Sunday, November 22, 2009

Wounded Warrior 5K

Grace, a running friend from Orlando, came up with her husband to visit some relative in the DC area. We made a plan to do a race together. After searching the local race calendar, we signed up for the Wounded Warrior 5K, a fundraiser for wounded veterans at Walter Reed.

It was a nice event, the course was on closed roads or in Rock Creek Park, and crossed from Maryland into Washington D.C. and back. I was happy with my 23:37.


Wounded Warrior 5K
Originally uploaded by klbarrus
Grace and Me after the race.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Paul and Alison's Wedding

I visited central Florida this weekend, to attend the wedding of my two friends Paul and Alison. I used to work with Paul, and we also were on a bowling team together (good thing it was a handicap league because I was by far the worst person on the team!), gamed together (computer and board games), and kept up meeting for lunch over the months after I was gone. Alison likes board games too, and would join us for Power Grid, Puerto Rico, or others.


Paul and Alison's Wedding
Originally uploaded by klbarrus
The happy bride and groom!


The ceremony started in the evening at the Lake Mary Events Center, right on Crystal Lake, visible in the picture. It was getting dark so my pics didn't come out that great. I'm sure they'll post some after returning from their honeymoon in Hawaii!

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Grapevine 8K

I signed up for the "Run Through the Grapevine 8K", held at a local winery, after seeing several people in the tri club mention it. It was a bit of a drive, through some pretty rolling hills and windy country roads.

The event itself was tough. Really tough. I thought it would be a trial run, as opposed to a road (or other paved surface run), but it was even tougher than that. Most of the course didn't really have a defined trail - it was just over grassy rolling hills. And between grapevine rows, hence the name I suppose! There was a small stream to jump, a muddy steep trail section more suitable to hiking in drier times, and lots of undulating grassy hills with very uneven footing.

But, it was also a ton of fun. I ran carefully in order to avoid twisting an ankle (there were some tricky sections: curve/turn left while running down a steep part) and finished up in 50:02.

Afterwards, most of us gathered at a club member's house for some hot soup and munchies.