A new edition to my bike family

I'm looking to get into riding my bike more, particularly as a primary transportation to and from work. I have a mountain bike that I could use but I wanted to get an inexpensive road bike that would be a bit lighter and faster. Luckily, I have a good friend that builds bikes and he put one together for me with my specifications. This beauty is what I got! I am going to test my work route before jumping in, and I'm not sure how I'll fare in the rain and Florida heat but I'm determined and I've learned that's all I really need to get stuff done. In other news, I signed up for a bike/run race with Shirin in early June in Atlanta. I've always wanted to run the Muddy Buddy and now I get to. Riding to work will help train for that as well. These posts will probably stay short and sweet for a while but at least I'm keeping up.

(Female) Family 5k and Strawberry Festival

This past weekend was quite eventful. On Saturday, Natalie, my mom, and I ran in the Lighthouse 5k in St. Augustine. I have run my fair share of 5k races and they are hit or miss for me. I generally like supporting a good cause (registration for this event went toward the Junior Service League in St. Augustine) and participating in a fun run but hate running at 8am. Actually, I generally hate running. I do love all of the sideline supporters, though. I wish they were with me every time I ran at the gym. 

I'm getting sidetracked. The highlight of this race was the fact that this was the FIRST race for my mom and for Natalie - neither of which have run more than 2 miles before. We had 3 goals: 1. Finish, 2. Don't get run over, 3. Finish in 30 minutes or less (goal #1 should have been to have fun but we laugh so much at ourselves that was almost a given). We certainly accomplished goals #1 and #2 and were just shy of goal #3. I was SO impressed with both of them, nearly running the entire thing. I know I walked more at my first race (I probably walked more at my last 5k!).

Me and mom finishing strong together. 

Natalie a sprinted ahead and finished few seconds ahead of us. She gobbled down a banana after this and I thought she might vomit. Luckily, she did not. 

The next day I met my friend Jeremy in Plant City, Fl for the Annual Strawberry Festival. Apparently everyone in Florida knows about this festival except for me. Aside from the chilly 50 degree weather, it was a lot of fun. We saw a plant auction, a 4h exhibit, lots of guns, knives, and other weaponry, rides, and, of course, deep fried everything. I tried deep fried cookie dough.