A chilly run, a personal best, and another day of fun!

Saturday morning, Zack and I decided to run the Tulip Festival 5K in Orange City, IA. I have been doing quite a bit of running and had had my heart set on running the road race at the Tulip festival. However, the weather was really cold with temperatures in the forties and wind chill causing it to feel more like 34. So, I was wavering on my decision...until Zack made the point that I would be really disappointed if we didn't run it. So, we got up early Saturday morning and went out into the cold windy day to run a 5K. We were wearing our warmest clothes that we had brought (along with some hats and gloves that we borrowed from my Aunt and Uncle) and once we got running, it wasn't too bad unless you got hit by a big gust of wind. My parents and Aunt and Uncle came out into the cold to cheer us on, and Zack was my little cheerleader running the whole race with me (despite his knees hurting him after about a mile). He was very good about encouraging me to push myself. Our goal was to finish, but I was hoping to break 27 minutes, which is what I had run three miles in a couple of times during my training. So, I was THRILLED when we crossed the finish line in 26:31. This is a PR for me in an actual race! I did once run 3 miles in 25:25, but in was during a half marathon...when I was in much better shape! :)

The start of the race, Zack and I throwing our sock caps at our family!

The finish

Very Tired, but very happy with my time!!

After going back to our room and getting ready to face the rest of the day, we went to the Tulip festival to look through all of the art booths that had been set up for Artburst. My mom and Aunt loved looking at all of the jewlery. There were some really interesting pieces...and there were lots of painting and pottery to look at as well.

They had paint your own pottery that you could do and they would fire right there so that you could take it home that day.

We also stopped to briefly watch Brlue', a Native American Indian Rock Opera group. It was an interesting experience and there music was...different...not really my style, but it was fun to expereince it all the same.

After spending our afternoon looking at arts/crafts and listening to music, we headed to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner before going to see the local production of Brigadoon. It was a culturally full day! :) (We experienced pieces of Dutch, Native American, Mexican, and Scottish cultures all in one day!)