So, the 2012 Independence 5K. I have to admit, I had nightmares about this race. Not that I didn't run well, but that I overslept or had the wrong time and missed it entirely. This run and Cotton Row are my favorites every year, and I'd be heartbroken if I missed either. I think I checked the start time and my phone alarm about a dozen times before going to sleep the night before the race!

The morning of the race started out hot and then just got hotter. Luckily running in the heat doesn't bother me, but I snapped a screenshot of the weather about 15 minutes before the race just for fun.

Last year both Jake and Michelle (my cousins) ran the race with me, but this time around Jake was busy working that morning, mowing the grounds at their church, so it was just Michelle and I. We love running together, though, so we happily found some shade and stretched out while we waited for the fun to begin,

independence 5k 2011 + 4th of july fireworks

No, that's not a typo- I did indeed mean to say 2011. You see, I have the photos from the 2012 run of the Independence 5K ready to post, but I never finished editing last year's and decided to get them finished first. Last year I didn't get the photos from my Dad's camera until several months after the event, and then one thing after another happened and I just never finished processing and posting them. Time to fix it now- hope you don't mind a double-dose of my personal photos this weekend!

The 2011 Independence 5K was something special. I'd run it for two years prior, but this year I was joined by my teenage cousins, Jake and Michelle, both of whom run on their high school cross country team. We were all pretty excited to run together, though you really can't tell by the look on Jake's face- ha!

These photos are from a mix of two cameras- Dad shot with his Canon, and I loaned my aunt Tina, Jake and Michelle's mom, my Nikon. It's really cool looking back now to see the two different perspectives.

As you can see, I'm nowhere near the start line- I'm not crazy enough to think I'll finish first! Michelle and I are back somewhere in the middle of the pack, but Jake...

cotton row 5k 2012

With all the CHA stuff going on, I'd developed quite the backlog of photos that I needed to edit and print. I finally took the time last weekend to just sit down and work through them all. The editing is done, many of them are now waiting to be printed, and it's time for me to get them blogged here before I forget the stories that go with them. I often refer back to these blog posts to fill in gaps in my memory when I finally get around to scrapping these pictures...which is sometimes months or even years after they're taken!

Actually, my backlog is relatively small since it only starts on Memorial Day, but, geeez!, a lot has happened in the 6-7 weeks since then! At this rate I'll be blogging Fourth of July fireworks photos in August...

Anyway, back to Memorial Day, when I ran the Cotton Row 5K. This is one of my two favorite races to run every year (the other being the Independence 5K in my hometown- one of the other events that's waiting in my photo backlog).

Darren was in Kenya when I ran this race, so I thought I was going to be down a photographer for the event. I always run with my iPhone strapped to my arm, though (I'm kinda OCD about checking my pace), so I pulled it off to snap a few photos of the festivities beforehand. A friend had told me earlier in the week that he was going to try to come by to take photos for me, but wasn't sure he could make it. I thought that this way I'd at least have a couple of shots to remember the race by just in case he wasn't able to come.

Yes, we runners know how to party. :) Standing in the middle of the street in a massive crown on a hot (and rapidly growing hotter) day.

sweet peach crop shop | independence day color challenge

Good morning, and happy Independence Day to everyone! I hope you've got some great stuff planned for the day. I've already celebrated half of mine- my hometown had its annual 5K and fireworks display on Saturday, so I ran (27:23- a personal best!) and photographed fireworks with my parents then. Tonight Huntsville is having its fireworks, and Darren and I will trek out with camera and tripod in tow to get even more photos. I love this time of year!

Today I also have a color challenge posted over at the Sweet Peach Crop Shop blog (you can get a peek at the challenge palette in this layout about last year's fireworks photography expedition). If you want to get in on the challenge (and a chance to win a Sweet Peach gift certificate) head on over to their blog for all the details. You don't have to be a subscriber or even use their kits to enter, so it's a totally no-strings-attached kind of deal!

Happy Fourth to everyone, and please take a moment to remember our troops today.

cotton row 5k

I don't know what's so special about Huntsville's Memorial Day 5K, also known as Cotton Row, but I like it! You see, last year when I ran this race, I came in with a personal best ever time of 29:42. This year I was expecting to be in the 32 minute range since  I've been a bit more obsessed with weight lifting and TRX than I have been with running (dude, I'm grouchy if I don't get to go to my BodyPump class!) and haven't logged nearly as many miles this year as I did last year. Also? This is one of only two 5Ks that I registered for this year, so, yeah, running is definitely not a priority right now.

Cotton Row came through again, though, with a personal best of 28:51!! I broke 29 minutes for the first time ever (last year at this race was the first time I broke 30:00). The actual "gun time" was 29:20, but I'll have to explain that in a minute...

So, it was a really, really hot day already when we lined up to run at 9am (the 10K ran at 7am, which explains the late start for the 5K).

Headphones aren't allowed in the race, but they've loosened up on personal electronics meaning I could wear my iPhone and use the Nike+ app (plus the sensor in my shoe) to help track my pace.

And just one more shot here before the race got started, just so I can show off my favorite new geeky shirt from Threadless...

It's called "Doctor Hoo," and if you're familiar with any of the incarnations of The Doctor, then these guys may look familiar to you...

I'd say they pegged Tennant's (the tenth Doctor's) hair perfectly.

Anyway, back to the race. :)

There were more than 1800 entrants, so Darren had a really, really hard time picking me out of the crowd at the start. At least he knew that I wouldn't be one of the guys right out front!

Actually, I started waaaaay too far back. I forgot that the start banner was actually behind the start line, so I was near the back of the pack. It took me 29 seconds just to get to the start line, which is when the chip on the back of my bib number registered a start (thus the difference in my clock time and gun time).

Darren finally did pick me out of the crowd, though. :) He's such a good sport for hanging out for these races and taking pictures for me.

So obviously I didn't finish as quickly as this guy (who won) did...nor did I look as happy when I crossed the finish line.

Instead, I looked something like this...

Yeah, I was just a little hot and winded. And in need of Gatorade.

Darren said he totally forgot to get a shot of the clock as I crossed the line, which is no big deal since all the results are chipped and posted online, anyway. But he did snag this one about ten seconds later. I crossed the finish with a big crush of people, so the poor guy had a hard time finding me all around.

As good as Cotton Row is to me, last year I came awfully close to that same time again last July at the 5K I run in my old hometown. It's definitely the most challenging course that I've run so far (several big-ish hills where Cotton Row is really flat), and it'll be interesting to see what my time is like there this year.

Counterfeit Kit: 5K Mini Album

In my little whining rant yesterday, I mentioned that some weekends I still managed to find a few hours to scrapbook. Last Sunday was one of those days, so I dove into Counterfeit Kit's first mini challenge for April- using memorabilia on a page.

I'd been wanting to compile all the names, dates, and finish times for the 5Ks that I ran last year, and a mini album seemed like the perfect place to do it! I used a bunch of generic shipping tags as my album "pages," and then I of course accented with supplies from my April Counterfeit Kit.

For the memorabilia part, I chose to use a bunch of clothing tags that I saved from some of my running and gym gear. I'm a bit of a gear snob- Mizuno, Nike, New Balance...you get the picture (I'm the same way with any hobby I have, really)- so I had some really cool tags to use.

I started with my first 5K of last year, the Shamrock Shuffle.

Some of the races I attended alone and didn't have photos, or I only had photos that I shot with my iPhone before or after the race. In the case of the Chick Fil A 5K, I was lucky enough to find a photo of myself at the start line on their Facebook page.

I also ran the Healthy Kids Day 5K sans accompaniment, so I just used a couple of random photos I shot after the race. This one had a hill that was killer!

Cotton Row was my fastest race last year- 29:42!!!! I know that's not exactly a stellar speed, but I'm not one of those natural runners who can bust out 6 or 7 minute miles.

The Independence Day 5K is the only race I'm planning on running this year. It's in my hometown, and it's fun to run with my parents watching. Last year I ran it in 29:47, my second fastest time and my only other race under 30 minutes!

The Paint the Streets 5K was just horrifically hot!! We started at 7am, and it was still over 90 degrees. I was so glad when that one was over.

The Yellow Ribbon 5K was my slowest time of the year, but it was also at night after work (all the others were in the morning), which I think made a difference. It was so awesome to get to run on a NASCAR track! And it was the first race I ran in a skirt...and I now luuuuuurrrve my running skirt!

I loved it so much that I wore it for the Monte Sano 5K, as well!

And I also wore it for the Spooktacular in October. This one was killer because I didn't have time to properly train for it. I was too busy training for my second degree black belt test!

I have to say that while making this I learned that I'm not really a huge fan of making mini albums- they just take me so much longer than layouts do, and I'm never really comfortable working with a smaller canvas. It's good to try one now and then, though, just to see how it feels.

Oh, and an update on last night and the whole dinner/new stove/no time incident. I finally did end up cooking on it, if only to make a cheese burrito. It totally rocks to be cooking with gas now!

Spooktacular 5K + Pumpkin Carving + More Squashes

Happy Halloween again, blog-reading peeps! I'm writing this on my laptop in the living room in between rounds of handing out candy to all the little ghouls, goblins, princesses, and ninjas in my neighborhood.

My Halloween actually started yesterday with the Spooktacular 5K in downtown Huntsville. Bunches of people ran in costume. I didn't (because I don't have a costume at the moment), and since Darren was away camping with the kids from church on Friday and Saturday I also don't have any photos of me at the race.

But, I can tell you that I wore this shirt...

...and this skirt (and I wish those were my legs!) and leave the rest up to your imagination.

Here's just a peek at a few of the costumes. Princess Leia was the first one I spotted.

The Chilean miner had us all cracking up, plus this guy won the costume contest.

We were all really cold and kept jogging around to try to warm up, so the only other photo I managed to take (these are all from my iPhone) was this group shot of the cast of Mario Bros. Love it!!

As for the race results, I didn't do so well- 31:46- but in my defense I haven't run at all since the Monte Sano 5K on September 4th (because I've been in taekwondo class 5 nights a week ever since). That, and it was really, really cold and my legs were completely numb the entire length of the course.

Today after church Darren and I stopped by a farmers' market in town to buy...more pumpkins!! I simply couldn't bring myself to carve up the big, pretty (and warty, in my case) pumpkins that we picked out earlier this month, so we decided that we would buy some smaller, less pretty pumpkins to cut. Lucky for us, the market had marked all of their pumpkins down to $2, so we left with two of the biggest ones they had instead of the small ones I intended to buy. They were completely lopsided (mine actually has to have a prop under the front end to hold it up), but they had awesome flat(ish) faces that turned out to be perfect for carving. We also left with several more pretty squashes (also $2 each) to use to decorate the house (and eventually eat), and the big pumpkins on my front porch will remain out through Thanksgiving as decorations.

This year I decided to choose a more intricate template that usual and carved a stormtrooper into my pumpkin (and see what I mean by lopsided?).

Darren designed his own Dalek and freehanded his!

It's been a lot of fun hearing the kids yell, "look, it's a stormtrooper!" as they run up our front steps. I just love Halloween!