Last-minute

Friday evening, I got talked into a 5k for Saturday morning. $8 and only a 15 minute drive? Sure, why not.

On the way there, I had to pull over and take this. Too pretty.

The 5k was part of Denver Days (Indiana, not CO. Denver is near Santa Fe, Chili, Peru, and Mexico. Don't ask).

It was well-run for such a small event- registration was easy, and we got a t-shirt and a coupon for an elephant ear if you came back to the festival in the afternoon.

The course was an out-and-back on the Nickel Plate Trail. My on complaint was that there was no on manning the turnaround, which was nothin more that an spray-painted arrow. If I hadn't been so close behind another person, I would have missed it.

Ok, so maybe I have a second complaint. The age groups were 30 and under, 31-45, and 46 and up. 30 and under? Geez. I was the 6th female, but the women ahead were 44, 48, and three girls under 18 from one of the local cross country teams. For an event that had over 100 people, I'm still thrilled with how I stack up in our small pond, but let's be honest: we all love a W. 

I finished in 24:30. Happy, happy, happy. New PR (still not counting Eastwood's short course). I can almost taste a 23:XX.

Yesterday, we did a single times mile, and I was pretty happy to run a 7:07, but I was bummed that I felt like I had some left. Good thing we're doing another in a few weeks.

Here's hoping that my method of strength training and speed work will help me gut it through 26.2 in September... And maybe I can blow past that 5 hour mark in November. It's feeling more and more possible!