Monday, October 13, 2008

What a Weekend!

As far as weekends go this one just gone must rank up there with the pretty good ones. Friday night started by watching the Marriotts Ridge High School Girls Varsity soccer game of which Natalie is the coach. Unfortunately they lost 2-0 but it was cool to watch...we even managed to get back to the bar to meet Matt for a couple of drinks as well as the last period of the Capitals season opener (they lost as well!).

Saturday morning was the 10th annual Run for Kathy, a local race I have done ever since 2004 when we moved to Bowie. Having never actually won the race, was this going to be the year? I was 2nd last year and 3rd the year before that....I even managed to have Bib No.1 this year as last years winner was not running. The extra cool thing was that Sarah had entered as well and this was going to be her first 5km in a while!

The No. 1 bib must have had a heavy burden attached to it as I managed a 3rd place finish in 17mins 01secs. It was only 6 secs off last years time and with the emphasis solely on long-distance endurance training I wasn't too disappointed. It did hurt though, 5km at full blast really does hurt and I had forgotten how much....give me long distance! Sarah had a great race as well blitzing her pre-race prediction of 30mins and finishing in 26mins 34secs....just outside the places for age-group :-(

We managed to make it back from the race in time to watch the pre-race build up to the Ironman World Championships and then after a short bike ride I was back in time to watch the first guys and gals exit the water and head into T1. To be honest I think I could have sat in front of the internet all day and watched the race but I am not sure if Sarah would have been as enthusiastic. In the end I was prized from the computer screen and we headed out to have a bit of lunch and a walk along the boardwalk in North Beach.....when it is a nice sunny day there are not many better places in our area to taken a wander.

Before heading out to the cinema to watch "Body of Lies" (which I would recommend), I squeezed in some more internet watching and saw that Macca was out but all the contenders were in with a shot as the bike leg was ending.....the only guy off the front, as per 2007, was Sindballe! As per all the predictions Chrissy Wellington was looking strong despite the issues with her flat tire.

Coming back from the cinema, we saw that Chrissy had blasted the field on the run to win by 15mins and "Crowie" Craig Alexander had lived up to his billing and had run from behind to take the mens race by a few minutes from Eneko Llanos. It was good to see Rutger Beke come back after his race last year and finish in 3rd. My pick of Chris Lieto had some issues on the run (a leg injury I believe) but stayed in to finish. Once the pro's had finished then came all the good stuff of the age-groupers and seeing either friends or people that I race against coming across the line. It appeared to be a hard day out there on the Big Island (when isn't it....it is the Ironman World Championships afterall) but watching the race made me more determined than ever to get there.....one day, one day!

The great weekend weather continued through to Sunday and after a good 4 hour brick, we headed out to the ABRT/Team Latitude end of season BBQ. It was great to see everyone (without a cycle helmet on!) and enjoy a few beers and some BBQ while chilling in the Fall sunshine. On the way home we even managed to get the last Rita's Frozen Custard of the season before they shut down for the winter.

Just one more race to go and then the off-season can start properly!

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