Race day for the Silk & Satin. There were 1000ish runners for this race!
Got up at 5:15 (ugh??) to get breakfast and coffee. Decided against showering.
Breakfast of champions!

Oat bran with banana topped with cashew butter.  I didn’t add any protein powder today, maybe I should have.

Got to the race sign up around 7 or so.  The Saratoga Race Track opens this weekend so there were already lines of people waiting to get into the track.  The race organizers were nice enough to have a separate parking lot for runners only (free) which was right across from the registration.  Sweet!  It rained a lot yesterday and was cooler, so there was a lot of fog.  This picture cannot really give justice to how beautiful the warmup track was with all the horses going around.

John pinning his number (he isn’t a pose-person)

I am a poser, however!  Squinting in the bright fog – I look irritated, but I’m not.  Wearing the Triscuit – love it!

We started at the end of the 8mile pacers.  Reason being is that the ‘corrals’ only go to 9 minutes, so all walkers and everyone else slower is there which creates a lot of backlog.

The gun went off and it took us 20 seconds to actually get to the starting line!  Lots and lots of people.  You know, a lot of really slow people were in the lower time corrals, since John and I were passing people right and left (literally).  That was mildly annoying because it slows you down and makes you weave around (wasting energy).  But, it doesn’t matter, really.  It was a nice day to race, mid 60s and the sun was not out all the way due to the fog.  It came out about 2/3  of the way.  This is a nice flat track through town.  I found I did not have any sprint in me.  Since I stopped speed work, I lost my sprint! LOL!  John and I kept pace for most of the race, then he got a bit ahead and I used him as my pacer.  Couldn’t miss him with that bright orange shirt!  He crossed the line about 25 seconds before I did.

Bravo to John for a PR of 28:59!  I did 29:22.  I was quite happy with that as the first mile was somewhat slower with the clog of people.  I assumed that they started the timing when we crossed the start, but John started his stopwatch and it showed  time of 20 seconds faster than official, so maybe not.  A lot different than the 45 minutes from last year!

Anyway – we were both enormously pleased and happy!  This race really treats you special, too.  They had muffins, donuts, bananas, oranges, bagels available from Price Chopper.  And then the swag bags!

We forewent the bagels there and had oranges and took home a muffin so that we could get an even better bagel at Uncommon Grounds!

Oat bran with light cream cheese.  Yum!

Got home and took the best shower ever!  I love how great it feels when you are all sweaty and sticky and step under the shower head.  One of those simple things that I love to appreciate.

This is the contents of the swag bag:

Can you believe all this stuff?  It’s worth the $25, really.   I can’t remember the last time I had poptarts. The sponsors are very generous.  Although I did just get a new toothbrush on Thursday at the dentist!  Pixie was very interested in everything, too.

Party for John this evening.  Just finished baking his cake with chocolate buttercream frosting!  Will probably post all that tomorrow.

Enjoy your Saturday and touch base with your loved ones!

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