Firecracker 4 anticipation

We're exactly two weeks away from the fifth annual Firecracker 4, and you've seen, if you've driven or walked around here lately, that Spa City's runners are out in force, preparing for the four-miler that kicks off the local Fourth of July celebration.

Race organizers are expecting 2,000 or more participants this year -- the biggest field yet since it started in 2007. I know that number will include a bunch of Saratoga peeps as well as some out-of-towners. How cool that we can show off our beautiful city and raise some money for the local high school running team at the same time.

This will be my second year running the Firecracker, and I love feeling that I've improved so much (physically and mentally) as a runner in one year's time.




I'm looking forward to this race for many reasons, namely:

• The attendance of my friends/family members (and my idea to stake them out at junctures throughout the course with signs, etc., to cheer me on ... how do YOU feel about that?)
• The first leg of the race, in which we are all members of a singular human pack that powers down four wide lanes of Broadway before splitting up
• Getting cooled off by the spray station on Caroline Street again
• Killing that final hill and finishing strong, on the last quarter mile up Excelsior Avenue just as you pass the Courtyard Marriott hotel
• Some lively competition in the women's 25-29 age group, which I will be joining this year for the first time (My B-goal is to finish in less than 34 minutes. A-goal is 32 minutes.)
• And, drinking chocolate milk from King's Dairy at the end of the race

This week I've been trying to slowly build my mileage in preparation. Since I've finished physical therapy, the furthest I've run this year is 4.5 miles - just once - while my average runs are around 2.5 miles.

Last year, I began to break into the 5-6 mile range on my weekly long run. I think it'll be another five weeks until I reach that point again. In the meantime, I plan to run as close to 4 miles as possible once a week until July 4. 

This week's mileage came out to 11.38 -- the most I've clocked in one week this year and since the knee injury. Here is a peek at what I've recorded in my exercise notebook, which I started keeping in March:

Saturday: 90 minutes hot yoga
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 2.51 miles -- bad knee pain came out of nowhere, cutting that run short
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 2.34 miles no pain, physical therapy exercises
Friday: 2.7 miles, no pain!
Saturday (today): 3.83 miles, no pain!
Sunday (anticipated): 90 minutes hot yoga

But there's more to life than running (isn't there?) so this afternoon, as I waited for the temperature outside to die down to a degree suitable for running, Roomie #1 and I prettied up our yard by planting some flowers, weeding and mowing the grass. It was good practice for someday being a homeowner. And I think it sent a positive message to our neighbors here on Catherine Street in the case that they were beginning to think we are a bunch of sloppy, drunken fools who let their grass grow to unacceptable heights.

Lauren snapped a picture of me at Deehn's Flowers, where we picked up some marigolds and peonies.

I am thinking, "All this moment needs is some Mendelssohn-ian strains of irony."