Friday, July 4, 2014

Firecracker 5k Cheer-a-palooza

Today my husband Rick ran the Firecracker 5k in Reston. I have to admit that I have a bit of race envy when Rick is running and I'm not, especially when I have so many friends running! But having so many friends running makes it the perfect cheering opportunity. In today's blog I am going to highlight the running friends Freddy & I cheered for today, from Rick & his trainees; to my Potomac River Running 101, Cherry Blossom, and DTP friends; to my Women's Training Program friends; to my Moms Run This Town Friends. Oh, and TLC happened to be there filming a Duggar. That's a lot of people to cheer for!

Cheering with Freddy
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]


Rick and his "trainees"
Rick is a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness and he encourages his peeps to run races. Today Sharon, Brenda, and Brittany came out to run. They motivate each other and they are fun to run with - I ran with Sharon and Brenda last year in the "Run with Santa 5k." Sharon also helped keep Freddy motivated for his first 5k, the "Commitment Day 5k", by encouraging him to beat the Grinch, who was also running. They all ran last year's Firecracker 5k, too!

Rick sporting his US World Cup jersey
Surprisingly, we only saw one other runner with this shirt!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

2013 Firecracker 5k (since I can't find any pics of this crew from this year)
back: Brenda, Rick, Brittany, Cindy; front: Sharon, Michael

Photo update: finish line pictures came up late for Brenda, Brittany, and Sharon:

Brenda, wearing the awesome blue shirt from 2013's race
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Brittany, always smiling!
(you can also see Karen's cute socks on the right)
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Sharon always looks like her races were effortless!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Potomac River Running Training Buddies
I've been training with Potomac River Running since last fall, including Running 101, Cherry Blossom, and now Distance Training Program, so I have met a lot of people through =PR= training.

Laura coming in strong at the finish!
This was her fastest 5k this year!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Karen with a tutu she MADE HERSELF!
[photo courtesy Karen]

late photo addition: Karen's finish line pic!
(see Brittany's photo for Karen's cute socks)
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Christina running strong at Mile 3.
I miss running with Christina so much!
Christina's next big challenge is Army Ten Miler
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Lynn has been running with me since last fall
through three different training programs!
Her next goal is the Perfect 10k
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Marian has also been running with me since last fall
Look at all of that patriotic spirit!
She's thinking about a half marathon for this fall...
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Jen is another fall 101 running buddy
She is close to finishing off
40k in racing for 2014!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Lisa is coming off an injury and is inspiring!
She ran a 6:46 pace today - wow!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Coach Adam, our =PR= track coach
He scored a PR today of 18:26!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Amy, Sally, and Amy
Amy & Amy are running the Army Ten Miler in October!
Freddy adores Sally from "March with Babies" volunteering
[photo courtesy Sally]

go, Sally, go!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Women's Training Program Ladies
The WTP just wrapped up with a celebratory party last Monday. I met many wonderful women in this program and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Bringing the WTP spirit to the Firecracker 5k
Yellow shirts are coaches!
[photo courtesy of Agnรจs]

Coach Molly - one of the WTP co-directors
She is super inspirational!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Coach Roz - love her running skirt
and the "thumbs up" finish line pose
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Coach Louisa - she won the Ann Deschamps Power of Women Award
for providing vision, inspiration, and motivation
to help women athletes. Cool, huh?
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Coach Sylvia, who I ran with the most in WTP
Behind her in yellow is Coach Donna Lea
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Moms Run This Town Mamas
We are lucky to have so many chapters of MRTT in this area! MRTT is a free running club for women to help support and motivate them in their running journeys. My home chapter is Herndon/Reston, but I'm fortunate to have buddies in several other local chapters as well.

Moms Run This Town multi-chapter picture

This is Debbie in the red, she is in the Ashburn MRTT
Debbie came in 3rd in her age group today!
She has a great blog: Deb Runs - check it out!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Deborah Brooks - McLean/Tysons MRTT Chapter Leader
How cool is her tank?! "Moms salute this town"
Check out her blog: Confessions of a Mother Runner
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Erin Troia - Ashburn MRTT Chapter Leader
She always has amazing outfits!
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Joshua Duggar
Joshua Duggar ran the 5k and there were TLC camera crews everywhere. It was a little surreal. A bunch of my friends finished around the same time he did, and there are no finish line photos from that section on the PR photo site. Maybe they will be in the episode when it airs on TV?

Joshua Duggar with the TLC crews
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]

Joshua Duggar watches the kids' "fun run"
[photo courtesy Potomac River Running]
UPDATE: The Firecracker 5k is part of "Duggars In Cuffs," episode 9 from season 9 of  TLC's "19 Kids and Counting." This episode is scheduled to air at 9 pm (eastern time) on October 7, 2014.

5 comments:

  1. It was great to see you there! Maybe one of these days we can run a race together! Thanks for the shout out to my blog. Have a great rest of your 4th!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was great to see you too! I know we will run together one of these days :)

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    2. Aw, man, I wish I'd known that you would be there. One of these days we will officially meet!

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  2. It was great seeing you, Rick and Freddy yesterday! I absolutely LOVE the picture PRR took of you and Freddy! It's so sweet!

    Thanks for the shout out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Debbie! It was great to see you, too :)

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