I started a little faster than last year, and boy, did I feel it when I got to the hill. I definitely slowed down on the hill but still passed someone on the hill. After things sorted themselves out in the first half mile, there was not much more passing. Some high-school girls and boys passed me on the downhill. One 52-year old woman passed me, and I asked her age. When I found out she was not in my age category, I decided to just let her go. But actually, I paced off her for the rest of the race. She beat me by 10 seconds.

Of course, the pressure was on me since I won my age category last year. I was there to defend my title! Overall, I was 1 second slower than last year. This surprised me since I felt like I worked harder. Or maybe memory faded of the effort of last year.

I was 7th woman overall out of 74 racers. I was 2.5 minutes behind the winning woman who ran it in 23:12. That is a lot of time.

Not much. At the turnaround, they were handing out full cups of water. I cannot handle a full cup, so I tried to dump half, but I accidently dumped about 90% of it. I wished I had some more water, and that was preying on my mind. Running is so mental for me.

I bargained with myself - if I saw a monarch butterfly, I would sprint at the end. I didn't see a butterfly so I did not sprint (it only gains me a second or two). But as soon as I finished, my daughter ran over to tell me a monarch butterfly had landed on her a few minutes earlier. Not sure what that means, but it must mean something!

grabbed some water, cheered on our friends. Then tried 5 different chili's!


Love this race! So nice to run on a beautiful fall day with the foliage just starting to get pretty. The run is along a lake and there are beautiful old houses along the route.

I won a nice messenger bag donated by New Balance. For winning my age category, I got a nice medal and a half-pint of local maple syrup. Yum.

Photo 1 = Me pushing to the end. All my photos show me looking pretty flat-footed and slow. I never seem to float like other runners!
Photo 2 = Me winning the door prize. I look thrilled
Photo 3 = Me passing a guy on the long uphill. Photos always make the terrain look flat.
Photo 4 = Me pacing my daughter for her 1-mile run. Yay!
Photo 5 = Hubby pacing son for his 1-mile run. Go!


Hubby ran the 5k is abt 22:47. He doesn't even train for running! But that was not good enough to place - he was 5th in his age catgory, 25th overall. He, too, was one second slower than last year.