Spring training/break/reunion over ... finally

I am looking forward to tomorrow night. The last of the spring break visitors will have left and I will be back to the peace and pace that may allow me to return to better training, running, eating, racing, drinking, sleeping and blogging.

It's been a long two weeks.

Our last houseguest is the young Frenchman who is son T's age. He is the son of Mrs. T's pen pal from 9th grade French class. Mrs. T and her pen pal visited each other over the years and in 1983 sent each other letters at the same time declaring their recent pregnancies. G and T were born within a month of each other and have been friends a long time.

I have spent the last week explaining the stupidity of adults and students who did crazy things in the week before public school spring break (this coming week). Likewise, I entertained G at an NBA game (Magic-Spurs) and a college tennis match between nationally ranked #3 Lynn and #7 Rollins and a college spring exhibition soccer match. I also took him as my sidekick to the college reunion events. Mrs. T had to manage the busy museum most of the weekend but we ran into her a few times.

For my 35th reunion nobody from my class showed up! The college was not officially observing it but I saw plenty of people I know.

Then there was the birthday party for a good friend I've known for 20 years; and the online drafts for my fantasy baseball teams (three of them).

The 10K Race. I missed five training runs while spring break was going on. Too many distractions. I slipped in a few speed work sessions to keep the speed up plus one long run last Sunday but otherwise, I lost my mojo. I also put on some weight with all the eating and drinking that accompanied the breaker activities.

It was about 63 degrees at the start. I was in the 8-minute pace zone with a few pals I knew. The start was clean. The jockeying required in the first mile was not too bad. I put forth a pace of 8:05-8:10 through the first three miles. I kept up the 8-ish pace through miles 4 and 5 but stopped for water in both miles which cost me about 15-20 seconds. By the sixth mile the sun was rising and I was overheating so stripped off my shirt.

I slowed down too much, coming to the 6-mile clock in about 8:30 and then kicked it in at a decent pace to finish in 52:11.

The Bad - I did not break my 50-minute goal. I lost my stamina.
The Good - It was my fourth best 10K. I was 17th out of 66 in my age group. I saw Maddy plus a lot of my Central Florida running pals and acquaintances.
The Most Fun - watching the Kids Runs: 3 and unders, 5-8 year olds and 9-12 year olds. Cute.

After the race I weighed myself and was four pounds heavier than I expected to be after the effort. That's probably why I didn't have the speed. Too much partying in this boy.