Twelve Miles of Beauty

Last week I ran 10 miles with my dad. I hadn't run further than 8 miles since my last race. Time and other things to do just prevented the longer runs from happening.

I had a great race with my dad and felt really good about my times. So this morning when I headed out to run around the lake, I was hoping to keep it to the same distance and time.

But this view and tons of friends kept me (I felt) from running as fast as I could have.

Imagine my surprise to realize that I was considerably faster than before and I was already at mile 10.5 and across the lake from my house. So I went ahead and ran 12 miles today. With an incredible time. I was pumped!

Now I'm just tired and sore. But my cousin is here at camp meeting as well and asked if I would run with him on Wednesday morning. So it looks like I'll be running 3 days this weeks since the race is on Friday. It's a wonderful start to my marathon training that was going to start when I returned from this trip.

What a beautiful, gorgeous new day!

NC flowers and things

As usual, I took millions (almost literally) of flower and scenery pictures here at camp meeting.

I'm not sure how to explain it, but I crave these mountains. It's a feast for my eyes that I find myself needing every year. And every year, I can't believe how fast the week went by.

This week is a spiritual, mental, and physical retreat that I NEED to function the rest of the year. 

And this week was the best week of camp meeting we've had yet.

It was quiet, calming, peaceful, and relaxing.

 Our house is directly across from this cross. So every morning we look out and see it reflecting on the lake. Then in the evening when the lights come on we can see it shimmering in the lake again.

So beautiful!

 This man rocks my world! 

So thankful he was able to be here the whole time this year.

Now that we have friends across the street and several people willing to house sit, it makes it easier to leave for a whole week and just let go.

 Lake Junaluska has been here for 100 years. My first camp meeting was here at Lake Junaluska when I was 10 weeks old . Maybe someday my kids will be able to say they've been coming here forever too.

This post is becoming ridiculously long, but I can't help myself.
This was the view from our deck one "smokey" morning. Wake up in the Smokey Mountains and you'll see where they got their name.

 The view from Inspiration Point.

 One of my favorite places on campus - the stone chapel.

Can't wait for next year!

Rose Walk

One of my favorite things about camp meeting as a child was the Rose Walk. The scenery and lake is beautiful. The flowers look and smell gorgeous. It's just a peaceful and serene walk.

Race Day

After last year's 1 mile race at camp meeting, I was determined to run the 5k this year. I was so careful not to step into any holes or mess my legs up. =)

To add drama to the story - I left my gps watch at home. I knew the race wasn't chipped and it was timed rather primitively. There are no mile markers either. So I convinced my parents to stop at my house on the way to camp meeting and pick up my watch. I made sure it was fully charged once I got it.

On race day I was joined by my dad and son. Since it's camp meeting, there were also a ton of friends and other family members who ran either the 5k or fun run.

I wrote about Dominic's race on the kids blog.

As I started the race I pushed the timer on my watch only to receive a message that the history was full. It would record the pace I was going, but nothing else. I took off a lot faster than I'd planned because I was trying to catch up with Dominic to slow him down. When I finally caught up with him, he wouldn't slow down. It took me into the 2nd mile to pass him.  He was keeping pace with another lady and I asked her where we were as far as mileage and pace. Since she was running a 9:30 pace I stayed with her until about mile 2.75 and then I took off. I'm very thankful for both her and my son. I had a pr (personal record) because of both of them and finished strong. Which means I could have done even better if I'd pushed a little more. Incentive for next year!

My finishing time was 27:26 (Assuming the coarse was correct and their time was on, since my watch had issues. I'll have a better grasp on it next year.)

Visiting with my cousin.

 Taking off.

 Pushing to the end.

 I barely had time to come in and take a breath before I headed out to run back in with Dominic.

 First medal (not counting that one I got for last year's fun run) since I began running again as an adult. First place in my age division (female 30-39).

 Next year I'll do even better. I have a goal to work towards.

I may be getting older, but I intend to get better as well.

Confession Time

I have a confession to make. I lied at a church function. And to make matters even worse - I told my daughter to lie too. I'm still not sure which is worse - the daughter part or the church part.

This week was our annual camp meeting adventure and they have once again changed the age that parents are allowed to leave their children unattended. I remember my mom leaving my brother in diapers. And now the age is 5 yrs old. Caitlin is quite use to being left alone for several hours and is fine with it. She is also in the Kindergarten program at church and would not be interested in the Preschooler program they have here for her age. She didn't want to go to the meetings last year and wanted to join the Kindergarteners. So I KNEW she would be bored this year.

So I told Caitlin that for one week she would be five. She would go back to being four when we got home. I explained why and told her that I don't normally condone lying. Pretty sure that she's going to be confused about the mixed message, but I've waited for 6 years to attend an adult meeting and I'm too afraid they'll change the age again next year. So I bit my tongue and went for it.

So now that I've made my confession - I'm having the time of my life. 

Jon and I are almost giddy with our freedom.  =)

Bookstore!

Jon and I went to a bookstore today that was out of this world. I'm not talking McKay's out of this world. I'm talking about entertaining and crazy out of this world.

It looked small and tame from the outside.

The lady came ambling waddling down from her house up the hill when we came down the driveway. We drove over a sensor that let her know when to come to her store. Very country!

 But the second we walked in the door we knew we were in for an experience.

We could barely get in the door and certainly not side by side. It was single file only.

The aisles are literally 1 1/2 feet across. This is the "skinny only" bookstore.

Jon had to turn sideways and suck in his stomach in several places.

And Jon isn't a huge guy. So you can imagine how claustrophobic some people would feel in here.

 Some aisles ended rather abruptly and I had to almost crawl back out of my hole to get to the next aisle.

 Can you see Jon at the end of the aisle? I'm at the back of the store.

Jon wouldn't venture down that far. =)

I'm guessing from this sign that she had someone steal some things. Another sign said she had 16 cameras. (In case you can't read the sign - She called the police because someone took two 8-track tapes.)

The books were incredibly expensive for used. But Jon and I figured it was worth the price for admission and bought three that we could get to that looked appealing.

Apparently she knows exactly how many she has and where to find them. 

Outstanding! The crazy thing is, I can totally get her hobby.

Camp Meeting II

Just a few more pictures from camp meeting.

Next year we'll bring our kayaks.

 I love this chapel.

 These kids were so cute. They had drawn all over the sidewalk and had lines that they wanted everyone who passed by to sign. Apparently I was their first signature and they were so excited.

Not sure why, but they wanted me to add a plus sign at the end of my name. =)

 The top of an old pillar.

 The Rose Walk

 I'm a mountain girl. I was raised just a few minutes from these mountains and miss them so much. So every year at camp meeting I get my mountain fix and take tons of pictures to hold me until the next year.

So thankful for Carolina Camp Meeting at Lake Junaluska.