Duathlon Championships, Amber's 28th Birthday, Recognition from the Senate, and a Stress Fracture

A lot has happened since last time we've written. Amber qualified for the US Duathlon National Age Group team, over 3,000 miles were logged on my car, Amber's 28th birthday came and went, and I received my first overuse injury of the season.
Amber and I drove down to Richmond, VA two weekends ago to compete in the National short-course duathlon championship. This event was comprised of a 5k run, 23 mile bike and 5k run. Neither of us had done a duathlon before so we had no idea what to expect. The race started off as if there was only a 5k road race, Amber getting into T1 with a 19:10 5k. The pace continued on a steady stream with a 20 mph + bike ride followed by another sub-seven min/mile pace 5k. Finishing third in her age-group was good enough to get a spot on the National team to compete in Edinburgh, Scotland in September. I had a good vantage point of the majority of the race as I flatted out only 5 miles into the bike...
Amber turned 28 on the 28th and we had planned a 28 mile run to celebrate. However, we had not planned, nor dressed appropriately for the day's weather. About five miles into the run, mother nature decided it wasn't quite ready for winter to end. It started snowing! We ran the next 15 miles in steady snow fall getting colder and more tired. At that point we decided to call it quits and make a beeline home. However, our bee must have been imbiding too much honey because it certainly wasn't the most direct way home. We came home with a total of 25.6 miles of running-2.4 miles short of our goal but several miles more than we had wanted to run. We then quickly showered and heading over to the State House where Amber was recognize by the NH Senate for her National Championship in Snowshoing.
My cousin Joey, friends Eric and Brooklyn all went out to compete in Cincinnati at the Flying Pig Marathon four days later on May 2nd. It would be Brooklyn and Joey's first marathons and Eric's second half. We woke up Sunday morning to thunder and lightning with a downpour. The rain didn't subside as we drove to the race, huddled outside the portaporties or during the national anthem. It was miserable. Then the race started and the downpour lessened to a nice mist and made for nearly perfect running weather. I planned to take advantage of this and try to best my Exeter Marathon time, but my body had other plans. Since the day I did a ten mile run in the Vibram's my feet had been hurting, but I hadn't thought much about it. However, at mile 17, with a sharp intense pain to my (L) foot, I realized that I should have. I hobbled the rest of the way in, lowering my goal time with each slower mile. This may be a blessing in disguise because now I've got a forced, month-long taper before Pineland Farms...

We'll see.