At 4:30 the next morning we were up and on the road to the SIU-Edwardsville campus for the Thin Mint Sprint 5K to benefit the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois. As we got closer to our destination, we started noticing trees that seemed to have been snapped in half along with downed and bent telephone poles. We even saw one or two barns that had been destroyed during the night! By the time we arrived, noticing that the power seemed to be out all over Edwardsville, it was raining again. When we checked in, they told us that, due to storm damage and debris, the half marathon had been changed to a 10K (they would just do the 5K route twice). As the start time neared, they made another announcement – there was now too much debris on the 5K route, so they were busy remarking a new route that the 5K runners would run twice while the 10K runners would run 4 times.

It was still raining, so Mom and I waited in the car.

P to the L to the G to the S! I told Mom to look tough, but she just looks sort of uncomfortable…

There was a bit of confusion about the route once the races started – apparently, the signs that they’d put out to mark the new route blew away and the volunteers weren’t really sure where we were supposed to go either! But I think they eventually got us all sorted out.

By the time we finished, we were soaked through! It was cool but not too chilly since we were moving around. After I accidentally stepped in my first puddle, I gave up worrying about it and just splorshed my way for the rest of the race. When we’d started, we said to ourselves “Well, we won’t be setting any personal bests today, it’s just for fun.” But sure enough, when they posted the results this morning…we set new personal bests! Mom left me behind and finished in 33:17 which is a 10:44/mile pace and came third in her age category and I finished in 33:29 which is a 10:48/mile pace! Woo hoo!

We managed to polish off about half of the pie at the party and then Drew and I ate the rest of it the next day. It was sweet but not too sweet and a little tart but not too tart and the filling was lovely and jammy, not runny. The crust, which was a butter crust made in the food processor (my usual go-to crust is a Crisco crust made by hand), was perfect – sweet, flaky, tender. I added some turbinado sugar on top of the egg wash which gave it a nice extra sweet crunch. Yum!

It was a road race – I’ve learned my lesson after last week’s trail run – and, despite there being an uphill section on the way out and on the way back (yes, it was uphill both ways – no, there was no snow), I ran all the way and seem to, unofficially, have set a new personal best for myself! The official race results haven’t been posted yet, but when I crossed the finish line, the 5K clock said 34:33 which is an 11:13/mile pace! I’m slowly getting closer and closer to my 10:00/mile goal!

It certainly wasn’t as fun without a friend to go with me, but I still had a good time – I only wish they’d had a glass of wine waiting for us at the finish line

p.s. – I felt very color-coordinated in my pink and green shoes, pink and green race t-shirt, and pink hair. Even if I’m slow, at least I’m stylish!

The celery soup tastes like celery, but in a good way and the beer bread is a lovely combination of salty and a little bit of sweetness. Yum!

The scones are tasty, as well – I baked off two of them for us to eat that evening and the other four are in the freezer waiting for just the right moment. Can’t wait!

Then, to use up some sour cream and cream cheese that I had around from the strawberry doughnuts I’d made, I made these Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. They turned out a little drier than I would have liked, but they’re still chocolate cupcakes, so how bad can they be! And I added a little bit of strawberry extract to the frosting, but was a little too cautious with it and you couldn’t really taste it. Next time I’ll know to add more!

Then we had lots of doughnuts. Too many doughnuts. Naw, who am I kidding?! There’s no such thing as too many doughnuts! And these Baked Strawberry Doughnuts were totally worth it.

We finished, but it wasn’t pretty. I managed to run the first 3 miles, but then I pretty much staggered the last 2 miles. Mom was doing really well and eventually I convinced her to leave me and save herself, but even she sort of pooped out on the last half mile or so. Her time was around 1 hour and 5 minutes and mine was about 1 hour and 6 minutes, so our mile pace was slower than it has been for our 5Ks but better than the first 10K we did.

I definitely prefer running on plain, old pavement or at least a very packed-down trail (like the ones in Allerton) – running through grass and uneven ground was just enough extra exertion to make it difficult! Mom didn’t place in her age category this time which was a bummer since the trophies were cute buffalo trophies, but according to her “These old ladies are fast!” We don’t think we’ll do this one again, but once we shave a few more minutes off our pace, we may try again and see if Mom can get her buffalo trophy after all.

I’ve always wanted super pink hair, but just haven’t even gone for it despite having had blonde, black, red, and even blue (well, highlights, but still!) hair. I thought a good way to ease into it would be to have this pretty rosy color and work my way up to hot pink.

Then Mom and I picked up Drew’s dad who had driven down from Michigan for the smaller School of Music graduation ceremony and met Dad over at Smith Memorial Hall for the ceremony. It was packed! We weren’t able to sit together, but that’s okay – we still got to see him walk across the stage and get hooded (again – they did that at the big ceremony, too). Very exciting!