Day run with B and A on Saturday. The old course was an out and back on a flat, desolate stretch of road. Booooring. This year will be the 12th year for the race, and B decided she would try to change it up. If the course works out well, she'll get it certified for next year. Saturday morning, we walked the course with 4 Garmins between us. Two of them read "3.11" at the end, two read "3.12". I think that's pretty good. The new course will run through the Pioneer Log Cabin Village. It is very shady and interesting with all of the cabins.


After the run, B made some stuffed mushrooms and chicken fajitas, which we paired with a bottle of wine from Blue Sky. Yum!


The pedicure/manicure that we had planned will have to wait until next weekend. I'll include my daughter on that.


Sunday morning, A came to my house and we ran my 9 mile loop. It wasn't the 12 that was on my training schedule, but I don't know if I could have done another 3 miles on my leaden legs. As usual, we were followed to my house by a random dog. This time, it was a Golden Retriever. I've seen this dog a zillion times, and it has NEVER followed me. Clearly, there is something about A and I together that is just irresistible to dogs.


When we got back to my house, I decided to take Tito for a walk. You remember Tito, little puffball?

Yeah, I opened the door to let Tito come out for a walk, and he took off after that Golden Retriever like he was going to rip him up. I never realized what a badass Tito is!

Take 3: I'm going to attempt to get my weekday runs this week!

Weekend Warrior

Marathon training for Memphis officially began for me as of Monday, 8/17.

I did not run all week. Marathon training was NOT off to a good start.

This weekend, I was a good little weekend warrior; I feel like I'm all caught up for now.

Saturday:

I ran the Kirchenfest Strassenlauf 5K. This is always a good race, and I managed to finish in just over 30 minutes. The weather was perfect, low 60's with just a hint of the sun. I'm not sure of my "official" time. The race had a turnout of 640, the highest ever for this race. As a result, they were NOT prepared for it at the finish chute. When I finished, I stood in line outside the finish chute waiting to "finish" the race. My friend C said that the volunteers were dropping the tags when she finished, so we were not surprised when they had a problem with the results.

After the 5K, there was a 2K race that was mostly kids. I ran it with C and her grandson, it was a nice cooldown.

The awards ceremony was supposed to begin at 10am. It did not begin until after 11am. Since our friend S won the race, we stuck around and waited. NOT what any of us wanted to do with our Saturday morning. They weren't even playing music to keep us entertained! There was free beer until 11am, so I must hold my complaints to a minimum. They do need to use chip timing, though. I'll be watching for it next year.

Saturday night, my son played his second football game of the season. Of course, our boys ran all over the other team! We won 34 - 8. We were actually skunking them until the end of the 4th quarter. The weather at the ball game was football weather, for sure. I was wearing a jacket and still cold! The low temp on Saturday night was in the low 50's. Very strange for August in Southern IL.

Sunday:

This morning, I met my friend C at some bike trails near a local community college and we ran 13.1 miles. My marathon schedule called for 10 miles, but I went the extra 3 with her because she is still doing the "one half marathon a month" plan. The long run is just what I needed! Once again, the weather could not have been more ideal. I sure hope we don't have an unseasonably hot September to make up for this!

Now that I have my marathon training back on track, I just need to keep up with it. I have a couple of other longer races planned for the next couple of months, so I'll just have to work in the 18 and 20 mile runs in between.

Orchard View Winery 5K Report

Saturday morning, I did NOT run a 5K. I went to the high school to pick up my son's game uniform for the Junior football league. Afterwards, the kids and I headed south for a little bit of shopping. We didn't have a lot of luck, although C found a good deal on Rock Band for XBox (we had to have it before the new version with Green Day songs came out) and A got Wii Fit. The purpose of the excursion, clothes for school, not so successful.

Anyhow, we grabbed a bite to eat and came back home to play video games. OK, they played video games, I started trying to come up with an excuse to skip the race. With no good excuse, it was off to Orchard View Winery for the 5pm race start.

What can I say? It was hot. It was humid. I managed to run anyhow.
I finished in a slow, agonizing, 30:43, according to Garmin.
Luckily, it was a small town race, and that was enough to snag first place in my age group. The prize for 1st in each age group over 25.... a bottle of wine! Yay! Finally a prize I can enjoy instead of throwing in a box in the attic.

The rest of the evening, we ate bbq and listened to the band that was there. It was a nice, relaxing evening.

Sunday, I had planned a 13 mile run, but Carol backed out, so I didn't run at all.

I've been off work the first part of this week. Monday, I took the kids and a friend to the Warped Tour where we were able to see a lot of screaming bands (and screaming teenagers). We actually got right next to the stage during Aiden's set, but then we followed a crying lady out of there after A's friend almost got squished by the crowd surfers.

Getting right next to the stage: Fun
Having people kick you in the head: Not so much.

Today has been spent doing a whole lotta nothing. A registered for school today (less than 2 weeks now), and C had football practice, but I didn't even have to drive.

It's back to the real world tomorrow... Much as I hate to admit it, I do miss the normalcy of going to work, although I would be forced to give it up if I were somehow made independently wealthy.