Applefest weekend!

I’ve talked about this before. This is my 11th year running the Applefest 5K in LaCrescent (Steph’s 12th).  We love this course.  It’s hilly.  People don’t understand how hilly this course is.  Here’s the proof, compliments of my Forerunner 405:

Yeah, that be some hills.  As the race director said ‘Remember!  Where it’s not hills, it’s flat!’  Last year, I placed 17th and ran 21:35.  That was good enough to win my age group.  I didn’t expect to defend my title this year.  Conditioning just wasn’t there (lack of speed – Luther resurfaced their track and I couldn’t get in good speed workouts on the road).

With that in mind, the fact that I missed 1st place in my age group by 3 seconds is pretty damn cool.  And I beat last years time – 20:53.  And I placed 14th out of about 500.

So yeah, I’m stoked.  On the way home, picked up about 10 pounds of apples (in addition to the 3 pound bags we each got for finishing), some Sweet Corn Salsa, Apple Syrup, Wild Rice, and of course, our traditional post-race Caramel Apple.

I like them apples very much, thank you.