Once again, its the time of year for Applefest.

Yup, this is when Steph and I head up to La Crescent, Minnesota to partake in the Run to the Edge 5K road race.  This is easily one of our favorite races (as I noted last year).  Steph has run it 13 years, I’ve run it 12 years.*

This year I placed 23rd overall with a time of 21:18.  Respectable.  The course is insanely hilly and considering I did next to no speed work this summer (essential for short distance races), finishing only 21 seconds off last years time isn’t bad.  Last year I got 2nd in my age group.   No such luck this year.  The top 3 in my age group finished in the top 10.  I ended up with 6th place.  I’m still happy.  My goal was a top 25 finish and I got it.

Steph, on the other hand, finished with her best Applefest time (26:03) despite having a serious injury to her foot. First time ever she’s finished within five minutes of me.  She’s all perky like today.  I’m not sure how I’ll be able to stand it.

Every person who finishes gets a 3 pound bag of apples, some cider, treats, and since this was the 15th year they’ve done the race, we got a couple of nice bags out of it.  After the race we headed over to Leidel’s Apples to pick up our traditional post-race Caramel Apple, some Apple Syrup, raspberries, and a couple of bags of apples.   Nice haul, excellent race.

* This should be 14 and 13 years respectively and in a row had someone not gone and gotten married on this weekend five years ago.  Yes, I’m looking at you, Jon.  *glare*