racing, racing

Oh my.  I have severely neglected this blog space. So sorry.

In the last 3.5 weeks, hubby and I have run TWO 10k races!  Yes, that's 6.2 miles. Each race.

The first one was nearby, just outside of DC.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took at that race, and it's a pre-race photo.

In this race I managed to totally exceed what I thought I could do time-wise, but had to stop and walk many times. The steady inclines kicked my behind.

The second race was up in Pennsylvania.  We went up to the Runner's World Half Marathon and Festival, and ran the 10k on Saturday morning. We drove up on Friday evening and immediately crashed in bed to try and get some sleep.  Saturday morning came bright and early, but we managed to be enthusiastic and reasonably ready to race.

Sadly, I committed two race-day errors.  The first: lay out all your pre-race stuff ahead of time.  I was packing so quickly on Friday that I actually packed the wrong shoes.  I packed old running shoes that had a few too many miles on them.  My hip wasn't too happy with me, but it ended up being fine.

Which leads me to the second: Don't change anything in your usual routine for race day.  Not only did I bring the wrong shoes, but I couldn't find my warm running fleece and I completely forgot about the slightly-less-useful-but-still-good skiing fleece.  And let me tell you, it was cold.  I ended up buying a lightweight pullover which worked out just fine, but, again, I wore new stuff.

After the race, we cleaned ourselves up and went back to browse the expo and attend the seminar given by Mark Remy.  He was awesome in person, and we won stuff at the Crap Giveaway! Bet you can guess what we won:

Overall, at this race I didn't beat the time from the race in Arlington (I was short about 2 minutes...bummer), but I did beat my more general goal.  This race had many more and much more steep hills, so I still had to pause and walk a few times, but I beat my overall time goal and walked far fewer times.

Feeling pretty awesome!

Boston

You know, when everyone was writing blog posts and news articles and personal reflections about the bombing of the Boston Marathon, I did not.  I didn't know what to write.  Was I qualified to say anything?  I've spent time in Boston and tried to get to know the city, but, though I went to college in Massachusetts, I was almost two hours from the capital city of the Commonwealth. Was I allowed to weigh in?

I had also just started running again, but I'm no where near qualified to write about runners and the pains of marathon runners suddenly caught off guard.  I've never run anything longer than a 5k.  I can't even imagine what the finish line to a marathon would even be like, let alone one so completely changed.

Lucky for me, staying quiet paid off.  A friend of mine put into words what I was hoping someone would: that this is not the way I remember Boston.  I will never ever remember Boston as The City Where That Guy Bombed the Marathon Once.  That's not Boston.

This is Boston.

Enjoy.

savannah sunday, part deux

After refreshing ourselves with some pizza, we all (cousins, aunt and uncle, mom, and me) trekked out to see Tybee Lighthouse.  It's gorgeous!  They have a keeper's cottage with furniture arranged in a way similar to one of the actual keepers, an informative video, and you can climb the lighthouse!  Mom and I spent some time in the air conditioning first, but then decided to make the trek of 178 stairs. 

 

 

The view from the top:

 

 

 

The above is a picture of the prism they have in the top of the lighthouse, along with its two bulbs.  The prism is called a first order fractal lens.  I'm not sure of all the mechanics, but I do know it magnifies those two bulbs there and the lighthouse stays lit. 

 

A daytime picture.

Of course, no trip to a coastal city would be complete without at least one abnormally large meal of mostly seafood, and this trip did not disappoint.  We trekked to The Crab Shack and ordered the mostly delicious thing on the menu: the chef special.  Mom and I ordered the size meant for two people -- TWO people -- and this is what we got:

 

 

Don't worry.  Mom and I are pros.  Mom advised not to waste time with potatoes and sausage -- you can get those anywhere -- and focus only on seafood.  Most of the table needed a refresher on how to eat some form of seafood or another, but we tucked in our napkins and got to work.

 

By the end, Mom and I had done some serious eating. This is the end result of our efforts:

 

See?  Pretty awesome, right? I think so.

The Crab Shack also had a gator pit and we were allowed to feed "gator treats" to the animals using poles and string with a bobby pin on the end.  Got a picture of Mom feeding one!

 

 

It was so fun! I've never fed an alligator before, and I doubt I'll have another chance any time soon.  It was pretty sweet.  I don't know what constitutes a treat for an alligator, but they seemed to love them and came to eat willingly.

 

A few more pictures from the restaurant:

 

 

We were tired, but Mom and I returned to the beach later in the evening to do a little extra walking around and looking for seashells. While there, I managed to snap a few pictures of the lighthouse in dusk light.

 

 

 

All in all, I'd call the day successful.  We managed to squeeze in just about as much tourist and local fun activities as any group of seven can manage. 

 

On Monday, we got up for breakfast and to hit a few of the cute stores in historic Savannah (there are so many!) then I caught a flight and Mom began her trek homeward.  It was a lovely, action-packed weekend!

savannah sunday morning

On Sunday, Mom and I got up and headed out for an early start.  This turned out to be a good thing and a bad thing: it was awesome to walk the streets of Savannah in virtual solitude, but it also meant nothing was open.

Never fear! We can walk and look at the squares! 

After an unfortunate debacle with a defunct walking tour app, we decided to sally forth using whatever tour info the app would give us and our handy maps and brochures. I managed to take a few reasonable pictures, which I'll share for your enjoyment or amusement or scoffing or whatever other opinion you have of my mediocre photography skills. 

A view of city hall from Johnson Square.

The lion in front of the Savannah Cotton Exchange on Factor's Walk.

A statue/monument of The Waving Girl.

John Wesley in Johnson Square, I believe (there were a lot of squares.)

After working up a bit of a sweat (oops), Mom and I met up with the cousins and family and headed to Fort Pulaski.  The fort had a medium-sized battle of its own in the War Between the States (that's what they called it in the fort info) and the introductory video there was very informative.  Honestly, the fort is one of the better organized nationals parks I've been to, and I've been to several. 

Anyway, after the intro and visitor's center, we all hurried directly to the center of the fort for a musket firing demonstration!  The young lady (park ranger) doing the demonstration was friendly and knowledgeable and I learned lots.

After that was over, we all toured around Fort Pulaski at our own pace. I got to read all the signs and see all the hidden corners.  I'm a slow museum and monument tourer -- I like to read everything.  I even got to play with two lenses (one of them new!) with all the arches in the fort and the interesting architecture.  I hope you'll excuse a few more photos.

All in all, I'd call the morning quite successful.  We saw several things on our list (squares, monuments, the fort...) and had a good time doing it. We all definitely needed food after touring the fort, and after a bit of confusion and trying to find parking, planted ourselves at a pizza place that had no air conditioning, but did have a tv with baseball on.  The pizza was delicious!

Sunday afternoon recap will be posted soon!

saturday in savannah

The last two weekends have been so eventful! I didn't take very many pictures two weekends ago, so I'll just give you the summary version:

Saturday, May 25, we attended the beautiful and joyful wedding of our friends in hubby's hometown.  We got to catch up with many friends that we haven't seen in a while, and met new friends.  It was nice to go back to the town we both enjoy.   Sunday, we attempted to organize the closet and mostly failed, and on Memorial Day, we went to the baseball game.  Because it was in the middle of the day, the game strangely ended up taking most of the day up and left us with a relaxing Monday evening before the work week began again. 

This weekend, I took many many pictures and can't wait to tell you all about it. I'll probably have to tell you about it in parts, so let's start with Saturday!

On Friday evening, I had flown into Savannah to meet up with my mom and my cousins and aunt and uncle.  We were all there to celebrate the graduation of my cousin...let's call him B. B graduated from SCAD this Saturday and it was super awesome to be able to share the weekend with him and his family! Plus, I got to see my mom and tour a new city in the process. 

Saturday morning, I was up early.  I squeezed in a run, mom and I got ready for the day, and we embarked on our adventure. 

First up?  The Harper Fowlkes House! This old house had so much history! And, we had a docent who was extremely knowledgeable and told us about everything she possibly could.  The tour was longer than we expected, but we learned so much!  

I managed to snap a picture of Mom out on the back porch of the house:

Isn't her dress great?

After we had absorbed as much history and as many "really neat" things as we could handle, we walked a block over to the Civic Center to grab seats for B's graduation. 

Funny story, when B took off his graduation robe, we all noticed a strange coincidence.  Unknown to anyone, B and his twin, C, had each bought the same shirt at the same store, but in two different states and without talking to each other.  How strange is that?! Twin connections!

See for yourself!

Anyway, we finished the day up with a delightful Georgia peach sangria at a nearby cafe, and then a delicious dinner at Garibaldi's a few blocks over! 

Next post: Sunday update.  Hope everyone else's weekends were just as lovely!