Smoky Hill River Festival

Every year we go to the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, and every year, I forget to take many pictures. The picture above shows the girls in my mom's nifty new fold-up wagon. We had a great time eating yummy food, making crafts (well, Ella made crafts and we watched), browsing the arts and crafts vendors (including one of my favorites, Ozark Herbals), and listening to music. It was awfully hot, though, and with kids (and all their stuff), the heat seems even more difficult to handle.

Emilia was a very good little traveler. She did very well in the van (except when she spilled chocolate milk all over her car seat on the way home). The only problem is that when she misses a nap, gets off schedule, and gets overly tired, she gets naughty. Very, very, very naughty.

This year I ran in the Festival Fitness Five Saturday morning. I only ran the two mile race instead of the five mile. I had contemplated the five mile but decide to go with the shorter distance, and I am sooooo glad I did. As I got to the festival grounds for the run, it started to sprinkle. By the time I had picked up by bib and T-shirt, it was flat-out pouring. I was soaking wet before the run even started. Luckily, our hotel room had been cold enough that I had put on a jacket while I was getting ready; otherwise, I wouldn't have had a jacket. (It was 77 when I left the hotel, but had dropped to the upper 60s by the time I made it to the festival grounds). I was glad I only had two miles to run in the rain. (I overheard lots of people running the five mile wishing they could switch to the shorter run.) After the race, as I was headed back to the hotel, it started to thunder and I saw some big bolts of lightning. I looked at the clock and realized if I had been running the five mile, I definitely would have still been running, so I was super glad I was done and warm and drinking a latte instead of slogging through five miles.

My clock time for the race was 17:33; my watch said 17:16. (I was pretty far back, so it took me a while to get to the starting line. In retrospect, I should have started more to the front. I passed a lot of people at the beginning.) I think I could have run a little faster, but my socks and shoes were soaking wet, and I also knew I had no chance of placing because there were some pretty serious runners there. I wound up placing sixth in my age group, though, and in the top half of all the finishers, so I think if I had had more confidence, I could have done better. Oh, well. Lesson learned. It was still a fun race!