Labor Day Weekend recap

It's 11am and I've already sent kids off to school, run by the pediatrician's office to pick up Maddy's shot record which I then dropped off at middle school, bought stamps/mailed bills at the post office, hit the EZPass office for new toll passes, stopped by my stock brokers office and the bank, hit Starbucks for coffee #2 and breakfast, and got the car detailed (ah, what joy, a clean car). Whew, I'm exhausted. This getting up early stuff is for the birds, but I am accomplishing so much!

Today was my daughter’s first day of middle school. She seemed a little timid getting on the bus, like she wasn’t sure she was quite ready. Joey was totally stoked to go off to school—he met his teacher last week and seemed to really like her. He has a couple of buddies in his class who he hasn’t had in his class since kindergarden or 1st grade so he’ll be happy to reestablish those friendships. Here’s of pic of them this morning:


Labor Day weekend is always bittersweet. Nothing like having perfect beach weather right when you have to trundle the kids back off to school. It was a great weekend though.

Saturday was my longest bike ride ever—80 miles of east-end fun with Karen (training for ChesapeakeMan), Heidi (IMAZ), coach MarcoDiablo, and fellow IMFL peeps Sharon, Shawn, Patty, Charlotte, and KateG. The day didn’t start out great; there’s something ominous about having your coffee spill all over you and the car at 6am in the morning. I was trying a little variation in my nutrition by filling my on board bottles with concentrate that I could then just add water to during our scheduled stops. At mile 30 though, I hit a pothole and dropped a water bottle. I almost caused a crash turning around to get it (sorry guys!) and then couldn’t catch back up. Karen luckily came and got me, then pulled my sorry ass back up to the group. We didn’t stop again until mile 60. By the time we were riding by the airport (about mile 70) I was counting down the miles, trying to just get through the ride. I was tired, sick of eating Clif Blocks, and getting a little (ok, maybe a lot) chafed. The last 5 miles were tough, but I must admit I was very happy I didn’t then have to run 8 miles like the other Florida girls. I grabbed lunch and a quick dip in the pool on the way home, before throwing the dog in the car to follow Joe and the kids to the beach.

I had signed up for the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon on Sunday, and somehow had talked Lynn into running with me (I think she did it more out of desire to hang at the beach, than to run…) Turns out there were a couple of other TriGirls running too—Heidi, Jill, and Trish! Sunday morning was another early one (5:30am wake up calls both Sat and Sun = Yuck) and, standing in our starting corral at 7am, quite hot and muggy. Lynn and I found Heidi before the race, and Jill and Trish at about mile 3. My plan was to just get the milage in, try to stay well-hydrated given the heat, and finish with a smile on my face. Lynn helped me pace well, and the first 6 miles flew by and luckily were quite shady. The next 3 miles sucked. They wound through the naval base just south of Virginia Beach and offered no shade. At this point I started in with some Gu (found a new flavor!) and tried to keep ahead of the hydration game. Mile 9 was when we started seeing runners really struggling and showing the effects of the heat. I was quite happy that we ran a faster last 5k than first 5k, and Lynn and I finished together right at 2:20. Not a PR, but then again not bad for having biked to kingdom come the day before.

That afternoon, back at the beach house, we lounged pool-side. Ah, what bliss. My friend from grad school Vanessa drove out and joined us, and the three of us had a good time chit chatting and eating mostly junk food out by the pool all afternoon while the kids swam. Lynn’s husband pulled in around 5:30 and after a quick jaunt with the dogs down to the ocean, we met up with Joe for seafood and crabs at our favorite local crab shack. After dinner, it was all I could do to keep my eyes open, and despite our best intentions to get the party on, we all were in bed by 10:30.

Yesterday we spent the first half of the day down on the beach, but we all had to pack up and head home in the early afternoon. It was hard closing up the house—the weather was downright gorgeous and the ocean was warm. But we knew we needed to get home and help the kids get organized for this morning. They were in bed by 8:15, and zonked by 8:30. I was feeling good too—despite being quite tired both Saturday and Sunday, I was well recovered by yesterday, which I will take as a good sign. This week will be a tough one, but I’m sure I can handle it!

Many warm congratulations to our TriGirl/Maramarc Ironman Louisville finishers:
*Joan—her first Ironman, and she finished in under 14 hours! Way to rock that course, girl!
*Our erstwhile swim coach Som—he has ironman #3 of 6 this year under his belt.
*and Carlton, who overcame some mechanical issues on the bike.
Those were tough conditions out there and you persevered!