The polo match defies description in many ways but in keeping with my website’s tagline, I’ll give it a quick go. The place dripped money, and it wasn’t even a Pretty Woman-type tournament. I did wear a sun dress just in case. The spectators consisted of about 10 cars parked on a steep rise overlooking the field. It was evidently a very exclusive New Year’s Eve invite. We sat on the grass and watched what seemed to be mostly 19-20 year old guys gallop around and around. Some had been flown in from Europe and Argentina to play. I heard one chatting up a girl, she asked if the poor horses were OK. I enjoyed the eavesdrop (but not as much as the game.)

Oh and to recap June 2011, which is among my most poorly-documented months since I started blogging 5 (?!) years ago:

It was nice.

—

This is not me.

There was a mouse day before yesterday. It came into my bathroom when I was brushing my teeth and I’m still hoarse from screaming. (Alternative hypothesis: I re-injured my throat with today’s now-the-mouse-is-decapitated scream.)

In other animal news: yesterday I mtb’d Buffalo Creek with fellow Team VAC alum Sharon Allpress. It was the most fun 3 hours I’ve spent on 2 wheels in a long time! Shaz said I’ve gotten way better since last time. So, I came right home and entered an XTERRA.

And today I swam butterfly.

A glimpse…

It was so hot – low to mid 90′s all last week through the weekend, with lots of east coast humidity and a new and starving population of bugs. I sadly realized that, just because I have survived hotter temperatures here, that didn’t make the heat this time around any more bearable. Especially since, when it was a hundred degrees a few years ago, I wasn’t really doing any serious training. What makes it particularly tough is my mom’s house is 200 years old and it doesn’t have air conditioning, so there’s not really any relief from the weather unless you go into the basement (SCARY!!) or drive into town and bum around Whole Foods, which, by the time you navigate the impossible wreath of one-way-roundabouts-going-the-wrong-way that some geniushead put all around Annapolis Towne Center… well… ugh. Sitting at home on the porch motionless (except for the iced-tea “bicep curls”) is kind of the best option in h-o-t weather.

Oh, I did make my brother get up early and photograph me and CeCe last week. I remembered one reason why horse people are dumb… I just about got heat stroke in this getup! But it was fun, and I love the photos. For the one and a half of you who haven’t already seen these on Facebook, here you go!

It wasn’t a total rest day though – one thing I found in the wake of my back injury is that complete inactivity is not good for me. I have to keep moving! So this morning I went for an easy run with my brother and Alabama Tasker, who belongs to Charles, then I went for an easy spin. Sometime soon I am going to devote a whole post to the cycling around here, it’s amazing. And of course I rode the horses – I know I complained about Fox the Dingleberry the other day, but after our neighbor Irene (not the twins, different neighbor) called my mom to ask WHO that LOVELY RIDER was on Fox because obviously it wasn’t my mom, well, I decided that maybe I should maximize my time of being lovely. I’m even patting the horse and telling him he is a good boy – flattery does wonders for both of us.

Aly jumping off the porch (and over Sal's flowers, good doggie!)

Separate note: yesterday I went to visit my high school for the first time in many years. The place has exploded architecturally, there are literally twice as many buildings as when I was going to school there, and everything is so fancy! Especially the athletic facilities – state of the art cardio and weight room, huge new gym with all kinds of sports capabilities, two new turf playing fields… these girls even have a full time sports medicine specialist?!?! Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to work out outside of P.E. class, you got a jump rope and went to the dorm basement. Oh, or you could get on one of the ancient spin bikes, the ones with the moving handles and fan like what Desmond had in the hatch in Lost.

I asked if the athletic facilities were the best in the area. No, apparently all the schools are really stepping up their game (har de har har, get it? Game, like sports?). Then I asked if it was producing better athletes… Not necessarily, the top athletes are still at the same level as girls in years past, it’s just that every parent thinks their daughter is a D-1 athlete, so they really pay attention to the facilities when they are choosing a school for little Annabelle Rose or whatever the “in” names are these days. (BTW we had a ton of Courtneys and Courtenays when I was there!). I do hope that in some way it’s producing better athletes, or at least healthier and smarter athletes! It was a really cool visit, interesting in ways that I completely didn’t understand when I was in high school, and I am already looking forward to my reunion next year.

Speaking of reunions… Tomorrow, the family descends. I’m excited! And somewhat rested up for croquet, tennis, and leading the little ones around on Munchie the pony.

Also, my daily “strength workout” has doubled from riding one horse, CeCe, to riding two! My mom wants me to ride her dear sweet precious baby. Ugh. Fox and I have a long history of each thinking the other has an attitude problem. Whatever, he is just a horse, but a big obnoxious one who on Friday managed to run over me and cavort (loose) through the strawberry patch and break my Garmin FR60. Lesson learned, I save the adventuring for CeCe and I make sure to tell Fox “I HATE YOU” in my most dulcet tones .

World's Smuggest Horse, post Strawberry Patch

And I ran a half marathon yesterday. The past two years I have raced the Columbia Triathlon on this particular weekend, but my back injury cost me a few weeks of swimming and biking and left me feeling kind of not-fast, so I got on the internet and looked for a good candidate for my first ever open half marathon!

The Maryland Half Marathon was a great choice. The course was challenging and beautiful, it was a reasonable 1-hour drive from my mom’s house, and I really enjoyed it. My “strategy” was to head out with my heart rate in the low 160′s for the first two miles, have a PowerGel, then gradually bring it up to the 170′s by mile 8, have another PowerGel (caffeinated this time ), and then get my heart rate into 180′s for the last 2 miles. I started wearing a heart rate monitor in my triathlons for the first time this year, and my heart rate in the half-marathon portions of SuperFrog and Wildflower stayed in the mid-160′s, so I kind of arbitrarily decided that for this race I should have a higher heart rate, but what do I know?

The plan worked out well. A girl ran in front of me for the first half of the race, ranging from 10 to 40 seconds ahead, and I was in second. I stuck to my plan and at mile 7 found myself passing her (and I was super annoying and chipper: “Hi! Wow, these hills are RELENTLESS, huh! Good job!”, I wouldn’t blame her if she gave me the look of death.) Then I just kept running. Then I realized that maybe I was going to win! It was pretty neat. The race was a benefit for the cancer center at the University of Maryland, after the finish I met two little girls who are both being treated at the center. They were super cute.

Awards

Baltimore’s Channel 13 interviewed me (omg), here is a link to the article on their website (not sure why they had me spell my name for them…) and on the right side you can see a snip from the evening broadcast (where they cut out the part that said I won! Hey!).

I’m excited for the next time I do a running race!

First ride on CeCe

I rode her at the trainer’s farm where she’s been for the past few weeks, after the ride we brought her home to my mom’s house. She and her new next-door neighbor, Spooky (WATCH the video, srsly), eventually made friends. Spooky is the sweet friendly one here, CeCe is the bee-eye-tee-see-aitch

Spooky (l) and CeCe (r)

Six weeks isn’t very much time, now I’m even more motivated than usual to get my morning swim-bike-run training completed so I can go to the barn in the afternoons! Tomorrow should be interesting – today was the first time I’d ridden since November! Which is good because I haven’t been very vigilant about strength workouts since leaving San Diego so it’s about time my legs and core got a workout.