The last day of the Persimmon Festival is one of my favorite days of the year. While I don’t participate much in the festivities all the during the week, I go all out on the last day. It begins with the 5K and ends with the parade. In between there is a lot of relaxing time with family and friends.

My day began pretty early. I went to the race early to deliver brochures for our Thanksgiving Day 4 mile race, and I found out that a huge number had pre-registered for the Persimmon 5K. This meant I had to go make more brochures; turns out I still did not make enough. Oh well. There were about 250 participants!

Racing a 5K while training for a marathon is an interesting thing. Covering the distance is no problem - have to run about 8.5 5Ks to do a marathon. While training for a marathon you do some speed work but nothing close to what you should do for a 5K. They are still fun to run, because they are over pretty quickly. I covered the course in 21.22, which is 8 seconds faster than last year. I was happy with it. One of these days I want to train for a 5K and break 20 minutes again.

One of the neatest things of the race was reconnecting with Benny Hickok. We used to work together at Hoosier Uplands and had the best time! He has turned into a running machine. He does ultras now (100 milers) and still ran a 20 minute 5K. Wow!

The kids races were a delight to watch. My little great nieces did really well. Little Anna finished 4th in the short race, and Emma won the 800 meter race! See her flying through the air with the greatest of ease?

The parade was good as usual. Roger, our deaf neighbor (see photo above) hung with us. He seems to really enjoy the company. He loved the old cars and trucks in the parade. Ben, Rebecca, and my dad were all in the parade in various capacities, so it was nice to see them go by.

The weather was simply perfect for all the activities yesterday!