not quite 4 months

Ok so it's been close to 4 months since I last posted something. I'm gonna blame it again on 'life'. That seems to be the default excuse for my lack of writing. Actually I have been meaning to write a post for some time, I just haven't had the chance to put it all together. So here goes... 
My summer goal of losing this fat suit wasn't really going that well so to give myself a goal, I signed up to do the Nations Triathlon as part of a relay team. I've never done a triathlon so this was something new for me. I was already cycling 3 times a week so I knew the bike portion wouldn't be that hard but I felt like I needed to mix things up. A few ladies in our running group were planning to start the C25K (Couch to 5k) program in mid July. I did this program back in 2011 and figured this would be a good way for me to ease back into running without really aggravating the Plantar Fasciitis that I had been dealing with since March. To celebrate completion of C25K we all registered for the Arlington 911 5k race. After I registered for it, I realized that the triathlon was the very next morning. Oops- I was thinking oh crap, my legs are gonna really hate me!

Day 1 of C25K

We finished C25K at the end of August and ran the race on September 10th. My finish time wasn't the best but I was just happy to be able to run a race. The last running race I did was in 2014.

mile 2-3 heading around the Pentagon

pre race picture

my running buddy A

I went home after the race and hung out around the house. I got my bag ready for the next mornings race. It was a 4:30am wake up call so I went to bed early.

5 am obligatory monument picture

 I love the excitement of running/cycling events but man do I hate having to get up at the ass crack of dawn. It always amazes me that I can get up for an event without any problems but seem to have this endless war with the snooze button on any other day.
We arrived extra early because finding a parking spot in DC is a joke during events that require street closures. Luckily we were able to get a decent parking spot.

It was such a beautiful morning and the weather was so much nicer than the day before. They cancelled the swim portion due to the poor water quality of the Potomac River so since C wasn't able to do the swim she decided to do the run portion with J.

J, myself & C

We waited around for a little over an hour and before we knew it we were off. The bike ride was much easier than I expected. The only part that was "tough" was the head winds that greeted us as we were riding on I395 going over the Potomac River toward Crystal City. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take my phone with me so there are no pictures :( I was happy with my overall time on the bike.

I came into the transition area, dismounted the bike & handed the timer to J and they took off to finish the run portion of the race.

J & C running to the finish

We collected our medals and got some food & said our goodbyes. It was a fun event, bummer that the swim got cancelled but we made the best of it.
The crazy part about this is that when the results came in and we ranked 3rd in our division and 10th overall.

I have another race next weekend with my daughter. I'll update about that soon so until next time...