Summertime Catch-up Post

It's happening again, friends. We have fallen behind on our blogging, but our running just keeps on going and going! So here we are, this summer has already been incredibly eventful, and we are falling behind on our posting. Because of this, we have decided to do a quick and dirty recap of all of the happenings thus far in the summer season. Buckle up, because we're going to go fast!


Georgia Peach Jam Half Marathon

We went to Georgia to visit my family for Memorial Day as we frequently do, and I stumbled upon the Georgia Peach Jam Half Marathon that was actually on Memorial Day. It was close by to where we were staying, and it was flat and fast and perfect! Alfredo didn't have any major goals besides to finish strong, but I wanted a PR and I wanted it bad! 2:12:33 was the time to beat, but I secretly wanted to go under 2:10, because I managed to hit 2:11 on a training run so I felt like it was totally possible. Fast forward through a rainy, but still somewhat cool race, which turned out to be pretty perfect, we both pushed pretty hard and did indeed finish strong. He finished in 1:25:59 which put him finishing in 3rd place overall! This was a pleasant surprise, as there were some strong competitors out there. I managed to finish in 2:07:14! So I met both of my goals! And I finished in 8th out of 23 in my age group, which was also extremely competitive so I will totally take it. I'm usually comfortably in the middle of the pack, so being closer the front was SUPER EXCITING! Oh and then later that day, I got stung by a scorpion. Crazy right? Anyway... moving on-- NEXT!

Our finish line photo!

My scorpion friend....

Martinsville Speedway Mile

This was such a fun event that both of us did: The Martinsville Speedway Mile. This was an inaugural event in our hometown on a real NASCAR Speedway! Two laps around the "half mile of mayhem" was all we had to do for our first official mile distance road race. We had big goals (his: finish sub 5:15, hers hit a mile PR of sub 7:16). We turned it out and kind of met our goals. Alfredo finished in 4:59 (!!!!!!!!!) and I finished officially in a time of 7:17 and was fairly bummed, but I guess I didn't take the shortest path along the route, and my Garmin said I hit the mile at 7:06. Big difference, so I don't know who to believe. Oh well, there's always another mile! MOVING ON! NEXT!

Coming into the finish line

I'm #1 ;)

First place age group for both of us!

Jamestown Olympic Distance Triathlon

Alfredo did the Jamestown Olympic Distance Triathlon on June 9th, so a couple of weeks ago at this point. I did not participate, obviously, since I still have the whole fear of bikes thing going on. Anyway,  we traveled to Williamsburg/Jamestown that Friday for him to race on Saturday morning. He practiced his transitions the night before, then when he arrived Saturday morning he set up shop in the transition area and headed over to the swim start. The goal for the swim was to survive, and he did with a time of 33:39 for the 1500 m swim. He made his way to the transition area (which was quite a long haul from the swim finish) and quickly completed his swim to bike transition. He took off on the 40K bike course and felt strong. He finished in a time of 1:09:28, which was right on his goal of maintaining 20 mph. He had an even faster bike to run transition of just 58 seconds (!!!!!!) and then took off on his 10K run. His goal was 40 minutes for the run, and you'll never believe what his time was.... 40:00. Like, 40 minutes and no seconds. Exactly his goal. Cray-cray right? This brought him to a total time of 2:26:39, 29th overall, and 2nd place in his age group. ROCK ON! MOVING ON. NEXT!

Out of the swim

Coming back from the bike

Finishing the run!

Proud finisher!

2nd in his age group out of 16

Run for Justice 5K

I was able to run the Run for Justice 5K just last weekend on June 16. There was a 5K or 10K option, but due to the hot weather and the level of my training, I figured I'd stick with the 5K distance. I was really really hoping for a PR (under 27:30) which I thought I'd be able to do based on my recent mile time trials. But I didn't quite consider that I'm not quite acclimated to the heat. It was a warm, humid morning, and the race didn't start until 9 AM so the sun was in full force by start time. I pushed throughout, but my Garmin lost satellite reception and made me angry and confused, and I kind of just gave up halfway through. I managed to finish in 27:45, so really close to a PR. I was happy to finish 2nd overall female though! That's definitely a bright side! Enough of that, moving on! NEXT!

#RWrunstreak

It's that time of year again! I am once again participating in the Runner's World Summer Run Streak! (Read about last year's streak and the year before) It started back on Memorial Day and is going through July 4th. I am doing at least a mile every day, and I am 25 days in and going strong! You can follow my posts about the run streak on my Instagram. (I am doing most of my #rwrunstreak posts on my stories.) Alrighty, NEXT!

Oh wait, what is next? That's it for now, and we don't really have anything immediately on the docket as to what comes next. We are starting to think about our fall season and our big goal races, so stay tuned for that I guess?