The Long Overdue Triathlon Post

This year, I decided to try to achieve the goal of competing in a triathlon. After searching for regional events, I targeted the Hagerstown Sprint which is a 300m swim, followed by an 11 mile bike, then a 5k run.

The pool - I hadn't done laps since swim team in high school. My breathing routine was so rusty at first.

The bike - I had to get my bike tuned up, and the training in my neighborhood is much tougher than the 11 mile course.

The run - I have jello legs after biking, so I know the 5K will be super tough!

Rain

The birds don't seem to mind the rain. Feeder visitation remains high. The birdbath is full once again after the recent deluges.

Garden!

So, after a vacation to the Black Hills, I had a little weed-removal to do in the garden, but it wasn't too bad. It rained last night which was good, because the soil seemed pretty hard on the surface. A fresh dose of rain is nice.

Now open at a theater near you

The Mussetter Road project is complete. The new roadway is less sloped, I believe.

Groomed Dirt

This is the state of the construction on Mussetter Road. Groomed dirt. I think we might be looking at another week or two before it's open. The weather hasn't cooperated lately. It looks good most of next week, though.

Our Urban Dare

On April 18, The Rock Lobsters (myself and hubby) embarked on a grand adventure in DC called the Urban Dare. We had a great 3.5 hour fun-filled tour of miscellaneous statues.

Our Dare started at McFadden's near Washington Circle (Foggy Bottom Metro). Our race started fashionably late at about 12:15 p.m. or so with a list of 11 clues that sent us to various locations across the city. Thus began our worst mistake... we wasted a good 30 minutes at least using our laptop to google all the clues (which led to statues or circles) without moving. A better option would have been to just ride the Circulator over to Union Station, the first stop we figured out from the clues.

So after walking to Gandhi's statue near Dupont Circle and then over to Logan Circle to do a 3-legged race challenge, we were way behind the 8-ball. Once we got moving on the Circulator, our pace improved as we had mapped out every location and how to get there quickly.

We found our way to Gallatin's statue at the Treasury building and lucked into a bonus picture of Lafayette. We also got a bus to save us some walking over to the Art Museum where we photographed a bust of Longfellow... oh WAIT, the one they meant for us to find was way back at Dupont Circle!!!

The highlight of our day was smashing through the spelling challenge. It was a basic cipher where letters had numerical values. Nerd power!

So, we will use our lessons learned tomorrow when we compete on the Great Urban Race, a similar Amazing Race style adventure with cryptic clues and physical challenges.

The Mussetter Mess

Do you commute to Montgomery County or the Beltway from New Market by using Old National Pike (MD 144) and Mussetter Road which joins with Ijamsville Road? Well, you won't be able to do that beginning on or around April 6.

According to Frederick County Government, Mussetter Road will be closed 30 days for construction, pending weather conditions of course. Good luck to the local traffic between Hyatt Rd and Royal St. Andrews, which is the segment to be worked on according to the signs that are posted on the route.

Snow no Snow

I cannot believe that Frederick County cancelled school the other day, and yet there was hardly any snow whatsoever. There was way more snow in Montgomery County and they had school. A delay I could see (Carroll County, good job). A complete Snow Day? What is this... Alabama???

Frederick YMCA

There was a "fire drill" at the Y today. Not sure what was going on, but in the middle of racquetball, there was announcement to leave the building. On the way out, I saw a couple firemen. No alarms were going off at the time, but they did start later. I don't know if it was a drill or something else that needed to be looked at. There were two fire engines I saw. One was out front and the other on the side street near the alley.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Here's wishing everyone a happy new year 2009.