Fontana Dam 5k

After a very disappointing year, I'm starting to get back into the swing of things.  I'm not quite ready to race a 5k and will be way off of my PR, but tomorrow's 5k will get the gears going for what I hope will be a better end to the year in terms of running.  I'll be doing the Fontana Dam 5k and Chris will be running the 10k event.  We chose this event for several reasons:

•  it's down the road from where we honeymooned 4 years ago so it's very dear to us
• it's FLAT and fast - probably only 50 total elevation change in the mountains which is ridiculous
• it's got gorgeous scenery
• it's a small event that only had a few competitors last year (but those that were there were fast) so it'll give Chris a good race
• it had two events - given my setbacks, i'll be doing 1/2 the distances of Chris this fall so we found a series of events to do that had multiple distances:  5k/10k at fontana, 10k/30k at salem lake, 1/2 marathon and full marathon at savannah

I really have no expectations for this race and honestly thought I'd have to scratch all of this last week.  My hip flexor flaired up when I started training again this July and once that got under control, I had to go have two ingrown toenails partially removed.  Things got much better after that (last week) but then we went river tubing Saturday and my foot slipped on a rock and got wedged in the rock pile, peeling back my big toenail.  Lots of R&R and babying it this week led to a good pre-race shakeout last night of 2 miles, but the longest I've logged in the last 6 weeks was a 3.8 mi run.  My times are slowed right now and so I go in with the expectation not to PR, but rather to get a taste of what I've missed and reignite the fire!  

Catchup

This spring we had the great fortune of going out to the BIG SUR marathon weekend where I was able to slug out the 10.6 mi (breathtakingly beautiful) run with an injured hip flexor.  The next week I got first place in my age group at the New River 5K race, despite it being my slowest 5k ever.  The course had about 3/4 mi climb followed by a 3/4 mi decent that destroyed my knees.  That on top of my diagnosed rector femoris hip flexor tendonitis made for a rough go of the spring.  The summer was occupied with maintenance miles and dissertation writing.  But I finished (I'm now Dr. J) and am starting to get really excited about running again.  This weekend we pick up our new family addition - Oliver - an 8 week old German Shorthaired Pointer.  We're very excited to have a dog finally and maybe even more excited for a running partner!!  The breeder has been sending us pictures and he sure looks like a runner to me:

Oliver - 7 weeks

Recap

So the next 24 hours could be considered our "Puppymoon" (I've had several friends go on Babymoons before the baby comes...so why not Puppymoon?).  We'll be camping at the base of the Fontana Dam, getting up in the morning for races, stopping in Asheville for lunch (so many amazing choices!), and coming home to pick up Mr. Oliver.  Yay!