Last week a buddy of mine emailed me about a 4th of July 5k.  My initial thought was that there was no way I would want to do a race in the middle of summer. Especially after my last race where I was not-feeling-so-up-for-it (aka, my stomach kinda hurt, so it made for a wonderful excuse for running pitifully). But I’m easily persuaded, and BJ is a better runner than I am, so I figured some of his mad skills might rub off on me. (Hint: they did)

So, the weather wasn’t that bad, and there was nice breeze that was just enough to cool us off without slowing us down. Not to mention the plethora of neighbors who stood at the end of their driveways with garden hoses to spray runners as they went by. Brilliant! Running with a friend really helped…he pushed the pace for the first couple of miles which were definitely faster than I would have normally run. Then at mile two he said “alright, let’s finish in 24″, and took off. I had an initial burst of speed to keep up to which my legs kindly replied, “uh…no.”  I kept my pace and finished in 26:51. Not my best, but certainly better then the race which shall not be named from a month ago. I then participated in my favorite post-race activity of all time: napping.

The rest of the day was filled with eating at Babes Chicken with the fam, getting some frozen custard, and watching fireworks with the other 100,000 people in Frisco from the back of the 4Runner in a not-so-paved parking lot.  Brandon (who’s first birthday is July 21…get excited) got to see fireworks for the first time. His expression was his same serious, yet curious that it always is. It was way past his bedtime but he hung in there.  He was OUT by the time we got home.

On Sunday I went to Run-On to use my gift certificate for Saucony shoes thanks to Brandon’s awesome performance in the Diaper Dash.  They were out of my shoes, but they’re on order, so in the meantime, I shall simply enjoy admiring the shoes with the handy zoom-in feature from their website.  Fancy.