Born on the 4th of July

Upon km's suggestion, some of us (the non-injured and those still in town) decided to do the Tortoise and Hare 4th of July 5k run. Since I hadn't run since our short jaunt in Boston, I jumped at another opportunity to drop $25 on 3.1 miles and yet another t-shirt that I probably won't ever wear. I was really drawn to the "mostly flat" description of the course and the "live DJ."

I'm always surprised at the number of people of who run these races. Where do they all come from? Similar to the Summer Solstice run, there were definitely some running bunnies out there and they actually hop very quickly. In contrast to the Dexter to Ann Arbor run, the weather was quite nice - warm but low humidity and with a nice, light breeze. I ran with a watch for the first time in a light effort to actually pace myself... it only reminded me that once again I went out too quickly, but I'm hoping that I can get more comfortable with pacing myself so I don't feel like ass midway through the race. Other race strategies include learning to use the bathroom before the race starts. Overall, it was a good race for me - but somehow there's always someone else who's stealing my thunder.

In other news, it looks like we're close to getting some our running routes up on the site. Strandvej, our tech guy, has been working overtime during the holiday weekend and has produced some nice mock-ups from the GPS watch. He's a new hire and has just eeked by his probation period, but we think we'll keep him. It's hard to find skilled workers these days and he works for beans. As a little incentive/bonus (you know, to keep him motivated), we gave him his very own shiny, red stapler. You should have seen the look on his face. You'd have thought that he won the lottery or something.