4th of July fun weekend

By Orangy -
The 4th of July weekend was a success! Since P. was busy with work, I got a chance to get out and play with friends all weekend :D 

On the training program, my coach said to do a long bike ride on Saturday and, if possible, I should do a half marathon run on Sunday. A group of friends wanted to check out a trail in Holmes County, OH so we went there to do a bike ride. It was flat and most parts of the trail were shaded. It was REALLY hot this weekend (90F). The group wanted to ride 32 miles (out and back) started from Fredericksburg, OH. After 32 miles, everyone went home. I packed a lunch and went back out for 20 more miles. 

By the end of the ride, my GPS watch said 59 miles and it did not feel "right" to me to end my ride at 59 miles while I could get a metric century ride in with 3 additional miles. So, I went back out on the road to finish the 100K ride. 




The bike ride was very beautiful. It was flat and we had a great time talking and biking together. 




Then, on Sunday, I went running at Mohican State Park. Because this time I did not want to do the whole loop (either 23 or 26 miles), I talked to T. and said that we could do just 12 miles from the Covered Bridge to the campground. A couple of friends also joined us for the fun run at Mohican. We started early to avoid the heat (it was supposed to get up to 90F in the afternoon!)




Of course, we visited the gnomes!




I have run at Mohican so many times but this was the first time that I saw a cookie jar. It's somewhere between the Covered Bridge and Hickory Ridge. At first, I was afraid to look in there but S. said that someone intentionally left it there with wise words inside. So, we opened it and there was a notebook and a couple of pens inside! We were supposed to write something in there. This was so much fun. So we each wrote our "wise running words" in the notebook. 



In summary, this weekend was a great training weekend where I got to spend quality time with good friends. The good thing about NOT having any vacation or staying in OH in the summer is I can explore more fun places :) 

Next weekend is the Canal Corridor 100 weekend and it would be the first year that the new RDs (E. and H.) run the show. It will also be the first ultra (100 miles) race since COVID because all races were either canceled or postponed. I'm excited to see how the race turns out this year. 




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