This weekend was the 10th Annual Tomato Art Fest in Nashville, kicked off by the Tomato 5K.  The group I run with, East Nasty, offers free couch to 5K training every summer called

Potato to Tomato

.  P2T takes runners from a couch potato to a Tomato 5K finisher in 8 weeks.  I coached for the first time last year & coached again this year.  In the picture above, the coaches are in green & the potatoes are in red.

This is my group, Group 11.  My two co-coaches are Del & Jennifer, & then Glenda, who coached last year & ended up helping me coach a lot this year.  Thanks, Glenda!  Two of the runners I coached last year, came back this year & joined my group again:  Cat & Astrid.  Astrid ended up getting sick & was unable to run on Saturday & Cat, you can read more about

here

.

Surprise!  I write the ENOW blog posts for

East Nasty

.  I just realized that a lot of you probably don't know that.  I've been writing them since February.

This is me running Janice, one of the Group 11 potatoes, across the finish line.  Janice started the P2T program last year, but got hurt & had to walk the 5K.  I worked with her a lot this year & ended up running with her every session because she ran better with me beside her.  When we got to the race on Saturday, I asked her if she wanted me to run with her & she said she did, so I ran the race beside her.

If you don't know, the Tomato 5K course is no joke.  It's the hardest 5K course in Nashville.  It's almost all uphill.  We practiced it a lot & Janice always ran the first 2 hills & then walked the last one.  We had planned on doing the same on race day, but when we got to that last hill I said, "You can walk one block, so choose wisely" & she said, "No.  I'm running the whole thing today."  And she did!  This was her first 5K & she ran the whole thing!  I'm so proud of her.

No rest for the wicked.  I hightailed it out of East Nashville & Lana & I went to Percy Priest for our last open water swim practice.  When we pulled up, we were puzzled as to why no one was there.  And then we got in the water.  Y'all that water was FREEZING.  In August!  There were also speedboats & wave runners as close to us as they're allowed to get, so the water was super choppy.  In fact, I have bruises on the underside of my arms again from hitting the water so hard.  HAM, y'all.  HAM.

Every year, I run the Tomato 5K, go home & never come back for the festival.  I went this year, albeit straight from the lake.  I wrote a song about it called "My Lake Smell Brings All The Boys To The Yard".  But I had a lot of fun at the festival & will definitely go back next year.  I was really blown away by all the tomato art.  I expected it to be kitschy & weird, but it was mostly stuff I wanted to buy & hang in my house.

Sunday was our last training ride & brick practice before the race this weekend.  I met Lana on Natchez Trace to ride 30 miles & run 4.  I wanted to do it about as much as I wanted to go get a colonoscopy, but I went.  And then Lana gave me the best gift she's ever given me - she forgot her running shoes, so we could only ride, not run.  I didn't have a run in me, so it was perfect.  We rode the 30 miles & then treated ourselves to Cracker Barrel.

I was insanely hungry, so I ordered Mama's Pancake Breakfast, which is buttermilk pancakes, eggs, bacon & then I added a side of hashbrown casserole.  Y'all, I ate all of it.  I'm not even kidding.  I ate all of it.  And I lost a pound!  Ha!  Oh, metabolism, you so crazy.

Full Tomato 5K & Tomato Art Fest photostream

here

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