We will start with work life (part of the reason for my "living dead" title). The summer hours at work are Monday - Thursday for 10 hours and then Fridays off. Started in May and ending August 10th. It always seems like such a long amount of time; and in the beginning, I always wonder what I am going to do with all these available Fridays. But with one week left, I feel as though the summer as flew by and on Fridays I'm so exhausted from the week that I feel as though I'm a living dead person. So I will celebrate my last Friday off this Friday, August 10th and frankly it's kind of a relief. I will certainly miss a "free" day while most people have to work, but getting off work at 4:30 will be nice!
Other goings on:
Picnic Island #3 was on Friday, July 13th. The tide was fairly low again and Ben and I both had a good time at this third and final run. 36:57 was my official finishing time, good enough for: 187/620 overall finishers, 38/217 female finishers, and 6/34 in my age group. Annnddd, a cool campfire mug (as pictured below with my fast friend, Vera):
My Boston Red Sox loving friend, Jamie, gave Ben and myself some cool Rays koozies that we broke out for Dave Matthews Band summer tour in West Palm Beach:
Ben was reunited with Chris for some lawn action:
Here we are rolling around in the grass: (It was hot as Hades this day)
Those sunglasses pictured above? Lost 'em in the Atlantic Ocean along with my favorite Bucs hat. But the water was AH-mazing!
I bought some new Brooks Adrenalines for marathon training. (I fought with Brooks to give me some black shoe laces, but they refused so I rigged up my own). I believe they look much better with the black laces instead of white...but you be the judge:
Trail running has also been going well. Notable accomplishments: had my longest ever trail run (8 miles), my fastest pace trail run (10:10 pace, also 8 miles), saw my first coral snake, had my first wild boar sighting (including a baby boar), took another tumble, and saw tons of water on the trails. Trail running has really given me a chance to focus on my foot falls and breathing and just enjoy being outside in the woods. I never thought that I would be running 8 miles consistently (especially after running 10 or 11 road miles the day before), but it's been great.
I must also say that I've been fortunate enough to team up with my buddy, Tracey, for many of these trail runs. (Special shout out to Paul for holding down the Tripp household on those Sunday mornings!) Having someone to chat with, laugh with, and share these new milestones has really been a great experience. So much so that we have even considered doing a trail half marathon this year...stay tuned.
Other confirmed races coming up:
Sunday, August 26th Run for the Fallen 10k. (This is a FREE event that I'm doing with a team from work)
Saturday, October 27th and Sunday, October 28th The LIVING DEAD Challenge (5k on Saturday NIGHT and Half Marathon Sunday MORNING! WHAT?!?). This one should be fun and local!
