Of Being Sweaty and Social

Nothing at all exciting this weekend so if you are looking for something new and British, you'll have to wait for another post.

This weekend, I dusted off the cobwebs and entered the Henley Half marathon on Sunday. Since I was racing after a nice long hiatus I decided to take Saturday off from running, biking and generally anything sweaty. Conviently, Saturday turned out to be the club's Captain's Challenge triathlon were I got dragged into being a race marshall and time keeper.

The event was fun with several teams participating in the relay. In order to make it really competitive, the men had to swim, bike and run 10% more than the women. Thank goodness I'm not a swimmer or I would have been dragged into this event as well. The water looks cold!

The fans, officials and other participants - it was chilly!

After the swim, the sun came out for the bike portion..

And lastly, the awards ceremony at the pub (yes, the pub AGAIN). Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the run, I was too busy giving time splits.

As this was the final day of 'competition', the club awards banquet was also that night. Everyone got dressed up, the boys in dinner jackets and the girls in their frocks to celebrate the seasons accomplishments. Eventually, the drinking and DJ caught up to everyone and some strange dance took place. I couldn't quite figure it out but I avoided it. Sadly, it followed the Macarena. As I tried to leave to get some shut eye for my competition the next morning, it wasn't to be. Note to self: when an ironman finisher tells you "if I am going to run the half marathon hung over, then YOU are going to run the half marathon hung over", it is time to hide.

Sunday dawned gray and foggy which made fabulous running conditions. Also note the wonderful start time. While standing in the line for the bathroom all the women were complaining about how early the race started this year. It started at 9:30AM instead of 10AM! I am definitely not in Kansas anymore. Okay, so this is the longest post ever about nothing - I promise things will get more exciting soon. And oh yeah, best run ever - a new personal best. I think it helped that there were only 1500 people in the race so I didn't have to play Frogger. Chip Time: 1:36:02 - 14th female overall. (I told you the race was small....or maybe it was the 6 glasses of wine with the Ironman?)