Fourth of July

On the Fourth of July, Jessica and I ran our first 5k together. It was the Stonebridge Racers Fireworks 5k. Ryan, Danny, Kate and Danny's mom Pam were there to cheer us on. Jessica had been plagued by a knee injury earlier this week and I had let several recent crappy runs rattle my confidence. We survived though!

Jessica and me before the race
(note to self, slicked back ponytail is not my best look!)

Me finishing the race
(totally busted me checking out my time,
the runners see the same clock on the other side, too)
That guy in the blue to my left rubbed his sweaty arm
on my arm as we were crossing the finish line. GAG!

Jessica finishing the race
(partly hidden by the gentleman racer to her right-
I can't be too hard on him though. He's wearing an LSU t-shirt!)
Congratulations!!!

Jessica and me after the race, nice and sweaty and enjoying some popsicles!
(Sorry about the closed eyes picture,
the other one was so blurry that you couldn't even tell that it was us!)

Ryan estimated that I should add 2 seconds to my time in the picture (to allow me to actually cross the finishline). That would make my time (according to me) 27 minutes and 41 seconds which beats my last 5k by 2 minutes and 28 seconds! HOORAY! The official results are posted here: http://www.stonebridgeracers.com/Results/Fireworks_5K_Results_2008.htm

Next up: a 10k in September. There are a few to choose from and I haven't narrowed it down just yet.

After the race, I went to work for a few hours. Ryan was in Shreveport spending time with his college buddies. I met Jessica, Kate, Danny and Pam at McKinney's 4th of July festival (Red, White and Boom---how clever!) after work to enjoy a free Josh Gracin concert and the fireworks. I could only name 1 Josh Gracin song before the concert. Apparently, he didn't know many more of his own songs because he treated us to several Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw songs. The fireworks were pretty good, but the soundtrack to them was even better. Lee Greenwood's classic "Proud to be an American" blared as the fireworks boomed. My favorite song was "Living in America". I couldn't get the image of Apollo Creed (from one of the earlier Rocky movies) dancing around in those American flag shorts out of my head!

Happy 4th of July!