This morning was the annual (I guess, but we’ve never done it before) Purcellville Turkey Trot. John and I registered a few weeks ago to run the 5K, but neither of us really prepared for it. And then last night I checked the weather and saw the 50% chance of rain all morning. So we decided to make the decision when we got up, based on whether or not it was raining then. We both knew that putting off making the decision about whether to go until morning made it a lot less likely that we would actually get out of bed. But 7:00 rolled around, the alarm went off, it wasn’t raining, and John (very unenthusiastically) said we really should go. We paid to register, so we should go (and get our t-shirts. I know that’s Dad’s big motivation!). My argument was that the money was going to a good cause (Loudoun Valley Community Center, I think) whether we ran or not. But he was right, so we got up and got going. It took us about 25 minutes or so to get there. It was a little chilly (mid to upper 50s), but we found a great parking spot in the (really cute) historic section of Purcellville, right across the street from the registration table. Picked up our goodie bags, pinned our numbers to our shirts, and then stood in line for the bathroom. Girls take forever! Except me. 🙂 We were almost the last people to join the crowd at the starting line, and then John helped me get a little more towards the middle (because I’m really paranoid about being the last person in a race. I didn’t want to start out at the very back.).
Anyway, the race started and I lost sight of John immediately (as usual). I was trying to figure out which random people in the pack I would end up staying near the whole time. There’s always someone I’m trying to catch and someone I’m trying to stay ahead of. Today there was a short woman in a white shirt and a brown hat who was usually just ahead of me. I passed her a couple of times, but never for very long. There was also a woman wearing today’s race shirt (the shirts for this race are really nice – soft, long-sleeve, and nice autumn gold color) and long grey pants, tall, who stayed pretty much even with me the whole race. We leap-frogged some, but neither of us could break away. Finally, there was this girl in a light blue shirt who drove me crazy. She was running just ahead of me, but then she’d stop to walk. I’d pass her, and then a while later, she’d pass me, running again. But she never got very far ahead of me, so what kind of pace was she running? Fast enough to catch up and pass me after walking for a while, but not so fast that she never got more than 15-20 feet ahead of me – that’s a really weird, uneven pace. And no, I wasn’t speeding up when she was ahead of me. So that was driving me a little crazy ’cause she just didn’t fit.
The second mile was HARD. It was all along this long, straight, hilly road. There may have only been two or three hills, but they were big ones. You couldn’t see the next one until you had climbed the first, so you couldn’t tell how many more times you’d be running uphill. And no one likes to run uphill. The third mile was mostly on the W&OD Trail, and that was gorgeous. It was lined with trees, so the trail was lightly covered in leaves, and the sun had come out. Very pleasant, even though the third mile is when I’m struggling and just trying to keep my feet moving. I had planned to try to sprint to the finish, but I couldn’t see the clock and the line until I was almost on top of them, so I didn’t end up doing that. I finished strong, though. And I felt great when it was over. We grabbed some water, walked around a little, and headed back home. John wanted to stop at Melodee Music to see if they had a bridge for his guitar, but they weren’t open yet, so we had breakfast at the Georgetown Cafe in Leesburg.
The Georgetown Cafe is on King Street, just south of Market. I’ve seen it a bunch of times, but have never gone in. They had a sign in the window advertising chocolate chip pancakes, so we decided to go in (and then neither of us ordered chocolate chip pancakes). Anyway, the waiter/host/etc (manager?) was Gary (I think), and was really nice. A little goofy, but nice, and we’ll definitely be coming back. I can see us becoming regulars (sort of – we don’t do breakfast out all that often). He says he gets a lot of runners on weekends after races.
To wrap up this very long post, we had a yummy breakfast, went to Melodee where John did not find a bridge for his guitar, went to Potomac River Running to buy new shoes for me, and then came home. We’re going to West Virginia in less than two hours, so I’m going to take care of a couple of things (like showering and packing).
