Red, white, blue and grey

Bye Bye Birdie

 

Unfortunately for her, and to my great joy,

this feathered foe was forced 

to find new digs today.

How's that for some alliteration?

I'm really looking forward to this weekend for lots of reasons.

In no particular order:

No. 1 at the moment is because I'm hoping to score some quality time on my clean, bird-free balcony, perhaps enjoying a cold beverage in the warm sun, perhaps while recovering from Sunday morning's race.

No. 2, naturally, then, is Sunday's road race, the Firecracker 4. It's an annual 4-mile race that kicks off the city's Fourth of July celebration. It starts and finishes just outside my apartment building at the City Center, goes straight up Broadway, swings around the East Side, then hangs a left for a long journey down Excelsior Avenue, ending with a short but steep hill going past the Courtyard Marriott hotel.

About 2,000 runners are expected to be in town, double the amount from last year. Hopefully there will be lots of spectators coming out to hear the musicians along the course, browse the vendors and listen to the live announcer.

Registration is still open now, and is through the morning of the race. Sign up here.

This will be the largest race I've participated in to date, which probably means I'll be finishing way back in the pack, but no big deal. This time, I'm mostly concerned about racing against myself, and enjoying the sense of community provided by the event.  

I've been training hard the last week, running an average of 3 miles every workout. Monday I ran 4.11 miles in 38 minutes, and even spent the first .75 mile walking briskly. Finishing in that time despite the walking really pumped up my confidence -- I hope to finish the race in 36 minutes. 

No. 3 is because a major project at the newspaper will finally conclude on Saturday evening as Sunday's paper goes to press. If you're interested, read about the Ben Franklin Project, here. Note the final paragraph of the post --

"The second phase of the Ben Franklin Project is for all 18 Journal Register Company daily publications to publish — both online and in print — on July 4, 2010 using only free web-based tools."

-- It's what we've all been consumed with at The Saratogian for the last six weeks or so. Let's just say it's been a month-long headache for everyone that will hopefully result in some positive changes at Journal Register Company and maybe even in industry-wide.

No. 4 is that after the race and recovery Sunday, it's off to Oneonta for the hometown Fourth of July festivities, complete with my sweetie, the Fam, a visit with my favorite out-of-town lovebirds, spiedies (you have to be from upstate New York to be fortunate enough to know what this delicacy is, or at least be dating someone from upstate New York), and fireworks, of course.

Ok, end of list.

Check back later this week for a training update, and Sunday or Monday for race results.