As I wrote yesterday (A lil sumpting), I haven't had the time to write the last couple of months. So, I wanted to catch up on the last two races I've run, including today's Run in the Sun.
Two weeks ago, we ran the Beach to Bay in Corpus Christi. It was a bit of a last minute deal, as Anne even got the team registered after the deadline. But, registration was free (she won it by answering a trivia question about her favorite politician) and we had a free spot to stay right on the beach. How could we pass that up? This is the 4th consecutive year I've run Beach to Bay (Beach to Bay). Honestly, we didn't plan to do it. It's on a Saturday morning and is something like 375 miles away so I have to take a day of leave to even go. But, like I said, we got a last minute call and I didn't have anything to do at work that Friday so... we headed down to Corpus after meeting Ryan for a quick dinner in San Antonio.
We ran for team Dystonia Warriors with Steve, Jason, Anne, and Tracy, and also repped Huarache Turbo.
Photo Credit: Anne
Look at this stud. Tracy our 3rd leg Photo Credit Corpus-Christi Caller Times
How don't I have a flat runner picture? I swear we took one.
We spent a little bit of time catching up and just hanging out before having to get to bed early. Everyone (even Mila!) was up early Saturday morning to get to our legs! Mila and I were running the 5th and 6th legs again this year so we had a few hours from the start time to get to our spots. The 1st leg runners almost made it to the condo so we could watch the race unfold before leaving.
Photo Credit: Jason Ornelis
There are always logistical problems at this race. This year, it was my fault. The plan was for me to run leg 5 solo then leg 6 with Mila. I didn't read the brochure carefully enough and thought that Mila did not actually have a bus to her leg. We both went to the bus 5 leg before figuring out that didn't exist. Instead we did a rerun of last year where we did leg 5 together and I did 6 solo. I think that the best part might've been Jason's face when he saw he was passing off to Mila instead of me.
Mila had one of her best runs to date. It helped that it wasn't as hot this year as last, but she still kicked butt. She ran at a consistent pace, only needing to stop and walk for maybe 30 seconds. I'm very proud of how she did! So proud that I took a bunch of poorly shot pics while running.
the final sprint
Push!
shoe tying break
halfway(ish) there!
I'll never understand why charging uphill is her favorite part of running
Mila actually sprinted through the handoff zone as if she just didn't want to quit running. After handing off to me she found a nice old lady to take her back to our car. My leg went ok. I was definitely faster than last year but I was pretty tired. We had no set goal as we were just running for fun. However, we figured we would finish around 4:30. We ended up finishing 4:09:36.7, 21st/168 in our age group and 220/1600ish overall. Not too shabby.
Here's the video at the finish. You can see me coming in at 15:05. I was looking fantastic after finishing, wasn't I?
very happy that we finished
They couldn't get enough of our love
All in all, it was another succesful B2B experience. I don't know if I'll return next year. Maybe I'll try and put together a San Angelo team? Not sure yet.
post-race festivities
there's the whole team!
glad they had water at the finish photo credit: Tracy
It was great to leave Central Texas and head to the beach.
Today I ran the RRCA's Texas state 8K championship. When they say 8K.... all of us got at least 5 miles on our watches. I know that the race often attracts some of the best runners in town, so I really ran to see if I could improve on my last 5 miler. The plan was to try and run 7:30 pace the whole race. That was the plan anyway. I started off feeling good and was pushed by a couple people that I always end up around. Nicole, who seems to have improved, and I ended up running the majority of the race with her. Together, we tracked down a couple people in front of us. The weather was not too hot, high 60s, but muggy. My "steady 7:30" plan never came to fruition but I'm not too unpleased with my run. There's a bit of a hill at the end of the race and as I rounded the corner I was struggle facing. I was certain that Alex or Nicole or Tim were going to come flying past me. It seems that Alex nearly did.
You know, after probsbly close to 100 races and there are still times midrace that I just want to stop and walk. I still have never puked but there certainly are times that I feel like I'm about to. I ended up placing pretty decently, 7th overall out of about 75. Funnily enough, there were only 2 of us in the 30-34 male age group and the other guy took 5th overall. So I got 2nd/last place.
I took these pictures from Tim, Blanca, and Wilma's Facebooks.
with the prez!
post race chatting
Who finished when?
Our Senior Grandmaster champions, and two of my speedy training partners
Day 4 was "supposed" to take place mainly outside. The forecast called for rain most of the day and, well, it looked like we would be running ourselves ragged to make the self-imposed time hacks. So, we made a little adjustment. We still decided to go to a couple different gardens. However, we needed breakfast first (let's be honest, it was second breakfast for this hobbit). We went to Confiteria La Ideal for a fantastic breakfast. I had thought it was a smaller place to grab a coffee and snack and then be on our way. However, we walked in and realized it's not that type of spot. The cafe originally opened in 1912 and was long considered the best example of porteno (coming from Buenos Aires) gastronomy for the best part of the 20th century. They closed their doors in 2016 but reopened in 2022 after a massive restoration project. We also saw that we were way underdressed. Luckily, we could play the ignorant tourist card and, if need be, I could always speak horrendou...
Good evening Jordan, it's Sunday and this series comes to you in at least 3 parts. We'll see how long these posts get with the preposterous amount of pictures we were taking. Now, I can say that I started my post on the day we bot back. I will have to take a day or two organizing and editing pictures, so I'll be right back. Promise you won't even know I've left. See? Bueno As has been the ongoing theme for a while now, our planned vacation spot was Peru. This would be attempt #3 to go eat lomo salteado and hang out with alpacas, but as we were starting our initial planning phases, Macchu Picchu was closed down due to protests. With that being such a center piece of a Peruvian plan, we decided to hold off. again. However, we decided to keep it to the same continent. Our highest rated spot was Argentina (yes, we have solo and combined updated top 15 vacation destinations lists) and Gabriel had gone there the year before, giving us some good ideas. I was in school thro...
I had decided that I would try and get all the pictures edited before getting started on writing this up. After over a week, I'm a bit sick of adjusting the "pop" and "tint" slider bars and need to write a bit. Our days weren't exactly themed as I mostly grouped things by distance and their schedules, but there was plenty of art and futbol on these two days. Sitting just next to our hotel was Teatro Colon. After a pretty solid hotel breakfast of pastries ( medialunas being the classic Argentine breakfast pastry) ham and cheese sandwiches, and coffee, we walked briskly through the rain, hiding under awnings as possible and made our way to what we thought was the front of the theater. As we were to find out the next day, the theater was built before the avenida 9 de julio and so the back of the theater is to the main road. Walking in, we saw a large group of elementary school-aged children and a sign announcing that the main hall's lights were being tes...
We ran for team Dystonia Warriors with Steve, Jason, Anne, and Tracy, and also repped Huarache Turbo.
Mila had one of her best runs to date. It helped that it wasn't as hot this year as last, but she still kicked butt. She ran at a consistent pace, only needing to stop and walk for maybe 30 seconds. I'm very proud of how she did! So proud that I took a bunch of poorly shot pics while running.
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