30 Days of...: A Run, and then the Ranch!!

So today was the Big Woods Run in Faribault. (I did the 10k.) The run started at 9, but I was told I should get there as early as possible to get parked and ready.

Leaving on a cold morning, in the dark, at 6am was a pretty harsh start to a Saturday. This was tempered by a few things: the radio was quite friendly, pumping me up with some great dance hits I'd recently downloaded to my running mix AND (which was the coolest) -- Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Totally epic at 6:30 am.

Also, I had done a poor job of having food in the house to prepare for a run, so I got to stop at McDonald's for hash browns, OJ, and a sausage McMuffin.

So delicious.

So anyway, it was a chilly morning but I was hopeful it would warm up a bit once the sun was up. It wasn't too bad, but the first (and last) mile of the race was on a paved county road with fields on either side. It was nice and warm to the east, from the sun, but you were simultaneously buffeted from freezing winds to the west. I managed to make it to mile 1 before I saw the first of the 5k runners hit their final mile.

Yup. I was pretty much last. That's fine by me, though.

The whole morning's challenges was rendered completely worthwhile once I hit the trail in the park. Dappled sunlight, a fairly flat trail, no one around... Gorgeous. And I did pass at least one person so I wasn't totally last.

My reward was lunch at the brand-new Pizza Ranch location in Lakeville!!!

It was epic. I totally heart Pizza Ranch.