Saturday, November 19, 2011

Late harvest

I have been a bit remiss on blogging my running lately. I have run two more 5Ks in the last couple of weeks.
The Nov. 12 race was the Uptown Rhodes Race 5K near Rhodes Hall in Atlanta.
The Uptown Rhodes Race 5K
The race goes around Ansley Park, and it was hilly, but not too terrible. I had a good time for me.
This morning I ran the Lakeside Viking 5K with my friends Carolyn and Susan. I hadn't seen them in a while and it was good to catch up.
Now, this course was hilly. It goes through a subdivison called Sagamore Hills in the Oak Grove area of Atlanta. Sagamore Hills is aptly named!
Carolyn, Susan and me at Lakeside Viking 5K
I'll have no more 5Ks until December, so today's run was a good one to get in before a bit of a break.
The downside is I haven't found any cash as I've been running lately. The piggy bank is going to get very thin.
Atlanta has had its first freeze of the fall and last weekend I went out and pulled all the remaining tomatoes from the vines. I pretty much neglected them after about late September, and I guess that was a good thing! Look how many I pulled off.
Lots of green tomatoes
I literally filled a box with the green ones. Some riper ones are on the bottom and I've been having those in salads lately. I'm getting some of the green ones to ripen on the kitchen counter, but I think I'll be frying up a bunch today for a snack.
I also got my lone eggplant.
My one eggplant
After thinking my eggplant would not produce anything, I got this guy, and there was another small one just starting, but I didn't pull that one and I'm sure it's ruined now.
So I guess I'm going to have to neglect my garden a little more next year. Seems that's the way to get a nice late harvest.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Anything is Possible

I ran one of the most unusual races early this morning, the Anything is Possible 5K.
Here in the United States, Daylight Saving Time ended at  2 a.m., and some race director somewhere came up with a bright idea to run a 5K race just before the time changes back and hour -- so the runners can say they finished the race before it started.
The race started up in Kennesaw, Ga., around Town Center mall. It was cold and when my alarm went off at midnight to get up for the race I really had second, and third, thoughts about having signed up for this race.
I bundled up and drove up there around 1 a.m. It was the only time I have ever been able to set my cruise control on a highway in metro Atlanta and keep it on for the whole drive.
All bundled up before the Anything is Possible 5K
I wore some glow necklaces and those blinking arm lights from the Firefly 5K I did earlier this year.
The course was twice around the outer street of the mall, so it was relatively flat, but parts of the course were pretty dark,which I didn't like. I'm always fearful of tripping and taking a bad fall. I've taken two really bad falls while running, so that's why I am fearful of ever doing it again. (I'll blog about those later!)
And while I was running I spotted two dimes. Can you believe? As dark as it was out there, I happened to spot them under some of the street lights. But there were runners behind me and I could not get them. I'm hoping a walker or two along the course found them.
I had a fairly fast time, for me.
And the funny thing about this race was my Runkeeper application got fooled. Because of the time change, Runkeeper showed my time for the race as -22 minutes! YES! I'm a rock star!!
I guess it DOES go to show, Anything is Possible.