This race was a first for me.  I had originally planned & registered for the Falling Leaves 5k in Ballston Spa (where I won my age group last year).  But my 2 friends wanted to go to the UAlbany reunion activities so this fit better into the day.

I play tennis here all summer but I’ve never run here.  I did hear that Perimeter Rd is quite hilly but I hoped this course would be flat.

It turned out to be a perfect running day – sunshine and cool temps.  In fact, it was chilly when I arrived.

There was a pretty small crowd – about 120  – mostly college students with a few ARE runners mixed in.  I decided to run without my jacket because I knew I would be warm and I was right.

I was wrong about it being flat. In fact, the course consisted of one hill after another.  It never ended. Part of it was a trail run along the pond.  It was pretty but exhausting.

There were no mile markers so I may have run the first 2 miles too fast but by the last hill, I had to walk.  This of course, wrecked my time & I finished at 30:28.

This was not a PR but not bad for this HILLY course.  They gave out awards for the 1st place in each age group and I was 2nd.  I think you got a cookie & a dog bone on a string (Great Dane is the school mascot). No great loss there!

My college friends did not arrive  for a while so I waited and relaxed.

The rest of the day was spent reminiscing and chatting.  We toured the campus and took some pics.

check out the rainbow

Eventually, I went home to change and met everyone at a restaurant for dinner before we headed back to campus to listen to Barbara Walters.

Barbara Walters was very interesting!!! Afterwards, we headed to Starbucks to continue the evening…

Happy Running!  Hope you had a good day!