more runnin'

Another race last weekend and I had a disappointing finish - like 20 seconds slower than my first race. The thing is, I thought I was running a faster pace. The route was as flat as it gets around here and the weather was cool, sun shining, beautiful day, I felt good, BUT....I paced myself with two old guys that looked to me like they were running good. I finished just in front of one of them, the other right behind me. What does that teach me? Find some young guys the next time.

Let's see, not much else has been going on. I've got a couple of 6.8 mile runs in this week. I've got to get cozy with these longer runs so I get do that 10K in November. More importantly for now though, I need to figure out how to speed up my pace. Surely I can manage an 8 minute mile. There's a 5K in two weeks I want to do. I haven't committed yet. It's on a Thursday night meaning Erin will miss karate unless I can round up a driver. Also, it's our last karate class before testing. I think I'm good but Jerry has major concerns. I told him he doesn't have to run the race with me but he insists that if I'm running it, he's running it. I got another tip last night and I could have gotten one for gee-chew-hyong-ill-boo (not spelled right, I assure you) but I didn't ask to. It was a bit of a blow to Jerry's ego when I one-upped him, I thought two-upping him would be too much damage.

It's a perfectly beautiful day today, I wish I were out on a course somewhere knocking the little ball around. But no, I have a few minutes of my lunch break left so I'm going to go find some wild turkies, hawks, snakes, or something. When I come back, plenty more junk to dig into. I'm getting an extra lotto ticket before tomorrow night.

Unusual Fruit

I took a picture of the weird stuff I bought at the Farmer's Market last Saturday. The little round striped things are called plum-grannies, and the yellow melon is a canary melon. The big thing in the back is a watermelon, which is not usual, but it was sitting there and I didn't move it. The shiny monkey head behind the canary melon is probably one of the most unusual things in our house, but it didn't come from the Farmer's Market. It came from Sarah's imagination and hands.


We cut into the canary melon last night. The center looks like a cantalope and the rest looks like a honeydew. It smells like a honeydew, but it tastes like...neither one exactly. It tastes pretty good actually. In fact, Erin tried it and liked it. She won't eat any kind of melon at all, so it was suprising to me that she was willing to even try it. Here is a picture of the canary cut open.

I also bought butternut squash but those aren't usual, and I didn't take a picture of them. Today is Thursday and I haven't cooked them yet. I hope they don't rot before I get around to it. I could see it happening, but hopefully not.

First Race Ever, Fraley Festival

I ran my first race ever this past Saturday morning - the Holy Family 5K mall run. I was number 234, which is a number I was happy to get (I like the way it looks, don't you)? I knew I could run the distance, and I knew I wasn't going to win my age division (especially since I was the oldest my division), but I had butterflies anyway. I felt like I was running a slow pace (mostly ran in the last half of the pack), and finished in the last third I think. Anyway, my time was 29 minutes 34 seconds, and my goal was to finish in under 30 minutes, so I met my goal. It was a lot of fun and I had to jump in the car after I crossed the finish line, drive back and pick up Emily to take her to dance. No stretching out and today I'm so sore I can hardly move. The race was a lot of fun and there's another 5K next Saturday that I hope to run as well. Erin has a tennis tournament and the kids have an academic tournament we are supposed to work at, so I don't know if we'll have time for a race.

I took the kids to Carter Caves to go camping Saturday night. The Fraley Festival was going on, and we heard some awesome musicians. Sarah was there and she came up to the campground to have burgers with us for supper. She brought her banjo and her pal, Brett. Soon, a whole bunch of musicians wandered over and they started playing and it was totally awesome! There was a base fiddle player, a mandolin, 2 fiddles, 2 banjos, 2 or 3 guitars, and they were all masters (yes, Sarah, if you're reading this, I consider you to be a master...you sound great to me)! I could have sat there all night listening to them. The playing broke up around 11:00 or so, but we got a great 2 or 3 hour concert. One of these days, I hope to learn to play the base! At 5:00 this morning, I heard rain on the tent. Memories of last year's trip at Grayson, where I woke up with 2" of rain on the tent floor and all the sleeping bags and pillows sopping wet. Not this time though, we were under trees and the rain was light - very pleasant to listen to as it pitter-pattered on the tent over our heads.

And, the post wouldn't be complete without mention of plum-grannies and canary melons. I went to the farmer's market and bought these items since I'd never heard of them before. I will need to post pictures of these, but I suppose I'll have to take the pics with my cell phone since I still haven't found my camera cable. Plum-grannies are edible, but the guy told me they're better just to leave sit on the kitchen counter and let them smell sweet. They do smell very good. I bought two of them and I can smell them as soon as I walk into the door. The canary melon is a bright yellow, smooth melon. The farmer told me they are green like a honeydew, a very sweet melon, but doesn't taste like honeydew or cantalope. I will take a picture of it before I cut into it...tomorrow.

Moon Shadows and Skunk Adventures

The moon was totally an awesome thing of beauty yesterday morning. I started my run at 4:50 and when I started down the hill on Berkshire's entrance, I noticed the moon was huge, down close to the horizon, and yellow gold. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of it, but I doubt a camera could capture that much splendidness.

This morning, I slept in, and didn't get out on the road until 5:10. The moon was again full, but higher up. It was lovely but it's usual silver/white color. It was kind of neat making a shadow all the time. I like watching my shadow when I run, and since it's always dark, I only have shadows when I'm near a street light or somebody has their porch light on. With the moon, sometimes I made two or three shadows.

I have been seeing (and smelling) lots of skunks this past week. One morning, I very nearly kicked one, and thank heavens he tolerated me sharing his space. It was a dark stretch of sidewalk and he ambled onto the sidewalk right in front of me. I stopped abruptly and he stopped and stared at me. I took a few steps back and he ambled on across the road. Skunks must be either dumb or hard of hearing, or maybe the city skunks are used to people and not all that afraid of us.

I am ready for a race and have picked the Holy Family 5K run as my first race ever. It's in downtown Ashland so it should be flat, and it's only 5K, so it should be easy (oh, does that sound like famous last words or what!). Jerry says he wants to run it with me. My only goal is to finish the run, I don't need to compete with anybody. I figure he'll be way out in front of me after the first 100 yards. I hope there are little old ladies who just walk it, so I don't have to be the person finishing last. I have no idea how long it'll take me to finish 3.1 miles. I always run farther than that, so in theory, I should be able to run the shorter distance at a faster pace. I think when I'm running 4.5 to 5.5 miles, I'm running about a mile every 10 minutes. There are a couple of big hills I take too (up and down), so it's hard to say what I'll do with a flat 3 miles course. I might figure out a 3.5 mile course for myself this weekend and start timing myself to see what my time is, and work on improving it.

Shall I blog about karate? I'm still not sure I'm into it. jerry is definitely into it. I have to admit, I was pleased to get my first 4 tips - all in one day. I think the self-defense aspect of it is good to know...I can think of a few times in my long lifetime I wish I had been able to defend myself better. I think sparring will be fun (as long as I don't have to touch sweaty, gross people). As for the forms and all those ethics to memorize, it's going to be a chore. I like hobbies I can do without thinking. Maybe that's why I like running, gardening, and golf so much - I can just daydream the whole time.

Saturday Morning Adventure

I have to thank my dear, sweet Sarah for nagging me all summer. Sadly, she has gone back to school today, but this morning, I woke up early and decided that HECK, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and go get on a horse. She nagged at me extra hard last night, put a royal guilt trip on me. It worked, obviously. I'm so glad she did, because we no more than broke into the first canter and I decided this was the best day I've had all year. I do love riding horses.

Sarah saddled up her beloved Joey and Strawberry, a gelding, for me. I've been hearing what a gentle (predictable) horse Strawberry is, but I do know there is no such thing as a predictable horse, and knowing Joey is so young and Strawberry isn't ridden everyday, I was a bit wary. Once we were mounted, the beginning got rough. I almost aborted the ride. Partly my fault, I'm sure, I'd never ridden a horse with a bitless bridle. I was probably not giving him enough slack in the reins and he probably got pissed off at me. He side-stepped off the path then freaked out a little. He tried to throw his head and ended up bucking a bit, which started to freak me out since we were on a rather steep hill (not really that steep but definitely elevated, and I was up high on a horse so it seemed like a long way to fall...I can imagine broken hip at my age). Once we were out of sight of the barn, both horses settled down. Sarah taught me about posting when we trotted, which was hard for me at first but I got the hang of it. It makes it easier to trot without jarring your teeth loose. Strawberry preferred to canter and I love that, it's so much fun. Being unfamiliar with the trail though, and riding behind Sarah, I took a few branches to the face. Still, it was the most fun I had all summer.

The trail was pleasant. We saw thistle, queen anne's lace, ironweed, goldenrod, touch-me-nots, and some kind of red flowers that I don't know what they are. We rode through a field that had a thousand baby gum trees. Some day, it'll be a forest of gum trees (unless it's paved over into a parking lot or turned into a subdivision). We also rode through a dump, which saddened me. It was a contractor's dump and they dump explosives there, along with old PVC, brick, block, miscellaneous crap, etc.

We had our ride and on the way back, we neared the road just as a truck passed. Joey flipped out briefly and Strawberry stopped and reared up a bit...scaring me substantially...my heart skipped a few beats. Then he didn't want to move forward. He started backing up and I had concerns he might back himself into the fence row and freak out even more. But no, he chilled out and followed Joey across the road and into the field on the other side. It was a perfect morning for the ride, and I'm still totally in disbelief that Sarah actually rolled out of bed before 9:00 AM to ride with me.

Today was as fun (maybe more) than our rides at D.H., which is unfortunately now out of business. I've read that the D.H. property is now up for sale and if I could buy it, I'd love to have it. I found an awesome arrowhead in Indian Creek, which runs across the property. It is beautiful there. I'm sure it'll be carved up into housing sites, many of those beautiful hardwood trees will be cut down, the hills will be cut away to make level building sites, and the place will never be the same.

This reminds me that I need to renew my search for some land I can afford that's not too far from here. It needs to be within an hour's drive, and I want something way out, so there won't be noise from sirens, trains, boats, trucks, etc. I want space to plant an orchard and anything else I want to plant (pumpkin patch comes to mind). I want 30 acres, at least, the more the merrier. I might just have to dream about it, but I hope I can find it and make it mine.

The Summer JUST can't be over!!!

Where has the month gone? School started yesterday and it seems like it's as good as over now. We'll have frost on the grass before you know it, but no, I'm not even going to think about that! We visited Dad in Indiana earlier this month. We only had one day at the lake but we made the most of it. Brittany went with us and the kids tubed all day, Dad doing his part to keep the oil companies in the black (hmmmm...I think profits are black......in the red means you're losing money, right?) Jerry and I had to try out the tube a bit as well. It was a blast but all that bouncing around is killer on us old folks. If we'd had more time, I would skied a bit, just to see if I could still get up.The swans on Tippicanoe were just as lovely as ever. They are magnificent birds!

Last weekend, we just stayed home, or I should say, we didn't go out of town. Jerry and I got a round in at Sandy Creek and it was a perfect day for that - sunny and high 80's, the air was as clear as it gets around here. Let's see, I shot an 83 (41 and 42), had a couple of great drives (for me, anyway), birdied #13, lost 2 balls total but found 4, should have birdied #5, but didn't, choked on a 4 foot putt. I had a couple of awesome approach shots. We still need to use our raincheck at Shawnee...I hope we can get back there before the month is over.

One more thing we have to do before we give up on summer - go camping. I'm hoping we can fit that in this coming weekend if the weather cooperates. The girls have been begging me to go all summer. Last weekend would have been ideal but I was not wanting to go anywhere. I'll have to make a reservation tomorrow if we're going to go for it. I'll have to check the extended forecast and make a decision (and start collecting paraphenalia...seems like there's so much stuff we need to take for even a night or two). I think we'll try Grayson since it's so handy, but Cave Run would be an awesome adventure. I love Cave Run.

the party's over :-(

Vacation is over....back to reality. It has been nice having a few days home before going back to work. The trip home was extra long thanks to a wreck on I-77 which closed north and south lanes. It must have been bad because we saw helicopters, two ambulances, firetrucks, and a hazmat truck. We were in a construction zone and there were concrete barracades blocking us, not to mention all the trucks. We parked on the interstate for over an hour and a half. Finally, state patrolmen started having people back up to the previous exit and gave us detour instructions. Unfortunately, their instructions caused 421 to back up really bad. We didn't take the exit they recommended since it looked to me like we might be waiting to get onto the exit for at least an hour. Since I had an atlas handy, I decided to go another 12 miles up the road and catch another route. It was pretty smooth sailing except we did have a wait on that road where they were working on a bridge, and had only one lane open. We finally made it home around 11:30, rather than 9:00, which was the goal.

I can't show off any vacations pics because I still can't find my camera cable. I did a lot of running and I think I'm ready to try a 10K now. I know I can do a 5K pretty easily, no matter how hilly. The 10K will be an effort, but I think I can make it..as long as there aren't any really big uphills.

We saw Sarah at the Fiddler's Convention in Morehead. She was awesome, and she had Jesse and Matt playing with her. The storm was a major destraction and the fact that tent posts were falling around us and at one point I thought the whole tent top might rip and blow off. Sarah was a bit unnerved too because at one point, she stopped singing and just looked up like "what the??". I promised her I would come back today but I think I've convinced myself to stay here and get some work done. The place is a wreck and I have SO much I'd like to get done before Monday. It looks like the weather is clearing here so hopefully it will be a pleasant night in Morehead tonight.

Jerry made it home from the beach early this afternoon and he unloaded his car and has gone to bed for awhile. A nap sounds tempting. I got up early today and got in a good run. Also went to the farmer's market which is fun. I bought lots of stuff because the deer have been munching on our garden all summer and we don't have much. Old Chewy isn't keeping the deer out like she used to, I think she doesn't hear them anymore. I know she doesn't see as well as she used to.