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This weekend was just awesome! It was just a perfect Maine summer weekend! The weather was hot and humid, but we only get a few of these weekends every year so people just shouldn’t complain. Pretty soon it will be 20 degrees with 2 feet of snow!

Saturday morning started off with the 15th Annual Beach to Beacon (B2B) 10K race in Cape Elizabeth. This is a HUGE race and attracts some of the world’s fastest runners along with many locals. The race actually sells out within minutes. I tried to get into the race a few years back, but didn’t. This year I sat at my computer at 7am when registration opened to register myself and also Bike Shop Boy. I will have a full race report later this week, but I had a great race! When my coach first gave me my race plan two weeks ago I wasn’t 100% sure I could hit her target pace at each mile, but I totally NAILED it! Not to spoil the future race report, but I finished in 52:05, putting me at a 8:24/mile average! In March I ran a 5k at a 8:21/mile pace! It really puts into prospective with the right coach and a little blood, sweat, and tears that someone as slow as me can become a runner! SO MANY people complained about the heat and humidity and that it killed their times. Yes, it was hot and humid. It always is for this race it seems. But, people need to be smart with training. The only way your body is going to adapt to hot and humid race conditions is to train in those conditions whenever possible. I purposely do all my long runs and rides in the middle of the day on weekends if I can because it is the hottest part of the day. My body has adapted to it and handled conditions well on Saturday. Seriously, what heat?

Start line of the 2011 B2B race

I spent Saturday afternoon at one of my favorite places in the world – our family camp on Sebago Lake. The camp was purchased in the 1950s by my grandparents who summered there with my father and his siblings while they grew up and all of us grandchildren pretty much grew up on that lake too. My grandmother passed away two years ago and left the camp to my father and his siblings. I thought we were going to sell it last fall, but they made the decision to keep the camp. Too many happy memories for everyone. Spending countless days in that lake is one of the main reasons that I’m such a strong swimmer today. Yesterday was my first day up to camp all year because I’ve been so busy!

One of my favorite places!

A very happy dog!

The water was like bath water

My dog had a grand ole’ time swimming and playing in the water. She was pretty pooped last night when we got home. Saturday was an early night for all of us.

Today was also a great day! I met Bike Shop Boy in York for a nice recovery ride around York Beach and Ogunquit. I felt great this morning with only a minor tightness in my calves. Bike Shop Boy, on the other hand, was feeling the race yesterday pretty good today. Perhaps he should have run at least more than once before the race! 🙂

It was a good leisurely ride along the beaches and gorgeous homes. We actually rode part of the run course from my very first half-marathon that I ran in York in 2010. Those are not good memories. In case anyone was wondering – running while sick is not a good idea! 

Perkins Cove

We stopped in Ogunquit at a little cafe and had a nice little lunch. We got so many odd looks because of our spandex attire. Apparently, some people have never seen a cyclist before… As we were leaving another couple came in on their bikes for lunch. They commented that we had nice bikes. Yup! The ride back to our cars was not a pleasant ride. The headwind on Route One was bad. I made sure to tuck right in behind Bike Shop Boy, but I was still being blown all over the road! Overall, it was good 30 mile fun ride. We were going to hit up the Rev3 course again, but decided against it. There was a course preview day today and we didn’t want to get caught up in it. We’ll be hitting it up next Sunday for my last big hard ride pre-race.

I’m getting very excited about Rev3! Beach to Beacon was a huge confidence builder for me leading up to the race. I executed a near perfect race and I have a good feeling that I can do the same at Rev3 paring any mechanical, nutrition, or crazy weather (i.e. hurricanes?) on race day. This race is my last for the season so it is GO BIG OR GO HOME!

In other news, I FINALLY got my internship for graduate school squared away! I’ve been super stressed about this lately because I was having a hard time finding an internship that I can do along with working full-time 40 hours a week. It wasn’t easy, but an opportunity approached and after being interviewed for the position, they decided I was a prefect match! A huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I know I can graduate on time now! I was getting worried was going to have to do my internship next spring in the midst of Ironman training and I did not want to do that.

I’ve also decided this is my new favorite song for the summer and I have been listening to it on repeat while I wrote this post!