Candy canes

Today didn't go exactly as I planned, but it worked out well in the end. I'm not sure if I wrote about my run on Friday (I think I did), but I did my "long run" (13.26 miles, a cutback week) on Friday morning to free up some time on the weekend.

Early Saturday morning we headed east to Waterville to go to the North Central Washington Fair. It's a pretty small fair, but Rod and I agreed that it had more "fair stuff" than the Stanwood Fair, another smalltown fair we went to this summer. Stanwood has way more stuff for sale, but Waterville has more exhibits and animals.

We wandered through the exhibit halls and some of the animal barns (poultry and rabbits) and stopped at the Douglas County Democrats booth and gave them a $5 donation. We also looked at the new cars and tractors that were for sale. :) We weren't tempted by the fair food because we already had plans for lunch.

After a couple hours we were ready to go. There's only so much fair you can take. (And for me, apparently the amount is pretty low.) Someday I might write a whole post with some of my thoughts about fairs....

We had lunch at a gallery and Southern barbecue place in town. She really wasn't open for lunch, but offered to fix us lunch anyway. Unfortunately this unique, delicious place is probably going to close because she's just not getting enough business. Sad. She gave us a splendid lunch, some cheese and crackers while we waited, salad greens with coleslaw, magnificent plates with jambalaya, smoked chicken, and ribs, and finally an airy peach cobbler for dessert. It's unfortunate that we live too far away to help business much!

We were so stuffed that I thought we might not ever eat again. That's not a risk I'm willing to take, though, so we brought a couple cans of chili, corn tortillas, and plums to eat for our dinner at the cabin.

We spent a lazy afternoon lying around and I read most of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. I had just started it, and I couldn't put it down! (I finished the last pages this morning.) Love. It. (Another future post, my favorite memoirs!) You MUST read it!

I had originally planned to run around Rimrock on Sunday morning, but we decided to leave pretty early, so we might miss the traffic around the OTHER fair, the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe.

We headed out around 7:30, and took a slightly longer but SO scenic route through an area called the Palisades. The road descends steeply into a rock-walled canyon...I've tried to take pictures in the past, but haven't managed to capture the epic scenery. This picture is from nwpics.com, and even it doesn't really convey the magnitude. Around 9:00 we arrived in Cashmere, another storybook cute town, and stopped at the Anjou Bakery for a non-traditional breakfast. Rod had two pieces of their scrumptious cherry pie (because one was not enough) and I had a piece of cinnamony bread pudding (perfectly nutritious, just bread, eggs and milk!). Although I felt like I could have eaten a whole pan of bread pudding (it was so good), this made a very satisfying meal.

My compromise plan was to run in town when I got home. This would be a bit of a struggle, as the pleasant sunshine of Eastern Washington turned to deep clouds on the Western side. Plus my body was aching from the long car ride. My legs and glutes don't take well to sitting in a car for too long!

But I got home before 12:30, and hoped to get out around 1 or so. I arranged to meet my mother at the Farmer's Market around 3—I would call her when I was about half an hour away.

I was only planning 6-8 miles when the run was at Rimrock, but I upgraded to at least 8 at home (easier terrain). I also wanted to run around a 9:30 pace, if possible. I stacked my deck a little by planning a route that was largely downhill after the first few miles (after all, I was going down to the waterfront).

My first mile was about 10:15, not too bad, and I managed to stay under 10 after that. I used the downhill stretches to bring down my average, of course.

I put on a final burst of speed in the last mile or two and got to my destination at 9.53 miles, with an average pace of 9:31. YESSS! (I know, that's more of a Yes! pace than a YESSS!)

We strolled quickly through the market. All I really wanted was baby beets (see picture above), but I also left with a cocoa nib cookie.

I felt a little unfinished at 9.5 miles, so I ran a rather difficult loop around the marina (bringing my total to 10.65 miles at 9:33 pace). Total mile for this week about 41.5.

For dinner I roasted the beets and sauteed the greens. (And ate them with some other stuff.). Delicious!