The Seagull (part deux) - again, I let priceline make decisions for me and wound up at the same hotel I stayed in last year. Actually made the start with the DC Velo train (thanks to them for humoring me!) I was more than anxious seeing as my longest ride in the past 3 months had been 55 miles and here I was, starting off with the big-dogs. Away we go and I was pretty pleased that I stuck with them for about a half hour before silently crying uncle. I settled in with a little more civilized group and picked up another friendly face (ie another "train" castoff). The guys we were riding with were fairly strong and very quick to explain to us what it meant to take a pull - they were also quick to show their surprise when I pulled off by exclaiming "that was a great pull". I just smiled and said thanks.
Later, we intermingled with a different group - one that was too big to stay organized. At one point a guy yelled at Steve for passing on the right - there was a second line forming on the right and Steve was just moving up to catch the draft. The guy continued to b*tch until I rode up behind Steve and said - look, we've done this before. You ride your bike and I'll ride mine, m'kay ? I heard the guy muttering a little while longer about how he was just sensitive to people who don't know what they were doing or something of the like. In that same group, I rode up to one of the few girls in the crowd, again in the right "lane". I looked over and said hey, how ya doin'? She responded by "I guess no one knows what passing on the left means". I should note that this girl was in her tri-bars part of the time in the big group (uh ... duh ... bad idea) and that later in the day, her group came past mine and passed - on the right !! Sigh.
Post-ride, I was invited to attend the DC Velo dinner - much love and respect for that crew, always a class-act and always welcoming to this orphan cyclist. Thank you for including me, it was a fantastic ending to a great day.
I was thrilled to see my auditor on the start line and I know my recruiter was there - both reported a great day on the bike. I consider these guys good friends and am happy to think I had some influence on their relatively new-found love of the ride.
As for the Baltimore half marathon ... a whole different ballgame. I've run a couple 5ks and 10ks back in the day, but once I found the bike, that was o-v-e-r. I diligently trained according to a schedule Mitch gave me. The goal: do the half in Baltimore and maybe be fit for the Rehoboth marathon in early Dec.
In running, things are a bit different with over-training and injuries. On the bike, I am well known to train or race through just about anything (barring a pelvic fracture, I wussed out on that one). You just can't do that running. If something is injured and you try to train through it, you just eff yourself up even worse. So, when I got a new pair of kicks (same model I've been running in for years) and they caused a foot injury (note: do not run 14miles in new kicks)I had to stop running. As in none. Nothing. Not one step. For three weeks before the half. Thankfully, I fared ok, sticking with Mitch for the first 6miles or so, then running at my own pace to finish about 6mins behind her. I was relatively happy with my time until Mitch put it in perspective: 4 months ago, I couldn't WALK. And here I am finishing a half-marathon in just over 2hrs. All of sudden that made the whole thing a little emotional: I woulda cried if I hadn't been so damn dehydrated.
As a note, I fail to see the logic on some of the running stuff. For the half marathon, we all parked at Ravens Stadium and had to walk over to the Inner Harbor for the start. Call it a warm up. Then we had to cross through the Marathon runners to get to the actual start. Not so smart - I saw a bunch of near-misses and I know a few of them actually had to slow down because idiots were crossing when they shouldn't have. Last, right after you finish, they funnel you through to get your shiny blanket (never understood these, now I do!) and your finishers medal. Then you go out of the corral and they give you tix for two free beers. Which brings me to my point of confusion: they give 2 free beers to people who just finished running 13 or 26 miles, are dehydrated and have no food in them. I'm not sayin' anything, I'm just sayin'.
I do admit that while I'm not a beer-drinker, I had no trouble downing one beer - I think I actually enjoyed it. By the way, I decided that I'll do the half at Rehoboth, not the full marathon. Running just doesn't captivate me as much as the bike does.
Big, huge props to all of my coworkers who manned up and did the half-marathon. Most of them are not obsessive athletes like our cycling brethren - but they diligently trained and all but one of them finished the event. I think I enjoyed seeing them discover the thrill of achievement more than I enjoyed my own achievement. How cool is that ?
On to off-season training - I made my decision last month that yes, I'm going to give road racing another whirl, though I'm still not sure what my race season will look like. Its the first time in several years that I haven't been running a club, creating a club or holding a club together ... it's rather refreshing just to ride when and how and with whomever you want.
And yes, I am one sport short of a Tri-geek. Too bad they don't have a water-wings division in Tri's, I might've actually considered it during my stay on injured reserve this year.
