I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! For ITA, the weekend was a great success. Ben and I traveled down to Atlanta for the Peachtree road race, which also served as the USA 10km Road Championship; Brian raced a road mile in Manchester on the 3rd and doubled back in a 2mile road race in his hometown of Lowell, Mass.
I have to say, I am absolutely the Black Sheep of the group this week after the extraordinary performances of my peers. Brian won his mile race in 3:43.99, yes – read it again folks – 3:43.99 for the mile - as it stands, that just so happens to be the fastest mile ever run on US soil… I guess I should say that there was a slight downhill portion of the course, but nonetheless, a very cool title to hold! Ben finished as the top American at Peachtree, was 5th overall, and just steps away from a podium finish at one of the World’s most prestigious 10km road races. Pretty phenomenal considering that he raced a tough 5k at the US Track Champs last week and bounced back to such a great race. And then there’s me - I continued on my comeback trail with my third race back and was the 15th American this weekend at Peachtree. Overall, I am happy for another race in the books but left Atlanta wanting more out of myself. And with performances like my teammates had… I have to step my game up!
After Ben’s big race, he was kind enough to treat his teammate (yes, me) to dinner at a restaurant down the street before we went to see Mr. Popper’s Penguins. I highly recommend the movie to anyone 6 years old and younger… It was fun being in a city for the 4th of July - something I’ve never done before. Right outside the front of our hotel, there was a huge festival set up in the mall parking lot. The festival surrounded a firework display being shot off the top of the parking garage. Whenever I’ve gone to see fireworks for the 4th, it’s always been in a park or a field. Buildings add a whole new dimension to a firework show… Maybe even more intriguing than the buildings was the lightning storm that accompanied the firework display. We elected to avoid the rain and watch from the comfort of our hotel room, which wasn’t the best view, but definitely the driest!
To cap off the weekend, we jumped right back into our help with the Middle School Hershey Track Program. They had the Regional meet today to qualify for the State meet on Friday. We spent the day out in the sun and had a successful meet as a good amount of kids qualified and get to compete again for a chance to go on to the National Hershey Track Meet in Hershey, PA. Here is a picture of the Opening Ceremony that happened this morning at 9:15am..!
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| Hershey Track Opening Ceremony |
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