Monday, November 5, 2012

Weekend Report: Winning, PR-ing, and Tweed Riding


You all know I love a Sunday Funday, and yesterday was quite a day!

It started with Backyard Burn 10 Mile Trail Race #3 at Wakefield Park, VA. 6x6 came along to cheer and take pictures and make me laugh along the course with her enthusiasm (GO! GO! Good job! You look SO GOOD!!!!).


This was my best trail race to date -- I won and PR'ed, plus, I was really happy with how I ran. That whole start-slow-finish-fast thing is legit...thanks George!

Though in reality, I think I just ran really evenly -- my pace definitely felt harder in the second half, but it was pretty comparable to the first. I finished in 1:10:41, and since the race was actually 10.05 miles, I'm calling that close enough to 7-minute pace even (full results here). As you know, I've been working on my hill-skills, but this course was mercifully flat. Plus the course was two 5-mile-loops, which made the race feel a lot shorter. I ran the last 5 miles all by myself, which was a bit of a bummer but to be expected. Luckily nothing particularly notable happened along the way, except that I managed to drink water without getting all of it up my nose (#win).


And for once I stayed focused the whole race! I didn't daydream or imagine myself elsewhere (oddly enough, during races I often picture myself at other races: ski races, indoor track races, outdoor track races, even other cross country races. This is weird?). I was also happy to not get sucked into that whole miles 6ish to 8ish deep dark pit of wtf-am-I-doing-here? misery.

I went for the three-peat (6x6's words, not mine) and it was pretty freaking awesome. Seriously, winning things does not get old. It's a 5-race series, but unfortunately I'm only making it to 4 because I accidentally booked my Thanksgiving flight home for the day of race #4. Sigh, oh well.

After the race we rushed home to get tweeded up for the DC Tweed Ride. Yes, that is exactly as awesome as it sounds.


Hundreds (?) of DC's young and ridiculous (and old and ridiculous for that matter) took to the streets dressed in their tweedy best for a 10-mile leisurely ride. Tweed and the like is not my usual style, but I like to think I pulled together something respectable!


This is a real legit thing organized by Dandies & Quaintrelles, a DC-based social group that organizes and hosts vintage-inspired, stylish events in partnership with and in support of noble causes. The masses started gathering at noon at Franklin Square, and we took off a bit after 1 pm. The people-watching was excellent -- there were pennyfarthing bikes, leather flying caps, many many iterations of tweed vests and jackets and hats, etc. Accessories to remember for next year: hat, pipe, red lipstick, mustache (probably not those last two together).

We rode from Northwest through Northeast, stopping traffic and getting honked/cheered/yelled at by tweed-blocked drivers, and ended up at the Arboretum. The ride continued on, but my friends and I were hungry and tired (refer back to that whole 10-mile race thing), so we headed to Shaw's Tavern for a late lunch. AND LOOKED AWESOME DOING IT.


(Ok so I know I'm late to the Instagramming party and you can mock me accordingly, but I just got my first smartphone and I'm playing with it. Plus, clearly the Tweed Ride is the ideal context for Instagram.)