Happy Father’s Day to all of you running fathers. Today was rather hot and humid (surprise!) and we had a rather anemic turnout—nine or ten depending on how you count Wendy, who started early with her friend Victoria. We welcomed Vicki back after a long absence—she is fighting some injuries. Our young runner, Jarili, showed up with her Mom, so we again had a three generational run.
Speaking of injuries, I experienced my first one in six or so years. My right ankle is talking back and I ended up limiting my workout to four miles, the majority of which I walked. It struck me how amazing and wonderful it is to see the healthy number of people (and the number of healthy people) out on the course on any given Sunday. Besides our own group, there was the Marathonfest Sunday group and the fasties who ran a different route than normal. Shows that running is still alive and well!
I know of two of the group who are off competing this weekend. Liz was doing a Tri in St. Augustine and Seth a marathon, I believe in Maine . Let us know how you did!!
Hope to see your smiling faces next Sunday—Have a great week.
Jack
2 comments:
Are you ready for this? I placed First in my age group! I was definitely surprised! Marineland, St. Augustine June 20, 2010.
One of my running friends from Thursday morning run did the Olympic Triathlon on the same day except they started 4:00 minutes later.
The party of four met at the Hampton Inn Saturday afternoon and got the packets, looked at the course and miles - Dru and husband Dan, Geanette, and me. The course looked ok to me, but was getting nervous when I was waves in the ocean! So, I decided to go swimming early evening to get used to the water. Not like waiting to the last minute! The initial shock of the cold water was an eye opener. But after swimming awhile, it was very refreshing. Ok, I can do this after swallowing some wave water and treading back to the beach.
The sprint tri started at 8:00 a.m. and the Olympic started 4 minutes after us. It was a good swim, but slow. As I was biking, I saw a woman in my age group whizzing past me on the bike. My mind was content I think I could at least get 5th place. Ok, I can deal with that. Then the run, and in front of me was "her" running very slowly. Well, after watching her for a while and slowly catching up to her, I knew she was not a runner. Ok, maybe I will get 4th! or a little better, because I have not seen any more people my age. I am at the 2 mile marker and been arunning behind her watching her stride and pace. I know I can do this! So I waited until 2.5 and ran past her and high tailed it to the finish, thinking she may have that last spurt of energy. Yeah, I did it in 1:28:39. After recouperating and talking to Dan and Geanette, wanting to find out Dru's status, she is still biking, I changed to my running shorts refueled. By that time she was almost on the second half of her run, I joined her the last three miles and it was hot! But loved it. She was so hot, so I try talking to her, telling stories, until I was getting there too, but stuck with her until that last .1 so she could cross the finish line. I did get my weekend long run in, so Jack would not be upset saying, you did not run? :) After cooling down, I found out the awards for the sprint was already distributed and went to the announcer to find out where I place, That is when I found out I placed first! Wow! What a great day!
Thank you for your note and interest. I'd have responded sooner but internet access is intermittent and unreliable while traveling.
Sorry to have missed you all Sunday. I was in Ontario Canada for the Niagara 50K
http://www.welovetorun.com/newsite/Niagara_Ultra/ultra_index_7.html
The beautiful out-and-back course followed the pedestrian path along the Niagara River and the turn around point was at the falls. Nice event.
Regrettably I have no awards to claim. Lately I''m glad to finish at any speed but glad to report I beat the 7 hour cut off time and finished 151/159 overall. Slow but reliable. I'm now almost half way through the long drive home and looking forward to rejoining our group this coming Sunday morning.
- Seth
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