Trail racing and Wedding Dresses

This past weekend I got to visit with my parents and sister in Reading, Pa. The main purpose of the visit was to purchase a wedding dress but of course I had to throw in some sort of race. Luckily the local running club was hosting a trail race! http://www.pretzelcitysports.com/trailracesresults.html



To back up the past few days I have been completely physically inactive. Luke had a major cold/flu/illness starting on Christmas Eve and although I was trying my best to fight it off it caught up with me. And it stuck around.....resulting in many days of doing nothing. But I was signed up for this race and thankfully my grossness cleared up enough where I felt good enough to get the run in!



Now these trail races have a reputation for being really hard! Just read the race applications on their website. http://www.pretzelcitysports.com/ And the reputation lived up! I really wouldn't even describe these as trails in some parts. They were so eroded and filled with rocks that I wouldn't even want to hike on them for fun. So they made the running very slow and technical. There were also crazy climbs where everyone just marched in a line up the hill. Not one person complained that people walked, everyone just seemed to be in it together. So although this may not sound like a great race review to some, it was way more fun than any road race. The miles flew by, although they were significantly slower then on the road. My 8-mile race time is around one-hour and ten minutes and this race was just a little over 7 miles and took a full hour and forty-four minute. Holy slowness! But it was great and I am now feeling healthy to get back to training.

Oh yeah, I also bought my wedding dress!

USA Triathlon coming to Vermont!

Check out the link below. If you haven't heard USAT Age Group Nationals are coming to Burlington, VT. This will be such a great opportunity to have awesome athletes come to see what Vermont has to offer.

http://usatriathlon.org/news/2010/01/11/burlington-to-host-2011-12-championships/30471?ngb_id=12

Snowy footsteps

There is something peaceful about running down a snow covered road w/o even the sight of tire tracks on the ground. It has been extremely cold here lately (as it has been all over the NE and Midwest); but I have been getting out every once in awhile to get away from the evil treadmill. I have a 7.2 mile trail run coming up in 2 weeks in Pennsylvania which I am very excited about. It is supposed to be a killer, hilly race and should be a nice wake up call for me!

Some news to share with everyone! I participated in the incredible Northeast Kingdom Swim this past summer and since then a group of us have been emailing and trying to coordinate more swimming events in the area. Click on the following link to read more and if you are able to get to Vermont these are great events and is also a great vacation destination.

http://www.worldopenwaterswimmingassociation.com/index.php?page=blog_page&team_id=53&cat=news&nid=3649

They are also holding an even up triathlon that is geared to swimmers (3.5 mile swim, around 50 miles on the bike and 13.1 miles for the run). This should be a great time to see if I can hold off those runners with such a long swim.

Great day for a ski!

What a great way to spend the day! Luke and I finally had a day off together and it felt good to burn off some energy. I love xc skiing because I was warm even though it was 14 degrees outside with crazy winds......but not in the woods!