First: I am a bum. I bailed on this morning’s planned “long” run (I was going to go 5-6 miles) with BARC, including Joe and Veronica. I was exhausted last night, fell asleep at 10:30, woke up at 6 feeling groggy and congested, and bailed. I am a bum.
Second: Big congrats to Jessica, who finished her first triathlon this morning in 1:23:34! Way to go Jess!
So today I was a bum, but yesterday was good for running. My second race of the day, the HARRA Cross Country Relay, went just as well as the first! (Maybe those crazy two-a-day runners are onto something. Maybe.) I was on a great Open Female team with Cassie, Jessica, and Pony and we finished in ~1:16. Jessica did ~17:00, Cassi ~20:00(?), and Pony ~17:00. I was the slowest and ran the second leg, but I had what was a great run for me, covering the two miles in 21:06.
I went out way too fast, fueled by the adrenaline rush of the baton handoff from Jessica and the crowd cheering as I charged up the first hill. I slowed down a tad, wanting to even out my breathing, but I hit the mile marker and halfway point in 9:51! Nice to know I can run sub-10:00 mile if necessary, but whew it wore me out. Unfortunately the second mile was actually harder than the first with a couple steep hills, and I suffered a major slowdown. I gutted through the second mile in 11:15. I was a little disappointed in the big difference between my two miles, but happy with my overall performance — I wanted to run my leg in less than 22:00, and I beat that by almost a minute!
It was also fun to have Debbie, Jason, Michelle and Paul come along with me to run the relay as well. They took second place in the Open Mixed division and all got trophies! Ironically, my team actually beat theirs — Pony finished about 0.5 seconds ahead of Jason. Literally! You can see in the photo below (that I stole from Bill) that Pony is crossing under the banner as Jason is trying to catch her. (He didn’t even know that she was the anchor for my team.) But there were so many good Open Female teams that we were well down in the standings.
Debbie, Jason, Paul and Michelle pre-race:
The start:
The bloggers (minus Erin and Jon, who were working the HARRA tent, and Joe, who was off somewhere):
All the rest of my photos are now in the gallery!
Looks like you all had a great time!
Why is Vic wearing a shirt? I thought he gave those up.
You’re forgiven, two races in one day wins you an off day. We’ll be there next Sunday!
What’s wrong with the last photo? Hint – Pony doesn’t drink, Jessica has a St. Arnold’s, Cassie has a St. Arnold’s.
Nice (very nice!) running and very nice shooting!
I put it on after the run, B. I only run nekkid, not lounge around post-race in such a state.
Much fun, S. Nice run. My run was a mirror image of yours except about 3 mpm slower. I was pumped at the handoff, way too fast the easier first mile and about 1.5 or 2 minutes slower on the last.
Good to see you.
I had a blast with my team! I was so proud of the three of you since you all ran faster than you thought you would! We all had a good effort = )