Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! Well happy for me as I finished up a very eventful 72 hour shift around 8:00AM. Packed within that shift was a black tie ball held by the Newburyport Mayor for the USCG CITY dedication, Coast Guard Open House (which entailed giving tours to hundreds of guests), a parade and most importantly protecting Americas coasts! A long weekend of duty, unfortunately left me short on ambition so my evenings included Cheering on Team USA in the Games, and a not so great diet of energy drinks and coffee. I was super pumped to see both of Alberto Salazars pupils take Gold and Silver in the 10,000M, I'd really like to see what Galen Rupp can do in the Marathon, but I would imagine we'd have to wait for that.

2012 Lions Club Bed Race

 

2011 "USCG 1"

I promised to explain the "Bed Race" last week and haven't forgotten. While still in recovery mode from the Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler I had the pleasure of Joining 5 of my co-workers in racing a custom made "Bed" a quarter mile down Federal st. in Newburyport. If you are a facebook friend you probably already know of Last years lackluster 4th place finish. With a few familiar faces, and a fully re-designed death wagon of a bed (All GO no SHOW) we set out for victory this year. We competed against 25 other local organizations, some out for speed others set out to entertain. Sitting at the top of the hill we put on our war faces and proceeded to talk strategy. At the "gun" our intentions were quite clear to the onlookers. Crossing the finish line in 1:10 the race officials proclaimed "The Coast Guard has the fastest time so far". We watched and waited as 10-12 other teams tried to knock us off the top spot. The closest anyone would come would be 1:13 by the Plum Island lifeguards who literally "ran it til' the wheels fell off" (about 5' before the finish line they lost a front caster wheel). Call it luck, or poor engineering on their part but we took the "W" and I couldn't be more proud.
Newburyport Daily News "NO SLEEPING"

2012 "Champs"



As I said Earlier, this weekend was a bit of a training lull to say the least. Still feeling sore and dehydrated I went out for a short road jog. I left with every intention of taking it easy since nothing really felt good and hit the road (yeah I know...roads suck). The plan was 5-6 easy miles to  get back into the swing of things. I left the weighted vest and water bottles at home. As I ticked off a couple of pedestrian like miles i started feeling better physically and worse mentally about such a low mileage week. Somewhere along the way 10MI. sounded like a better idea. Conveniently enough i happened upon a nice semi steep half mile climb about 4 1/2 miles from home to tackle before turning around. A nice "Long Slow Distance" run really felt good. Hopefully I can get a few trail miles in tomorrow.

AMESBURY SPARTAN SPRINT 8/12/12

The next race is the Amesbury Spartan Sprint on Sunday, I'm really hoping for a decent finish this time. Last year I ran the non-competitive heat with some friends and crossed the finish in 4th place having never intended to really race (not to say i didn't put forth my best effort). This particular event last year was what really got me hooked on obstacle racing so I'm looking forward to what Spartan HQ has in store. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for the Saturday competitive heat, which offers cash prizes for top finishers, and the chance to chase the seemingly invincible Hobie Call. I'm sure some other tough competitors are in my shoes and running the Sunday event as well.

2011 Spartan Sprint Amesbury

Finish with Randal T.

Until next week..