Racing Near and Far - Hitting the Road

I have been planning a trip to St. Louis for April since I left there in August last year because we planned to do the spring GO race again. The only question when I left was what distance we were going to do and whether two of us, tom and I or three of us, including Stacie would be running. April is also my son Jeff's 50th birthday so I decided that I was going to drive again this trip so that when I left St. Louis I could drive to Florida for his birthday and pick up Clarence on the way if he could get vacation. Then depending on Fred and Leah's schedule we would go visit them on the way to taking Clarence back to Athens. After my last cross country trip I said that I wasn't sure when or if I would do it again and here I am eight months later doing it again.

Before leaving on the trip I had two races near home. The first was the Run to Reach the World 5K in Turlock as Stanislaus State. It was the first time I had been on the campus and I was really impressed with how nice it was. The race went well and I won the 60 - Infinity age group but still couldn't get back under 36 minutes.

The next race I ran was a 5K at the Modesto Marathon.  It was a good race but I still missed going under 36:00. When I finished I couldn't understand why the medical staff lady was looking at me like a vulture at roadkill until I told her I was fine; then I saw the finish line pictures online. 😳

 

 

 

 

Before leaving for my trip we picked up two miniature horses that Brandy was adopting. It's amazing how small they are and they're full grown. Gregg took them to Brandy while I was gone so I won't see them again until I go back to Oregon. 

 

   

The dogs and Oliver all found them interesting. Something else that happened while I was gone is that out killdeer eggs hatched and the mother moved the babies out back. I was so impressed watching her protect those eggs and stay with them through the pouring rain and cold nights.