The beat goes on

So today marked our second week of practice, and it's going really well.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been trying to settle back into "work, cross-training, running, clean the house" mode. So unfortunately, my blog can get put on the backburner. My apologies again.

So....where were we?
Ah, the 23rd....First practice and boy, what a great one. It was cloudy and cool, and humid (ugh). Almost everyone was there and it was great to feel the energy and enthusiasm of a new season. We ran a whopping 2 miles while the Seattle team (Their event is at the end of June) was doing 18!! The first-timers were all bug-eyed at that number- I remember feeling that way too. We reassured them that by the time they worked up to it, those distances wouldn't seem so bad.

Today's practice was a bit smaller, due to a communication breakdown (good Led Zeppelin song, by the way). Some people thought that it started a half hour later, so people were still trickling in as the rest of the team took off to do their 2-3 miles. I ran a little bit with the team, but turned back early so I wouldn't burn myself out.

Why, you ask? I'm running the Meet Me Downtown 5k tonight! This is the race that started it all for me last year. I saw a flier for it in 2008 (the race was on 6/7/08) and thought that it sounded like fun, so I signed up, knowing that the last 5k I ran had been about 6 years earlier. Um, yeah.....you get the idea. But wouldn't you know it, I had so much fun that I did another 5k the week after that! I was hooked. Slow, but hooked.

Then a couple weeks after that I got a flier for Team in Training and thought "huh. I remember when my co-worker ran a marathon with them and it seemed like fun....." maybe I'll go to the meeting just to see what it's all about....and yadda yadda yadda, the rest is history.

So, I paced a 10:17 mile for this race last year, with a finish time of 31:58, however that's a rough estimate. What happened at the race was interesting- so many people signed up right before or the day of, that the officials were sort of blindsided by the sheer volume of people that showed up. Not only did they run out of water at the hydration stations, but we had to STAND IN LINE to finish the race!!! So not only did I get a finish time of 31:58, but about 20 other people did as well.....I'm anxious to beat my "personal record" (sorry, trying not to snort at myself as I type that) and excited to had a little more experience under my belt! :)

Oh, and if anyone fancies themselves as a birder, I saw a beautiful bird this morning. It had a red breast and black cap/back. It wasn't a cardinal or a finch. It was probably the size of a robin, but it wasn't a robin. Any ideas?