Monday, June 1, 2009

June is Bustin' Out All Over!!!!

The next few weeks should be (to quote Artie Johnson) 'very interesting'. (If you don't know who Artie Johnson is, well, go look it up in your Funk & Wagnall).

On Saturday, I will be leaving for England for a week. Next Sunday, I will be participating in my first 'international' 5k. A race in Battersea Park in London. I've been wanting to do this for awhile now. But, in never seemed to work out right. The times that I have gone over never seemed to coincide with a race that was near where I was staying over there. But, this time the timing is perfect. Battersea Park is not far from where I am staying in Kensington.

In truth, it's just another race, right? Probably. And, people from England speak English, right? Just like Americans. Right? Well, wrong. Winston Churchill once said that America and England are two countries separated by a common language. It is so true. That's why I am very much looking forward to finding out what the English do differently than an American 5k. I hope I will have time from work to give you a report. And, maybe a few pictures?

The week after that is my baseball trip with a friend of mine who also turned 50 this year. To view where I am going, there is a link to the 'Websites I Often Visit' on the right side of this blog. Under 'June Baseball Trip'. If you are wondering, this trip will take us to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City to watch a baseball game at those cities. Plus, we will be seeing a part of the US that I haven't seen before.

It will be Thelma and Louise. Except we're males. And, we don't plan on driving off a cliff in the final scene. (Maybe more like Dumb and Dumber?) At the end of that week, I plan on doing a 5k in Kansas. Thanks to Jennifer, blog author of Life is a Gift.RUN, I've been able to narrow it down to two choices for June 20th in the Kansas City area. The one that Jennifer recommended the Teri Tough 5k looks like a great race and is the one I will be aiming to attend. However, it's a bit further to get to from where I'm staying and starts a little bit earlier than Run the Good Race 5k which is the other race I'm looking to do. So, depending on the Friday before, which is our last baseball game, I will decide which race to run on Saturday before I fly back home to the Philadelphia area.

What about my tri training, you say? Well, that should be interesting as well. Yesterday, I tried to simulate the bike/run portion. I rode my bike for about 11 miles and then ran 2 miles right after that. I felt pretty good. (Of course, I went home to cut the grass in the afternoon and my riding mower went on me. I wound up cutting an acre of lawn with a push mower. Don't mind doing it. Just not after a training run.) So, I expect to be doing very little training on my bike for the next few weeks. And, probably very little swimming (of course, I have the whole English Channel to practice in). So, it will have to be running to keep me in shape.

So, my intention is to update this blog more than once a week while I'm gone. With pictures. Or, it will be the exact opposite and you will hear crickets from this blog for the next three weeks. And, then LOTS of stuff telling you what happened. It will be very interesting.

(Notes: One of the people I know, through the Bucks County 5k Spring Series, is riding a bicycle across the country following the Lewis & Clark Trail starting in Oregon and heading east. He left over the weekend and starts today. His name is Ed and you can follow his adventure on his Crazy Guy on a Bike website. I also have a link to it on the websites I often visit. )

2 comments:

Unknown said...

enjoy the race in England. I cannot tell you how much fun it is to run races in Europe.

As for your baseball trip, you will have to let me know when you are in St. Louis. maybe we can go on a run around town before.

Enjoy, have fun, stay safe.

Eric said...

Maybe I should look for a race in Paris when I am there in early July. It is "neat" to run a race in a distant land.