Sunday, April 28, 2013

Daffodil Fun Run 5K

This morning, Seth and I headed over to Kendrick Park, on the northern side of downtown Amherst, so that I could take part in the 3rd Daffodil Fun Run. (Seth had planned to run the race too, but was feeling under the weather and couldn't train this week -- poor guy!.)


We arrived around 40 minutes before the scheduled start and the place was hopping. It seemed like a nice chunk of the community had come out to run and support Big Brothers Big Sisters.


We headed over to registration where we picked-up the free yellow daffodil t-shirt and my bib.



They were also handing out ribbons in observance of everyone who was affected by the Boston Marathon bombing. As someone who had a close friend's family member running the race, the events in Boston earlier this month had been quite emotional. Seth and I also each have some of our best friends living in Cambridge -- Seth's friend is a student at MIT and both of our friends live in very close proximity to the residence of the bomber. As a result, we felt very strongly about what happened. 

I also feel that the fact that people who came to cheer on the runners were the ones most likely hurt was even more affecting. One of the thing I think is amazing about running is the support of people who come to cheer you on. Running is one of the only forms of exercise I know about where you can get this level of support. When I'm feeling tired on a run, it's always a huge help to have people who come out to cheer me on, especially Seth. I was very glad to see this race, the first I was running since Boston, gave runners the opportunity to honor the people who had been impacted. 


I pinned a ribbon to my shirt for the run. 



We kicked off the run at a little after 11:30 a.m. The weather was absolutely perfect -- sunny and in the mid-60s. It was definitely the best day of the year. 

The race took us right along East Pleasant Street, up a gradual rise,  through the heart of downtown Amherst. People came out of their stores and cheered us on. We turned off Pleasant down Main Street heading out of the downtown area. This entire part of the race was downhill. We then turned off onto N. Whitney Street. This was a residential area where I had never been. The neighborhood featured so really nice houses, but I wasn't really focusing on that; I was focusing on the hills. This course had hills. After mile 1 the course was mostly uphill until the last 1/2 mile which was slightly downhill / flat. Between all the hills there were only some very slight reprieves. I have, in general, not been doing much running lately. I've been busy with Les Mills Combat, plus I prefer running outside to the treadmill and the weather had been lousy. I've been only running a couple of three mile runs a week on the treadmill, so this hilly terrain was definitely a challenge. I really pushed myself.

Seth took some excellent action shots of me crossing the finish line.





I ended up with an official time of 30:13, which is a bit slower than my sub-30 minute 5K, which are in the 29 minute range, but pretty good considering that I haven't been running a lot and the course was a bit challenging. All in all a good time. 

After the race, I was feeling pretty motivated, and decided to tackle a few projects at home before I had to head off to work. 

The first thing I did was to add some art to one of the walls in our office that was made blank by the changes we made to the room. We had purchased a collage frame while we were at the mall yesterday to see Giulio Cesare Live in HD from the Met Opera. 

I had picked out some photos for the frame this morning, and Seth got them developed at the CVS in town while I was running in the 5K. We chose a handful of nice pictures of family and friends. 


I think it came out looking quite nicely. 


My second project of the day was removing all the day lilies from our garden. The garden on the right-hand side is doing fine -- our bulbs are coming in quite nicely, and I'll be planting my usual annuals (impatiens, snapdragons, zinnias) soon. 

The left-hand garden has gotten completely overrun by the day lilies. I spent almost two hours digging them up with a pitchfork. It was exhausting work, but I'm glad I did it. I never planted the day lilies, and they are way too big for that small garden. 

I'm planning on putting herbs in the left-hand garden. Seth and I like to have bread with olive oil with supper sometimes, so I'm hoping to plant herbs for that purpose. I'd also like to do other cooking herbs, such as basil for salad. No pictures yet (because the garden just looks like a plot of empty dirt), but I'll be sure to take some when everything is planted later in the month. 

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