Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Under the pale moonlight

This weekend my husband and I were kid free! This is a rare thing for us. We had planned on having one free night but when he told me Friday morning that we scored two free nights I was stoked. The plan was to meet our running friends on Saturday afternoon in Cades Cove for the annual moonlight run. Friday night we had a nice dinner at home and then I sweet talked my honey into going to the park. I was just interested in a little walk but since I wore my Garmin it turned into a run/walk. My hip felt well! This was a plus for me and I got excited just thinking about the fact that my PT is helping.

anyway...
The plan for Saturday was to get up and hit the gym for my swim. We ended up sleeping in Saturday morning instead and when we got out of bed decided to forgo the gym. We went to the Farmer's Market instead. Much better idea than the gym, especially since we both had plans to do the loop (hubby to run, me to bike) later Saturday night. We scored some great things at the market. I love buying local! We hadn't eaten breakfast yet so we stopped at a little stand that had mini cupcakes, mini muffins and the best granola bar I ever laid eyes (or taste buds!) on!!
[caption id="attachment_1393" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Deliciousness!! Can someone please tell me how to make these?? [/caption]

This granola bar was seriously SO good that I did not want to share even a tiny bit with my husband, but because I am so nice I did. Then we both wish we had bought more but since it was $3 for the one bar I was a bit leery. However, next time we go back to the Farmer's Mkt I will be buying way more than one bar!

After we shopped around a while we decided we should have lunch. We had a nice little date. We shared a burger and fries and then came home to pack the car for camping in the Cove!

My plan was for us to be up there by early afternoon but it took a lot longer to pack everything than we planned plus we got caught in traffic on the way up thanks to a rock slide repair and a minor fender bender. Oh well. We still managed to get to our camp site by around 3 or so. The run wasn't scheduled to take off until 8pm so we had plenty of time to hang out and chat with our running friends. We sat around and debated not going around the loop at all. I mean sitting around a camp fire, roasting marshmellows for s'mores is more appealing than an 8-11 mile run (bike ride!), right!?!?

And some debating we did. For real. Had it not been for our organizer of events the rest of us probably would have been into the coolers and onto the food early in the evening.

But at 8pm it was time. I was the only person out of 42 runners that was on a bike. Bummer. My running friends are great though. They're all very encouraging and told me it was great that I was injured yet still out there getting it done. So true!

Here's the whole group before we took off...
[caption id="attachment_1394" align="aligncenter" width="300"] KTC Socialites [/caption]
Such a fab group of runners!

Some of the girls decided before the run that they were only going to do the 8 mile loop. I use the term only because the next longer loop was the full 11 miles. I wasn't sure I'd be up for 11 so I decided to hang with them. I guess I really didn't hang with them since I went ahead of them mostly but I knew they were close should I have trouble. I stopped to take a few pics along my ride.

[caption id="attachment_1395" align="aligncenter" width="225"] the happy runner as she rides[/caption]
Note: I'm wearing a long sleeve jacket. It was a chilly night! We'd been in the 80s all week long and the temp dropped by 20 degrees before the start of the run.

I also snapped some pics of my buddies...
[caption id="attachment_1396" align="aligncenter" width="300"] yay running friends![/caption]

The moon was quite full by the half way point but there was still too much light to capture any great pics, at least with my little camera. The half way point was on a gravel road. I was a bit nervous about this given the fact that I am still not quite great on the bike but I did just fine. The only issue I had was once we got to the end of the gravel road and were making the turn back to camp... traffic was insane!!! The cars honestly scared me. Even when we are running the traffic is a pain but being on the bike and being a bit unsteady I was nervous.

If you know anything about Cades Cove you know it is quite hilly. Not a huge deal for me usually as I have ran it at least 5 times, but let me tell you it is a different beast on the bike. Even still I am proud to say that I only walked one small portion of a hill and probably wouldn't have even walked that if I had not decided it was the right time to turn on my headlamp. The whole back half of the loop was super dark! I was out there alone too since I had passed my running friends for the final time.

Towards the end of my ride as I was getting closer to the exit I noticed that the temps really had dropped. I could see my breath! I also was hoping that the exit and camp site was closer than it was. My quads were on fire from the hills and the fact that I had been pumping my legs non stop the last 4.5 miles of the ride. I can't tell you how many times I told myself I wish I was running instead. Cades Cove is not an easy run but I knew after being on the bike running it was easier than riding it!

And while it was suppose to be a moonlight run I never did see the moon that well. I knew it was up there and that it was full but the back half of the loop has such great tree cover that the moon wasn't visible like I imagined it would be.

Once back at camp s'mores were made and brats were roasted over the campfire. We stayed up chatting with friends until after 1am and even though we forgot our pillows and pad for under our sleeping bags it was still one of the most fun nights I've had. This was the first time I had done real tent camping and I loved it. The whole experience was great. I'm thankful for my running friends/group and love the social aspect that running has brought to me.

Fun, fitness and friends... what more could a girl ask for!?

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