Pumpkins in the Park

Has it ever taken you three days to write a post?  Life is full and happy, but crazy at the same time. Every time I sit down at the computer, something or someone demands my attention.

We headed out Saturday morning for the Pumpkins in the Park 5K.   I picked up my swag bag:  my first race bib- good ol' number five, a long sleeved pumpkiny t-shirt and mostly ads but the kiddos got a voucher for free tickets for activities later in the day, which rocked.  I pinned on my bib then tried to warm up by running up and down the sidewalk and stretching a bit, but mostly I just jumped up and down trying to stay warm. I made a couple of new friends and ran into Amy, whom I recognized from the last race. We chatted a bit and then as everyone was lining up, I started choking on all this smoke that came rolling out of a little building next to the lineup. At first I thought it was a clever ploy to kill the competition. Smoke everyone out. Turns out it was a vendor firing up the bbq.

 

You can see the smoke better here. It ended up being an advantage, cause all the runners took off fast to get away from the smoke.

 The course was straight and flat, which I thought would be an advantage, especially since I've been running some hills, but honestly I thought this course was tougher than the last. I think being able to see pretty much the whole course is much harder than winding around through streets. With the streets there are distractions, things to look at, people to see, etc. Here, all I could see is the fog rolling around on the river and the long, long road ahead. There were three or four water stations which was kind of funny for a 5K. No one stopped, or even slowed down, so I felt kind of sorry for the volunteers who looked so eager holding out their cups.

I didn't take off with the fast front runners. I got near the back of the pack and started off slow. I found a little pack of runners who were running about my speed and stayed with them pretty much the whole race. In hindsight, this was not my best plan. There were several times during the race when I could have passed them, and I should have. I kept thinking that by going slow and steady, I would have enough punch at the end to pick up some speed and blow through the finish. Didn't happen. By the end, I was worn out. It was weird. My time was ten seconds slower than my first race.

This totally bummed me out until I found Amy later on. She confirmed my thoughts about the course. She said her time was way off too. That when she looked at her Garmin at 3.1 miles, she still had a way to go to the finish. It WAS longer. Are they trying to kill me? Made a mental note to start increasing my miles so that 3.1 (or 3.whatever they have to throw at me) won't feel like a hundred miles.

Thankfully there was water at the end. And some damn good bagels (thanks Panera!).

 

The kiddos hammin' it up in the fog.

After the race, we headed over to the WV State Museum for a bit. The museum has been redone and it's fab, they even have a scavenger hunt for the kiddos, which makes it easier for the adults to look around and absorb a little WV history. If you are ever passing through Charleston, you should check it out.

More to come!