The Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day weekend flew by. We got a lot accomplished, but not as much as we had hoped. I can’t help but feel partly responsible.

I had Friday and Monday off work, which is pretty rare. I celebrated by sitting around in my underwear until noon or so on Friday. I followed that up with my first post-marathon run, five miles easy. It went well. I had some tight muscles with a few aches, but no major injuries. I spent most of the afternoon mowing the lawn and doing other miscellaneous yard work. In the evening we went to Target to look at baby items.

Kickapoo mountain bike trails

Kickapoo mountain bike trails

Saturday morning I mountain biked at Kickapoo with Gene and Greg. I haven’t been there in a few months, so I wasn’t quite at the top of my game. The trails were a little muddy, but not nearly as bad as they could have been. Gene and Greg took me onto the “new” section of trail, which was absolutely ridiculous. Most of the trail is challenging, but this new part was downright sadistic. The single track trail was very narrow (18″?), cut into the side of a very steep hill, slanted downward, with tight and steep switchbacks. I made it through okay. Actually, it was dangerous. There, I said it. The rest of the trail pales in comparison.

Fields

Many unplowed fields across Illinois and Indiana had bright yellow flowering plants (which I assume are weeds) this weekend.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Indianapolis. First we visited Babies-R-Us to look at cribs and other various items. Next we went to Aimee & Brett’s house to pick up a few baby items they wanted to give us. Then it was on to Aunt Jeanne’s house to meet up with the family. Finally, we went to Zionsville to my uncle Dennis and (new) aunt Sally’s wedding reception (the main event of the trip). The reception went well, and it was great to catch up with the cousins, aunts, & uncles. Sally is a wonderful woman and she and Dennis seem very happy together.

Dennis & Sally

newly married Dennis and Sally

Sunday morning I got a little cleaning done in the office, but not as much as I (or Melissa) hoped. It’s never as much as I hope. I also worked for a little while setting up one of my old computers for my grandparents in Bismarck. After lunch we went swimming (our first family swim). Then we went shopping for new stoves. We’ve been on the brink of getting a new stove since Christmas. I think it’s finally going to happen this week.

Memorial

Danville National Cemetery at the VA on Memorial Day

Monday morning I drove over to Danville for the Memorial Day 5K race at the VA. It rained during the race, which kept the temperature somewhat cool, but also made the roads a little slick. Right from the start a large pack of high schoolers shot out to the front. I tagged onto the back of the pack, maybe 12-15th position for the first half mile. I was running way too fast and I knew it. What were all these jokers doing?

Entrance to the VA on Memorial Day

The 5K course followed the road around the VA, which was lined with flags for Memorial Day.

The second half mile I slowed down, but all the kids around me slowed down even more. I moved my way up through the pack. I reached the first mile in 5:36. I ran mile two in 5:50, by which time I had moved into 4th place. My heart rate was through the roof and it was starting to wear on me. The last guy I passed tagged along behind me and stayed with me for the third mile. He passed me back with around a quarter mile left. My last mile was 5:55 and I finished in 5th place (out of a record 398 participants), 1st in my 30-39 age group. I was worried I might still be feeling the effects of the marathon eight days prior, but my legs felt perfectly fine. It was a tough race, mostly because I started too fast (didn’t I just learn not to do that?). Well, racing a 5K is a world apart from racing a marathon. Incidentally, my heart rate hit 194 in the last tenth of a mile, which I believe is the highest I’ve ever recorded (my theoretical max heart rate is 195).

After the race I went to visit my grandparents. They’ve been having some health problems recently and I hadn’t seen them in a few months. They seemed to be doing fairly well, all things considered. My dad and I worked to get their computer problems straightened out. Then we had a pizza lunch before hitting the road. I drove my dad back to Danville in the new car, which he seemed to enjoy.

Finally we spent this evening at a cookout with Cara & John at our house. John got a nifty remote controlled speedboat for his pond. Good times.

The Twin Cities Threesome

As you may have already read on Melissa’s blog, Team Ragfield participated in the Twin Cities Twosome 2x5K relay race yesterday. Melissa, six months pregnant with baby Fig, ran the first 5K leg in 26:55 before handing off the baton (a tongue depressor) to me (we practiced the hand off ahead of time).

I was moving a lot faster than most of the other runners on the course, and there were a lot of walkers out as well. I spent most of the time weaving through people, trying to balance my desire to run as little out of the way as possible with my desire not to knock some poor oblivious person over.

My mile splits were 5:40, 5:58, 5:57 and I finished my 5K leg of the relay right at 18:15. I had a good, solid race, though it wasn’t quite as spectacular as last week’s run. Sure, I was 16 seconds faster at the 3 mile mark (17:35 vs. 17:51), but I didn’t already swim and bike beforehand yesterday.

Anyway, with two strong performances we placed 3rd in the husband/wife division in our first attempt at the Twin Cities Twosome. Though, I’m pretty sure we were the only threesome on the podium.

Go Team Ragfield

award medals and baton

After the race I ran around a bit for a total of 12 miles on the day. This was my last semi-long run before the Rockford Marathon next Sunday.

The New Car

Rob & Melissa say goodbye to Iris

We’ve been putting this off for a few months, but this morning we finally traded in our beloved 2002 Insight for a new 2009 Prius. It was sad to see the Insight go, but we needed a car with a back seat now that Fig is on the way.

The new car

the new Prius in our driveway

Bulbous

the front of the Prius through a fisheye lens

We had a very pleasant experience buying the car from O’Brien Toyota in Urbana. It did take much longer than either of us expected (nearly four hours!). I guess it’s good to be thorough though.