Dorothy was a Runner

Hey guys! I hope you all had great weekend and enjoyed your races, long runs, tapers and rest periods, whatever applies to you!

Friday night we did some shopping around town. The 5 mile race on Saturday did have a costume contest (with cash prizes!) so we looked for some costumes that would be easy to run in. I had decided to wear my Dorothy costume, but I needed something for the ruby slippers. My usual ruby slippers are NOT running shoes so I needed something to go over my shoes. I've seen the little shoe covers a million times before but of course I couldn't find them Friday night!! We ended up making our own shoe covers out of some old fabric and glued on ruby sequins and velcroed it to my Mizunos. I had decided to have fun at this race, and not worry so much about setting a PR or anything like that. Brent bought some angel wings and a halo for his costume. This race didn't start until 11, so we got to sleep in a bit (always a plus!). The race was at Long Hunter State Park, about 10-15 miles from here. We went there last spring with Pippin for a picnic, but they weren't very dog friendly - a lot of areas didn't allow dogs (even on leash) so we haven't been back. One of our friends (a coworker in another area of our company) had also decided to run this race with his dad and one of his friends. He and his dad trained together for a marathon earlier this year, but he ended up with some injuries so his dad ended up doing it without him. I think it's pretty cool that they run together! We saw them right away, and got to meet his wife and 3 cute kids. We signed in, got our bright ORANGE shirts, and geared up at the car. There weren't a lot of costumes, but there was a devil, Minnie Mouse, Zorro and a few other costumes. It was CHILLY at the start! I was really glad I had worn a long sleeve tech shirt under my costume. We headed off and did a 1/4 mile out and back, and then headed towards the lake trail. Brent had said he was going to try to stay with me and my 45 min goal. At the beginning of a race (esp a non-Chip race) I start out fairly quickly just to get through the crowds before the path narrows. So, my first mile was 8:05. I saw Brent make a face at me - I guess he thought I was going to stick to 9 no matter what. Around the first mile he started to slow down a bit so I motored on. Most of the way I was about 10 seconds behind Minnie Mouse. She and I had great paces. My remaining miles were a little slower, and my Garmin GPS kept cutting out so I had no idea how I was doing versus my 45 minute goal. At one point I was near a mean guy who yelled at his wife when she stopped for water that she'd better come on because they were on pace to finish in under 43 minutes. Cool!! Around mile 4 a crazy lady caught up with me. She was a space hog. She'd stick right next to me, and then basically cut me off passing me. I can't stand people who do that! Then she started singing out loud - LOUD! Here we are on this quiet lake path with tons of beautiful leaves and this crazy lady starts belting something out. People ahead of us turned around because I think they thought she might be hurt. I finally lost her around mile 5, and also passed Minnie Mouse about a 1/4 mile from the finish. Drum roll...... I finished in 42:25 - sweet!! Since this is my only 5 mile race it's a PR. I filled out my card with my name and time and headed back down to watch for Brent. Right as I started walking down here he came so I ran to get his picture!! He's starting to get too fast - I don't have the time I used to to get set up for a good photo opp for him! Just as we turned in Brent's card here came our friend and his dad. I tried to get a pic but some people walked in front of me. After this race they were grilling hot dogs and they had a ton of cookies, fruit and soda to go with it. Awesome! We gorged ourselves and enjoyed the beautiful day until it was time for the awards. The costume contest was voted on by the crowd. I ended up making it through the first round. In the second round it was down to Minnie, the Devil, Zorro and a lady who was wearing a slip with a picture of Sigmund Freud taped to herself - a Freudian slip. I didn't even get it. Anyway, SHE ended up winning first, Minnie was 2nd, and the devil was third. I think the devil should have won - his mask would have been so tough to run in and he was one of the fastest people. The slip lady was a walker, and to me you should take into account their speed and how difficult the costume would have been. This race gave out awards 6 deep - gotta love that too! I've never been to one that gave out awards past 3 but I think it's a great idea! I ended up getting 4th in my group!! Yeah!! This is the second time I've been 4th in a race and usually that sucks because you're so close to a prize. I won't tell you how Brent did, you'll just have to wait and hear it from him....

After the race we headed over to our local running store, Fleet Feet. Everyone there is SO nice! It was time for me to get some new shoes, mine have seen their miles and I need to start rotating new ones now. I've been really happy with my Mizunos, but I'm open to other shoes, too. I tried on an upgraded Mizunos and a pair of Pearls. I ended up with the Pearls - they seemed more lightweight and my foot really felt more cushioned on the sidewalk outside. I didn't try them out in today's 18-miler so I'll take them out Tues night for my 5-miler. We picked up a couple of other things and did some other shopping before dinner. We buy the Entertainment book and Citipass books every year, and we just got our new ones last week. We save SO much money eating out with these books and have ended up trying a lot of places we would have never otherwise visited. We ended up at the Flying Horse for dinner. They have a really different menu with a ton of interesting choices. I ended up with the pasta with a tequila lime sauce and shrimp, and Brent got a pasta ravioli that had chicken and ham. I was torn between the pasta and a grilled salmon dish that had a mango salsa sauce - so I think next time I'll probably try that. Anyway, it was good and I would definitely go there again. It's right beside the Factory at Franklin where they have several restaurants and some eclectic shops. Most of them close really early (like 6!) so a lot of them were closed but we did get to go in a few. It's a gorgeous place, two wedding receptions were going on while we were there. I wanted to sneak in and steal a piece of cake but we weren't dressed appropriately. From there we headed home, grabbed some coffee and asked Pippin if he wanted to go for a ride. He LOVES to ride. When you ask him he gets all excited - he'll go from being completely asleep in his bed to running, jumping and crying! We rode around and looked at some of the Halloween lights - I love how people (including us!) are really starting to decorate for the holiday. From there we kicked back and enjoyed the rest of the night ESPECIALLY the extra hour of sleep from the time change. That's the best thing about the fall time change, so we might as well enjoy it!

I'll post about the 18-miler tomorrow and have some pics of our hilarious Halloween costumes we're wearing to work tomorrow. One of the pics of Brent made me laugh so hard I started crying and Brent was drinking some water and he spit it back up!!! (The 18-miler went GREAT - total redemption from last week's 17-miler. I ran the 18-miler 20 minutes faster than last week's wretched 17-miler.)

Happy Halloween!!

Rachel

Exercise-
Fri - 1 mile am walk with Pips
Sat - 5 mile race
Sun - 18 mile run