HerrinFesta Triathlon and 10K Recap and MORE

Excuse me while I try to pry myself out of bed.  I’m beat but for REALLY REALLY good reasons.  It’s weekends like this that make it all worth it.  We went home for HerrinFesta Italiana, the festival held in my hometown.  The backstory is that Herrin had a large population of Italian Immigrants and so much of the flavor of the town is a result of their history.  It’s a great little town that I’m proud to call home, especially Memorial Day Weekend.

My family is very involved in the weekends festivities so there’s never a dull moment.  The weekend goes a little like this:

• Drive home Friday afternoon
• Watch my brother and sister play Bocce on Friday (They won this year!)
• Go to a Sponsor Party Friday evening
• Go to a concert Friday night (Three Doors Down)
• Wake up TOO early and do the Herrinfesta Triathlon (I got first in my age group…woot woot!)
• Watch the kids play Saturday afternoon
• Go to Mass Sunday morning
• Half the family heads to Bocce Courts for more tournament playt
• Half the family goes home to work around my mom’s house
• Go to concert Sunday event (Foreigner)
• Wake up TOO early and run the Herrinfesta 10K (I placed!!)
• Pack up drive home

As you can see, the weekend is pretty packed but if you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat (Username for all: MomsLRB), you probably saw most of it but I thought I would break down the two events I did and give you a recap.

I’ve done both before (see the triathlon recap here) but it had been since before the kids were born that I had done the 10K.

HerrinFesta Triathlon Recap

Ok, so this is a sprint tri.  8 laps in the pool (16 lengths), 14 mile bike and 5K run.  The weather turned out to be pretty perfect, 70, overcast and a little rain on the bike which was just enough to cool us down.  The pool start was a self-seeding start so it was like finding your place on a Southwest flight…

“What number are you?”  “What time do you think you’ll finish in?”

I estimated and seeded myself around 8 minute spot and came in around 8:30 I think.  It ended up being ok.  No one passed me and I didn’t pass anyone so we must have done a pretty good job judging each other’s times.

The bike has always been my downfall but this time it felt pretty strong.  I averaged about a 18 MPH pace on a rainy course so I’ll take it.

The run, like any triathlon, always starts off a little rocky.  You kinda have to find your sea legs and since I hadn’t done any brick workouts before this tri, I was really hurting.  It took almost a good mile to get it figured out.  At the end of the day I think I averaged about a 9:15 mile so, again, I’ll take it.

I won’t whine and give excuses but I had been out since 12:30 the night before and drinking for a good 5 hours so I was just happy to finish.  But finishing top for my age group was just icing on the cake!  Racing in my hometown also meant seeing old friends that have also found their way to triathlon.

Overall, for a little race, it’s very professionally done and I love that Southern Illinois is developing a little group of trijunkies!  I did well enough to earn this adorable new piece of bling for my shelf.

Sunday was a day of rest (if you want to call cleaning for 10 straight hours resting) but it was so rewarding.  I loved every minute of it…BUT for some reason I decided that the tri wasn’t enough activity for the weekend, I decided to squeeze in the Herrinfesta 10K on Memorial Day morning.  Again it’s through the streets of my hometown but race morning was hot and humid already.

The race started at 7:30 and I took off WAY too fast…finishing my first three miles in the low 8:00’s then the heat kicked in, the exhaustion of a crazy weekend hit and I hit a wall, the last three miles were 9:XX and I even had to walk a little.  Talk about frustrating but I’m still super glad I did it.

The weekend was filled with ALL of my favorite things.  It’s funny…when I got to work this AM, I realized how crazy fast we moved this weekend.  I was actually happy to be back at work and focusing.  I guess that’s when you know it was a restorative weekend.

Now it’s time to focus on the next challenge… #Fontana2SD

I mentioned it a little while ago, but Friday I’m flying out to California for a quick 72 hours.  Meeting up with some friends in LA to run a half on Saturday AM in Fontana, CA then we’re all road tripping it down to San Diego for the biggest party of them all…Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego.  I can not wait.  If you’re in the area, make sure you head to the After Party hosted by ProCompression where you can score some awesome gear!  Get there early!

Then I jump back on a plane and head home.  It’s gonna be awesome!  I hope to see some of you while I’m out there.  Look me up on IG, Twitter or Snapchat to catch up with me while I’m out there

How was your weekend?  Did you race?  What’s next for you?