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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello again readers! I am currently waiting in the Tampa airport and contemplating a little stretching activity before boarding.

The vacation was glorious and filled to the brim with fun! I toured around the Floridian landscape with my cousin and parents. I played three incredible rounds of golf, jet skied for the first time, made sure to enjoy one or two afternoon drinks, walked on the beach to view the dolphins jumping, relaxed with yoga on the beach, screamed at Animal Kingdom, cheered on the Red Sox as they beat the Yankees at Fort Meyers, drank my last Coors Light at Downtown Disney (more to be explained later), and didn’t get sun burned!

I ran a few times too! When I arrived on Thursday morning, I hit the beach and swimming for a little and then headed out for a run. To my delight, I’ve found relief and an explanation for some of my leg pain. When I run on even level terrain, my legs are happy and pain free! I ran 10 miles that day, not quite on purpose, but it felt good to accomplish a run so early in the vacation.

Friday was a scheduled rest day, and I enjoyed a game of golf and prepped for the next day! My mom read in the local paper about an 8K- 5mile race starting and ending at Sharkie’s - our favorite waterfront restaurant! A T-Shirt would be given, along with prizes for age groups, door prizes and water stops! Thrilled at the chance to get in another run in the midst of my crazy vacation schedule, and one with water stops sounded too good to be true. Even though I attended my first Sox game of the season, I kept my promise of discipline and did not drink anything and it paid off!

I won the race! Well, winning has a fuzzy definition for me. My goal was to run 8 minute miles and finish under 40 minutes and I blew it out of the water so that means I won! I finished with an official time of 35:48 seconds, earning a 2nd place medal for my age group, and finished 29th overall in a group of a few hundred. My motivation to run fast came from my cousin Lynn, who mentioned before the race that the whole course is FLAT so I better run fast. Very good point, the course was flat and pleasant to run on! My first mile was 8:10, then my second mile was around 6:30 and I averaged just over 7 minutes per mile! It appears that I'm in pretty good shape! I had to run off to Disney World immediately after the race, and I figured that only the top finisher received a prize. Anyway, I picked up my second place medal from the YMCA a couple days later.
Race Results

Pictured below is me with my parents following the race.



Heather explains that a 25-year-old woman is not allowed to drink Coors Light. I’m taking her advice, but here’s the documentation of my last silver bullet.


My cousin Lynn Wille and I travel around the island together.




Thanks Karen and Chris for the St. Patrick's day donation!!!

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