New egg alert!

We got our first egg from the new batch of chicks we hatched/bought this year! It was from Penny, our golden comet. She is small, and the egg is small and smooth and a light chocolate color. It is just perfect! For the record, she was 19 weeks when she laid the first egg. We are waiting on five more pullets to begin laying, and we are so excited to see those eggs!

I love running in early fall. The evenings are cooler, the leaves are just now starting to change, and the fallen ones crackle under my feet. The sweet smell of corn is still in the air along with hints of bonfire smoke. It is such a glorious time of year to be out in nature. Even running in the evenings aren't so bad when I have this kind of overload of the senses to fill me up.

Run the Jug 5k race report:



I won my age group and came in second overall for the women. My time was not great, 23:48. However, I gave up my goal of breaking 23:00 this year awhile ago, so I can be happy with this result. I am still having a hard time swallowing that fact that my best 5k time was at my first 5k of the season~ that's not the way it's supposed to work!

Thank goodness I am done with 5k's for now. I have a 10k to look forward to in a week, and maybe I will be lucky enough to find some longer races over the winter. I love the longer races where I can really relax into the distance and get to benefit from some of that "runner's high" that is nonexistent in a 5k.

I have a 5k on Sunday, and honestly, I could care less. I just want to get it over with. I have been so diappointed with my 5k times that I really just need to move onto something else in order to get over this hump. What I am really looking forward to is a 10k I have next month. I haven't run a 10k in a long time, probably at least 9 years. I can't even find any of my past 10k times, which may actually be a blessing considering I seem to have a problem fixating on past times and then being disappointed with the reality of my slowness. So I feel like I am starting anew! I am going to go into this race with no preconceived notions or expectations and just enjoy the distance.

I have two more runs this week before my 5k race on Sunday afternoon and I am really just going to try to relax and visualize running my race with a positive attitude and a healthy, happy body. Hopefully that will help me to avoid any ugly mental hang-ups that could creep up on me on Sunday and prevent me from enjoying the race.