 posted Sep-09-2007 10:52 PM
  
Chokecherry Festival 10k Race
Lewistown, MontanaShort Version
My Unofficial Time: 55:24 (a big PR!)
Avg pace 8:56 MrC’s Unofficial Time: 56:15 (PR – 1st 10k race)
Avg pace 9:05
Really Long Version With Photos
0900
43 degrees
Cloudy with a threat of rain
IRC We traveled 100 miles to Lewistown, Montana to spend the weekend with my running friend and her husband who own a 2nd home and 150 acres in the area. We’re such big city slickers that we thought it would be fun to spend some time doing a few small-town activities for a change. MrC, my running friend, and I planned to run the 10k race on Sat. morning and afterwards we’d all go to the Chokecherry Festival which included an arts & crafts fair and the ever-popular cherry pit spitting contest. No, I did not enter but I thought about it.  I had not run a 10k since June 2006 and my previous best time was 1:06. My goal was to come in under 1 hour. MrC thought he could do the same so our plan was to not go over 9:30 mpm. The other goal was to DO NO HARM before our HM which is next weekend. It rained Friday night and we woke to a very cool 43 degree temp on Sat. morning – just the way I like it. My friend’s husband drove us to the start line which was near the fish hatchery in a very pretty valley. This is a real small event with only about 50 runners and no portajons! Aaargh! We both figured we stood a good chance at coming in dead last but didn’t really care. MrC warmed up a little while I stood around chatting with new friends and getting colder and colder in my shorts. The race starter issued a few quick instructions and capped it off by warning us to stay on the left side of the road and to watch for traffic as the Lewistown drivers were famous for being rude to runners. That surprised me as I thought country people were supposed to be nice. He then did a dramatic 20 second countdown, yelled “Go!” and away we went. The course travels through a pretty valley with a meandering stream right next to the road. Also along each sides of the road are nice little farms or ranchettes with many pine and aspen trees. We immediately started enjoying the friendly rolling hills which made the course even more interesting. Overall, the course ended up a net downhill by about 290 feet. My friend and I settled in with a couple of other women and stayed together for about 3.5 miles or so. Then I stopped for water while she reluctantly went on without me. She’s been mentoring me and really wanted to pace me to the end but I needed a quick sip. I ended up stopping for a 2nd drink later on which is a habit I need to break – especially in such cool weather. MrC was some place behind me but I had no idea how far. After the race, he confided that he was confused about what distance we were running. He thought it was to be a 5 mile race which made for a very painful 1.2 final miles for him. I have no idea where he got that idea -- guess I forgot to tell him what we’d signed up for. The finish line consisted of a man with a stop watch and someone tearing off tags. I don’t know if we’ll ever find out our official times but we are both confident with our Garmin times. My friend finished about a minute or so ahead of me. She forgot to even start her watch. We are quite the serious racers, aren’t we?! We had a really fun weekend with our friends and the race PRs were just icing on the cake. We ate lots of delicious food and drank plenty of good wine while enjoying some beautiful Montana scenery. My splits: 8:50; 8:40; 9:12; 9:06; 9:09; 8:54; ? (accidentally restarted my Garmin after stopping it) His splits: 8:55; 9:03; 9:13; 9:00; 9:00; 9:34; 1:31 Oh, and we weren't even close to finishing last! Here are a few pictures from our friend’s property: Friend’s cabin:
 Barn with a 2nd floor apartment (where we stayed):
 View from the barn which was very similar to how the race course looked:
 On Sunday, we decided to enjoy some more rural Montana activities and drove to Utica to see the “What the Hay?” sculpture contest. While the hay sculpture contest is quite popular (who would’ve thought?), the town is actually more well-known for its yogo sapphire mine which was discovered by Jake Hoover who is no relation to us. Yogo sapphires are a beautiful blue, more rare than diamonds, and only found in one place on earth – central Montana. It is my favorite stone. Unfortunately, all the yogos have been mined and the mine has closed. Hay sculptures:
  If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and commenting! If you are ever in Lewistown, Montana and need a place to stay, I have just the motel for you:  [This message has been edited by choover (edited Sep-09-2007).]
IP: Logged |
. Glad you enjoyed yourselves, though.
I understand about the hour thing. We did it! Take another peek in my RR. Big congrats to you and hubby.
