Dogfish Dash 8K recap

It’s crunch time here. Today is Clark’s last Monday at his current job, and tomorrow is his last day, period. We had our first potential buyers look at the house Saturday. And in the middle of all this, I volunteered for the swim course safety team at Ironman Maryland on Saturday morning and ran a surprisingly good race at the Dogfish Dash yesterday.

It hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows though. I’m generally pretty chill but big changes freak me out, and this is a BIG one. I haven’t gotten much sleep for like four days now and Clark had to talk me down after a meltdown this morning due to a slight snafu that came up related to buying his company car off his current employer. It’ll all work out in the end but I am kinda stressed at the moment and I’m admittedly not handling it great!

Anyway, a bunch of Clark’s soon-to-be former coworkers came over after work Friday night. I hadn’t eaten much all day because my stomach felt iffy after my long run that morning (typical for me) and then we didn’t bother to do anything about dinner until it was too late. The Punkin Ale caught up with me quick and I was out like a light by 8 p.m.

That was definitely for the best though, because I had to be up at 4 a.m. Saturday for volunteer duties. I met my brother at his house, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts so I could get a gallon of iced coffee and we made it to Great Marsh Park for the swim safety team briefing a little after 5:30.

After listening to a long, detailed description of everything that can go wrong for a swimmer and what to look for to identify it (I didn’t like swimming before but I am NEVER swimming again, thanks very much), we all launched our kayaks and paddleboards from the swim start.

The swim course was two laps of the same loop they use for the half Ironman in June. Dave and I paddled out to the far side of the course and waited.

It was still dark but the sun started to come up just before they let the elites take off.

Then we heard the cannon fire to send the elites on their way. Eventually they made their way around the second turn of the course and swam past us.

Then the age groupers started passing us. This was my view for the next couple of hours:

Mostly we just watched and helped wrangle swimmers who were headed off-course. A few swimmers grabbed on to the kayak for a breather (totally allowed as long as they stay in place.) Two wanted to drop out. Dave and I talked the first one out of it (she just seemed like she was panicking a little because of a jellyfish sting — they were BAD this year) but the other one was clearly physically done, so we got him a rescue boat.

As the last swimmers were finishing their second lap, all the kayaks and paddleboards went to the end to form kind of a funnel between the final turn and the exit/swim finish line, to give swimmers a better visual of where to go. The way the current was going, however, the swimmers were being pushed right off the correct line, and a lot of them were so exhausted and disoriented by that point, they were having a lot of trouble staying anywhere near the course. One lady started swimming backwards on the course!

Unfortunately, there were several still in the water when the course officially closed at 9:22 a.m., exactly two hours and 20 minutes after the final swimmer had started. They were pulled out of the water and DQ’d. I felt pretty bad for all of them. When Dave and I were driving out, I saw one woman (might have been the one who’d been swimming backwards), dejectedly walking back to her car while her husband pushed the bike she never got to ride that day beside her. All that training time (and money) spent, and her day was already done. Ugh.

But no one died, so I would call our swim safety team a success!

While I was on the river, Clark texted that the Realtor had set up a showing at 2 p.m. Dave had to take the kayak back to Fenwick on his own, because I had to go straight home and help do the deep clean the house needed before a potential buyer saw it in real life.

After three hours of that, Clark and I took Pepper to drop off some recycling at the landfill while the house was being shown. We got back, took a quick shower and then went to Mike’s house for a going away party he threw us.

We had a good time there but didn’t stay too late, since we had to get up early for the Dogfish Dash the next morning. I went right to sleep when we got home, but again, I woke up hours before my alarm so I could lie there in the dark and worry about stuff. I don’t like this new trend.

The alarm finally went off at 5:30 a.m. so I could get up and think about something fun like the race. Clark, Pepper and I left way earlier than we should’ve had to for a 9 a.m. race 45 minutes away, because we wanted to get premium parking right there at the brewery. Mission accomplished, but then we had two whole hours to kill before the run started.

It was kinda cool when we got there at 7 a.m., but by the time Melissa, Dave and I ran a warm up mile at 8:30, the sun had come out and it was HOT. I was already sweating when we finished that easy 9:43 mile — more than two minutes slower than the pace I was hoping to hold in the race.

Clark didn’t run. We didn’t have anyone lined up to watch Pepper, we can’t leave him at home for hours because of what he’ll do to the utility room while we’re trying to sell this place, and Clark didn’t want to leave him in the truck while we ran because he deep cleaned it last week and didn’t want Pepper to undo that either.

I think he was just using Pepper as a convenient way to get out of it though, because I offered to ask TK if she’d hold on to him (she wasn’t running because of her pregnancy restrictions but she was there to cheer on her mom, sister and sister’s fiancé) but Clark said he was worried Pepper would yank her arm too hard and, I don’t know, “unplug” the baby haha. I told him that’s not how it works but he said nope, too risky.

So I went to the start line with Dave, who went right to the front, and Melissa. We didn’t start as far up. Kelly and Corey found us in there too.

From the Seashore Striders’ Facebook page. Pretty sure Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head founder) took this. There were more than 2,600 finishers this year, the biggest turnout yet.

We got the commands and ran off into the blazing sun.

The first bit of the course, through the truck entrance/exit at the back of the property, was crowded as always.

I’m No. 526.

Then we crossed into the town of Milton and it started to spread out. I ran the first mile in 7:34, a bit slower than goal pace, but I hoped it was just because of the crowd.

The next couple of miles, however, slowed down to 7:42 and 7:48. It was hot as hell and I’d felt thirsty from the very start, so I took water at all three aid stations and just figured it wasn’t going to be my day.

But then, to my surprise, I started speeding up and picking off runners. We hit the last downhill of the course, followed immediately by a turn and then the worst uphill. Mile 4 was on that uphill — 7:36. I was going in the right direction.

The last 0.97 miles of the course, I really picked it up. I have to thank Melissa for that. She’d gotten away from me at the start but I saw her ahead as we ran that last near-mile, and I pushed myself hard enough to catch up with her just as we turned back onto the brewery property.

I saw Clark, Pepper, TK and Dave (because he’d already finished so long ago!) cheering for me on the sidewalk just before the last turn. Then I sprinted it in with a huge smile — it was actually fun! — alongside Melissa and we both finished officially in 37:11.

That was a 7:29/mile average and more than three minutes faster than that awful 5-mile race I ran in May.

My time placed me 11th of 577 in the F 30-39 age group, 25th of 1,398 female runners and 135th of 2,636 total runners.

I was really happy with that time! The first few miles had not felt good but I managed to turn it around and finish strong.

I ran into Susan right after the finish. She ran 35:07, which turned out to be fast enough for overall female masters! Gretchen got a good picture of us trying not to touch too much because we were both absolutely drenched in sweat:

Then I found Clark and Dave. Clark was happy because he’d been the first one to get a beer with a bib ticket, since he didn’t run haha. And Dave was happy because he’d hoped to run a 6:45 average but averaged 6:30 instead and finished in 32:20 — 33rd overall of more than 2,600 runners! (But, as I later pointed out, only good enough for 13th in his age group, so I beat him by that metric. Gotta take what I can get, you know.)

The rest of the morning was spent using our beer tickets and hanging out on the lawn there at the brewery. I love this race!

Later, Clark, Dave and I went to Woody’s in Dewey for crab cakes. Then we stopped by Dogfish Head in Rehoboth for one more beer. Dave went home after that, but Clark and I hit Revelation Brewing and then went to Fenwick so he could get his beach cruiser and a long board he wants to take to California, along with the short board that was already in the truck and his tri bike. The essentials, obviously.

When we got home, we stopped by Clark’s parents’ house to see his mom for her birthday, and then my parents’ house so Clark could see them before he leaves. We were there until almost midnight. Pepper was so tired! So were we.

Today, I have a short easy run on the schedule that I haven’t done yet, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to post my official September summary.

Steamtown is now less than two weeks away. Not gonna lie, I was more excited about it a couple weeks ago, before we started making big moves toward actually moving to California. Running feels a little more like an afterthought at the moment. But I’m going to try to stick to the taper as prescribed in the training plan. Clark will not be here that weekend to go with me, but I get to ride there and back and room with Melissa and Liz, so that should help get me in the spirit.

Training for 9/27/19

Yesterday, I never got around to running. I had a thing to cover for work in the morning, they needed the story turned around that afternoon and then I had to get the house straightened up for a visit from a Realtor. I thought she was just going to talk about what we needed to do to get the house ready to go on the market, but she went ahead and took pictures to put it on the market today. She’s supposed to also stop by sometime today to drop off a For Sale sign in the front yard and put a lock box on the front door so she can start showing it.

This is apparently what made this whole moving across the country thing get very real to me, because I woke up around 12:30 a.m. last night and couldn’t get my brain to shut back off so I could get back to sleep. I have a lot to do and who knows how much time to get it done.

Not to mention, this coming Tuesday is Clark’s last day at his current job, and he’s leaving Wednesday to drive his truck out to California so he can start his new job the following Monday. He’s my favorite thing about Delaware and he’s leaving! He’s planning to come home on weekends frequently until the house sells and Pepper and I can go out there with him, but still, it’s going to be weird. Never been in a long-distance marriage before.

So anyway, this morning, I woke up later than I’d intended, since I couldn’t sleep for a couple hours last night, which meant I left later than I wanted to for a 12-miler.

Two nights ago, I exchanged the NB FuelCell Propels for the updated Beacons, so I took them out for the run. Normally I would not take a new shoe like that for that long a run right out of the box, but I liked the original Beacons so much, I was pretty sure it’d be OK.

The shoes were great — I’m so glad I took the time to exchange them — but the run wasn’t the best. It was warmer than I wanted it to be. By mile 6, I had to take off the shirt I wished I hadn’t worn and tuck into my shorts waistband. Then the last few miles, my stomach was really bothering me (after stopping twice to use the bathroom) and I let myself walk whenever I felt like it.

I got around the 12.3-mile loop at a 9:26/mile average. Dave drove by me when I was walking my cool down.

He was there to pick me up to get my in-laws’ tandem kayak from the beach house in Fenwick and take it to the swim start area for Ironman Maryland in Cambridge tomorrow morning, because we volunteered for the water safety team.

Dave borrowed Dad’s 1978 Ford pickup, since everyone’s newer trucks have much shorter beds. Technically, that thing isn’t tagged to leave the farm, but it was H2O weekend in Ocean City — a cruise-in for toolbags in tuners — and the cops weren’t interested in an old pickup with a kayak in the back, with all the jerks already doing burnouts on Coastal Highway.

We took Pepper with us. By the time we were halfway to Cambridge, he’d decided Dave was his new favorite person.

Dave was thrilled haha.

We got the kayak dropped off at the swim start. The full Ironman is even bigger than Eagleman, the half Ironman held in June. The transition area, where we dropped off the kayak, is completely separate from the finish line and Ironman village, but it all took up just as much of the park as it does when everything is all in one place there at Eagleman.

Dave and I are supposed to be back in the park for a water safety team briefing at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow! Yikes. Then I think everyone puts out around 6:30 to get in position around the course, which is two laps of the same loop, the first swimmers go out around 6:45 and we should be out of the water by 10:30.

Now Pepper and I are about to head over to Delmar to pick up Clark’s and my bikes from the bike shop, which got tuned up this week. I guess Clark is taking his with him when he drives out next week, and I’ve got that 100-mile ride I signed up for next Saturday, so yeah, probably a good time to get it looked over.

I will not be running tomorrow morning because of Ironman — hence why I wanted to knock out the long run today — and Sunday is the Dogfish Dash. It’s an 8K, almost 5 miles, so I’d like to run a LOT faster than the 40:17 I ran in that miserable Masser 5-Miler on Memorial Day weekend. Even if it’s as hot and humid as Masser (unlikely), I at least have a whole summer of running under my belt at this point, so it won’t be such a shock.

Training for 9/25/19

Well, the FuelCell Propels are going back to New Balance. The heel collars are too high or something, because I had blisters that had already popped on both Achilles heels after yesterday’s run. Somehow I didn’t notice them, or think they were that bad, until the shower water hit them.

I called the Rehoboth store and made sure they’d take them in exchange for something else. I think I’ll try the updated Beacons.

I’m taking them tonight, and since we’ll be in the area, Clark and I are going to Dogfish Head to pick up our race packets for this Sunday’s Dogfish Dash.

Meanwhile, I ran another short easy run this afternoon. It was just a lap of the 5.5-mile loop, but it felt much longer. I just did not feel good. My whole stomach was crampy and my breathing sounded like I was trying to race a 5K, even though I only did a 9:04/mile average. Oh well, those runs happen.

Training for 9/24/19

I’ve run in my new shoes twice now, for a total of almost 14 miles, and I’m not sure if I like them or not.

Last night, I did a lap of the 5.5-mile loop in them. I thought the shoes felt great, and my easy run pace was 8:29/mile.

But then, this afternoon, I ran the 8.4-mile loop in them and it didn’t feel nearly as good. Honestly, I just felt worse overall, but the shoes themselves felt clunky, and I kept catching the back of my calves with the opposite foot. I ran the loop at an 8:45/mile average.

So I don’t know! I guess I’ll give them another chance or two to see if they get better.

Training for 9/23/19

Happy first day of fall! To celebrate, it’s 90 degrees outside today.

Well I had a fun weekend, but unfortunately, it did not include a 20-miler!

Friday night, when we landed in Baltimore and I took my phone off airplane mode, I had a text from my brother that just said “richmond bound.”

Our uncle still gets the same four tickets to every Richmond race, even though these things don’t sell out anymore and he hasn’t gone to one of those races himself in, oh, at least 20 years, and he gave his tickets for this weekend’s race to Dave.

Then they got all their corn harvested in record time, in spite of something crucial breaking in the combine, and Dave and I were all set for an impromptu trip to Richmond for a Saturday night race.

I wasn’t looking forward to the seven-hour round trip to get there and back the next day, but Richmond is one of my favorite tracks, so I jumped on it.

Saturday morning, the jet lag was in full effect and I slept in while still managing to feel like I hadn’t slept at all when I finally dragged myself out of bed.

Clark went for a short run, and then, around 11:30 a.m., I went out to do the 10-miler on the schedule.

It was on the hot side, and the air was full of dust as they’re cutting all the corn here too, but I didn’t feel terrible. I think I was just happy to not have to run up that damn hill in Encinitas haha. I managed an even pace around the whole 10.1-mile loop and finished it with an 8:51/mile average.

I met Dave around 3 p.m. and we were in our seats just as they gave the commands to the drivers to start their engines.

Cars lined up on pit road.

The race itself was a pretty good one! Martin Truex Jr. won. The guy sitting in front of us, who was a huge Truex fan, insisted on showing Dave and me selfies on his phone from when he met Truex and his crew chief haha.

Fireworks after the race.

This race had one of the bigger crowds I’ve seen at a track this year, but there were still plenty of empty seats. I remember back when I first went to Richmond, in 2002, they had stands all the way around (the ones on the back stretch have been removed) and you still had to buy tickets from scalpers if you waited too long to get them in advance. Now you can walk right up to the box office the day of the race and still get a decent seat on the front stretch. Crazy how much it’s fallen off in the past 15 years or so.

Anyway, we had a nice long drive home. Around 1:30 a.m., we stopped at the Wawa on Rt. 50 before the Bay Bridge, and the cashier told us it was the busiest Wawa in the whole country until just recently, when some Wawa in Florida unseated it.

It was almost 3 a.m. when I got home and went to bed. I didn’t even pretend I was going to run Sunday morning, let alone 20 miles. It was another hot day by the time I got up and besides, I had a baby shower to go to at noon.

The shower was for TK, who’s due at the beginning of November. I hadn’t seen in her person since May. She looks like a pregnant lady now! I’m so excited for her!

Everyone filled out a “predictions” sheet, with when/what time they think the baby will be born, the gender (it’s a surprise, but I’m leaning toward girl), length, weight, etc. There was also a space to write advice for the new parents. I left that blank. I don’t think I’m in any position to give advice to parents haha.

We took a group photo with all of us who have been friends since elementary school, but it’s on TK’s mom’s phone and I haven’t gotten it yet.

Now it’s Monday and I’m trying to get caught up on work after being out all last week. I’m also taking Clark’s and my bikes to the shop in Delmar this afternoon to get them tuned up (Clark wound up skipping the tri this weekend because of the fact he hadn’t trained for it at all, plus all the stuff he wants to get done around here before he leaves for California ONE WEEK FROM WEDNESDAY!) and I need to get out for a run, to finally try the new shoes I bought last week.

Training for 9/20/19

We had a successful week out here in Southern California. Clark and I signed a 13-month lease on an apartment a couple blocks from the beach in Oceanside, about a half hour north of San Diego. I guess we’re technically residents of both the East and West coasts until we sell our house in Delaware. This is so weird!

View from our patio. That’s the ocean between those two hotels!

Looking into the living room and kitchen from the patio.

This is a much smaller space than our current house, but we hardly ever use the spare bedrooms, so really this is just distilled down to what we actually use — living room, bedroom and kitchen. Honestly I’m looking forward to purging a lot of stuff when we move.

There are only a few pieces of furniture we want to take from our house to this place. Most of what we have is hand-me-down stuff our families gave us when we bought the house. We never upgraded any of it, other than the one chair Pepper shredded. So this will be a good time to finally start updating our furnishings, without having to redo a whole house.

We also bought a new mattress, to replace the one we bought in 2007 and are still sleeping on in Delaware. Clark picked out a Purple mattress, and it was delivered yesterday, so he’s got something to sleep on when he comes back in a couple weeks to start his new job.

We signed the lease Tuesday and did the walk-through yesterday. It’s ours, at least until October 2020.

The first thing we did was drink a couple beers in our new kitchen, AleSchmidt, a fall seasonal by AleSmith, one of our favorite breweries here.

So that was the main focus of our time here, but I did get in some marathon training too.

Monday, we had to leave our house at 4 a.m., so I didn’t get in a run. I had to get up early enough as it was to do all my last-minute packing.

Pepper wondering what in the world was happening at 2:30 a.m.

We landed in San Diego around 9:30 a.m. local time, but it was too early to check into our hotel in Encinitas, so we just found a couple breweries and hung out on the beach to pass the time.

I ran Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday along the coast. Our hotel was about a mile from the beach. Half of that mile was a steep hill. It was a downhill on the way out, but a hard climb on the way back. I definitely got in some hill training this week!

The views were nice too.

Clockwise from top left: Cardiff Kook statue; Surf’s Pup, a mobile dogsitting service for surfers; rocks painted with dogs’ names at Dog Beach Memorial near Del Mar; running along San Elijo State Beach.

I did 5.7 miles at an 8:43/mile average on Tuesday, 10 miles at a 9:15/mile average on Wednesday and another 5 miles, with five quarter-mile intervals thrown in, with Clark on Thursday.

I should’ve run today before we left for the airport, since I didn’t run Monday, but I just didn’t feel like it.

One other running-related bit — I stopped in a New Balance store yesterday and tried on a few models to replace my current Zante Pursuits, which I will retire after this last 20-miler this weekend. I settled on the FuelCell Propel. I’m glad I got to try them on before buying, because they run very small and I wound up having to go up an entire size.

They look weird, but they felt good in the store, and all that cushioning is supposed to deliver high energy return or something. I’ll see. If I hate them, I can take them to the NB store in Rehoboth and get the updated Beacons, and those will be my Steamtown shoes instead.

One last thing — yesterday was Clark’s and my 10th anniversary! We had dinner at a very nice restaurant in Encinitas, the Pacific Coast Grill.

Clark asked me if, when we were in middle school, I ever imagined being married to him for 10 years and moving to California with him. Um, no. Can’t say that particular scenario ever crossed my mind! Curious to see where we are in another 10 years.

Anyway, we fly back to the East Coast today. This weekend is my last big mileage weekend before Steamtown, 10 miles tomorrow and 20 on Sunday. The jet lag always crushes me the first couple of days back from the West Coast, so that’ll be a bonus.

At least I don’t have a surprise triathlon to do Sunday! Clark got an email yesterday with his bib assignment for the Bethany Beach triathlon, which he did not remember signing up for haha. He hasn’t ridden his bike or swam since Eagleman in June. Should be a fun time.

WaterMel Run 5K recap

Saturday morning was the inaugural WaterMel Run 5K in Laurel. The race itself went pretty well, but the after party in the park was definitely the highlight.

Race shirt logo. Love that it has a sawed-off bus! There are a ton of them hauling watermelons around here every summer.

The race didn’t start until 9 a.m., and Laurel is a short drive from home, so I didn’t have to get up early at all. That was appreciated because I didn’t get a lot of sleep Friday night.

There was plenty of parking near Janosik Park, where the race started and ended. I picked up my race T-shirt and bib, and then Susan, Robinn and I ran an easy mile to warm up. It had already started to get hot, and as much as I’d liked sleeping in, I was wishing the race had started earlier when it was still kinda cool.

There were 65 runners and walkers. When the race director called us up to the line, no one really wanted to be up front. I wound up starting right on the line.

We got the commands from the Mar-Del Watermelon Association queen (the race benefited the association’s scholarship fund) and we were off.

The course was a simple out-and-back. We left the park, crossed over a road, made a left turn onto another road, ran that all the way to the halfway point, turned around and came back.

There was a hill as we ran from the park and made the one turn on the course. That wasn’t fun on the way out, when we had to run up it, but of course, that meant we’d have a nice downhill to look forward to at the end.

Anyway, this young kid sprinted away from the line with the lead, but he burned out before we even made up that little hill haha. Susan quickly overtook him and led the rest of the way.

Another woman passed me and wound up running second overall. I was running behind her with the lead guy until about the first mile marker, which I passed in 7:23. I pulled away from the lead guy after that.

I made the U-turn in third overall and headed back toward town. Mile 2 was 7:22.

The last mile was tough. I was pretty hot and ready to be done trying to run fast.

That downhill at the end helped me speed up to a 7:07 third mile, and I crossed the line in 22:42, just nine seconds slower than my fastest 5K effort of the summer. I was happy with that.

The next runner to finish was also a woman. We took the top four!

Susan and I ran another two easy miles to cool down, and then we got to the fun part!

They had a ton of watermelon for us in the park. Some of it had been pureed, which they were mixing with watermelon liqueur, vodka and Sprite to make watermelon crushes. We got two each, and they were absolutely delicious!

Overall and age group winners all got watermelons to take home too. We got a LOT of watermelons!

Men’s and women’s overall and masters winners. Susan’s on the far right.

I’m on the far right accepting my F 30-39 watermelon.

Robinn (second from right) won the F 50-59 age group.

Crushes and awards.

They had a ton of leftover watermelons and told us to take as many as we wanted. I’m the only who will eat them in my house, and we’re leaving tomorrow, so I didn’t take any more, but Susan and Robinn left with a trunkful haha.

Race participants with one of Laurel’s melon buses.

Apparently they paint one of these old school buses for melon picking every summer. There were five at the race.

There was a seed-spitting contest. Turns out Robinn is pretty good at spitting seeds. She killed us all with a 22-foot spit! They gave her another watermelon for the pile haha.

Seed-spitting makes for some really funny pictures too.

Susan, Robinn and me.

The watermelon queen let Robinn borrow her tiara for a photo after she won champion seed spitter.

Robinn, Susan, me and Gretchen. Watermelons for all!

Anyway, I was really glad I did that race. It was an absolute blast!

Later that afternoon, I met my younger sister and we drove to D.C.’s District Wharf to see Boy & Bear, an Australian indie folk rock band she really likes.

We had dinner first at Kirwan’s.

Cheers!

Then we walked 10 ft. to Union Stage.

Julie and me outside the venue.

Julie with the marquee just inside.

I’d never seen a show at Union Stage, but it was a really cool venue. It was small, and we were able to walk right up to the stage.

Doesn’t get much closer than this without actually joining the band.

It was a good show. Julie was really happy she got to see them live.

I stayed awake the whole drive back to our parents’ house, and then I had to drive myself home. It was 1:30 a.m. when I went to bed. I set my alarm for four hours later. Ouch.

I met Melissa at her house at 6:30 to knock out this week’s long run, which thankfully was a cutback to 12 miles.

This morning was not particularly hot, but it was super muggy.

We took her chocolate Lab, Holly, for a 2-mile out-and-back, dropped her off at the house and then went to do the other 10 on our own.

We ran through downtown Salisbury, did a lap of the park trail loop, did a couple hill repeats on a hill leading out of the park, ran to another part of town, did some more repeats on another rather steep hill and then ran back to Melissa’s house, finishing 12 miles at a 9:25/mile average.

I was DRENCHED. My feet were slipping around in my socks the last few miles, they were so waterlogged. And it was all sweat!

I had to come straight home after we finished, so I could be home before Clark left to go with Mike to the Ravens game. I took a nap and felt a lot better.

This coming week is the last big mileage week of Steamtown training. Looks like we’ll have beautiful running weather all week in San Diego (one of the things I’m most looking forward to about living there — goodbye, humidity!) and then I’ve already got a running date with Melissa for our third and final 20-miler next weekend.

Training for 9/13/19

This has been quite the cutback week. Yesterday was just too freaking hot to run in the afternoon, over 100 degrees, and then Clark suggested going to Dogfish Head for dinner, so it became my second rest day in three days.

Today cooled off a lot. It took me all day, but I finally ran the short easy run on the schedule. I did a lap of the 5.5-mile loop at an 8:49/mile average.

Tomorrow is the inaugural WaterMel Run 5K in Laurel. It looks like a nice, flat out-and-back course. It doesn’t start until 9 a.m., but luckily the weather looks pretty decent, so it shouldn’t be too hot. I’d like to come in around the 22:33 I ran in my fastest 5K this summer.

Tomorrow night, I’m going to another concert courtesy of my younger sister. This time, she got two tickets to see some Australian indie folk rock group she likes, Boy + Bear. Can’t say I know any of their music, but it’s not dudebro country, so I’m in.

Sunday morning, I’m meeting Melissa bright and early again for this week’s long run, but it’s only 12 miles. Then I’ll be home in plenty of time to hang out with Pepper while Clark goes to the Ravens game with Mike, and there’s a NASCAR race to watch in the evening.

I might post Sunday afternoon too, because we’re leaving very early Monday morning to head out to San Diego for the week.

I guess this is official enough to make it public now — Clark accepted a job in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego, and we’re going out there to find an apartment. His last day at his current job is Oct. 1, and then he’s starting out there the following week. I’m hanging around here a little while longer, but I’ve started applying to jobs too and Pepper and I will be joining him soon.

So that’s my news today. We are selling our house and moving from Delaware to California!

Training for 9/11/19

Today’s run wasn’t one of my favorites. I stayed up late last night, had a couple beers too many and didn’t get much dinner. So I didn’t go out to run early like I’d intended, and when I did go, it was hot and I still wasn’t feeling too spiffy.

I did this week’s middle distance run, which cut back to six miles. I started getting side stitches halfway through, due to dehydration, and really wished I’d brought my water bottle with me. I had to make a stop in a corn field around mile 5. It was also sunny and in the mid 80s. But I got around the 6.5-mile loop at an 8:54/mile average.

And I just signed up for another race. Susan told me about an inaugural 5K being held in Laurel this coming Saturday morning. It’s so close to home, I might as well. Also, it’s watermelon-themed, and the after party will not only have plenty of that to eat, it’ll have watermelon crushes, which sound pretty amazing.

Training for 9/10/19

Yesterday, I waited until the evening to go out for my run. My legs weren’t exactly peppy, but they didn’t feel too bad after the previous day’s 20-miler either. I did a lap of the 5.5-mile loop at an 8:35/mile average.

I decided to take this week’s rest day today. I was lazy this morning, it got hot this afternoon and I have stuff to cover for work tonight.

I forgot to mention yesterday — my brother and I signed up for the Sea Gull Century on Oct. 5. He’s seriously considering training for a full Ironman next year and wants to see what 100 miles on a bike feels like.

This will be my second time riding it. I distinctly remember how bad my butt hurt after it last time, so I better squeeze in some bike miles between now and then. Or just hang out on my bike seat for hours at a time.