There's no place like Kansas for state 28

 

I ran my 28th state in Salina, KS on November 8, 2025.  The temps were excellent...I wore a fleece while waiting that I donated to the fence...and leggings with a tank and arm sleeves.  I took the sleeves off after 2 miles.  But it was windy!  Sometimes I felt like I was being pushed back.  The course started downtown  Salina and ran through the outskirts of the town, including some parks.  It was a pretty course that was flat until mile 6 and after a decent uphill, there were several other hills before it got mostly flat again after mile 8.

I found a hippo on the way to the starting line

The flag was being blown around!

I was able to see some fall colors during the race

Tall grass in Kansas

I felt good during this race.  My goal was to beat 2:30 and I almost did, kind of.  My time was 2:31:35.  What I was happy about was that I only had three miles that were in the 12 minute range, the slowest being 12:15.  My problem is that I start out strong, not too fast, but strong, and then slow down the second half.  This time I did slow down, but not as much as usual.  I honestly think that if the wind had not been so strong from mile 9 to the end of the race, I would have beaten 2:30 hours.  But either way, I felt strong, but felt like I had pushed myself.  

The Salina Crossroads Half also had a full (I guess it really should be said the other way) which was two laps of the half course.  Only one marathon runner finished before me.  He passed me at 2:10 when I had 20 more minutes to go.  That was another win!  

The end of the race was great!  I did not wait in line for the free pizza and burgers, but I did get the free Edwards pie!  The choices were cheesecake or chocolate.  Although I don't really count their cheesecake as true cheesecake, it was still delicious!  Cool and refreshing after running!

  

All in all, this was a great course and the race was well organized with lots of volunteers.  They even gave out peanut M&M's on the course.  And there was a record number of runners...over 5000!  I would definitely recommend it!  

There were lots of sculptures in Salina and one was appropriately a runner!

The medal was shaped like Kansas.  With the weird looking runner on it!

  

The end of our time in Kentucky

The end of my Kentucky trip not only involved running a half, but also fitting in as many activities as possible.  I think I have finally found someone who finds as many activities in an area as I do!  And this area was Slade, KY.

After a good lunch at Daniel Boone Cafe, Friday's first activity was to take a clear kayak tour in an underground quarry, the Gorge Underground.  Not a cave, as we were told several times, but an abandoned limestone mine that became full of water.  It now is used for tours and is full of trout that they introduced to the area.  It was a lot of fun!

We had time before we needed to go to packet pickup, so we went for a 2 mile hike at Natural Bridge.  At the top the views were great!

The view of natural bridge from another moutain.

We got our packets and were assured that we would finish when I had questions about how hard it would be.  The race director/organizers were super nice and had things running smoothly, even if they didn't have the medals due to a delay in shipping.  Small races are not always as exciting as big ones, but being allowed to leave your bag at the start without any questions or fear of someone taking it is an advantage that you can only get at a small race.  

The shirts were nice!

Pizza is my usual pre race dinner, and we found some really good pizza at Miguel's.  Then we found our cute little lodge and got a good night's sleep.  

We stayed at the Black Bear Lodge.  It was clean, but rustic.  The lock on the bathroom door was a piece of wood!

Saturday was our race day which I already wrote about.  After we got back to the house, we cleaned up and rested and went to the Kentucky Wool Festival.  It had a lot of crafts and food, and some booths with wool items.  Mostly wool yarn.  We also saw some sheep and other animals.  It was crowded and fun.  I found a booth with knitted pumpkins and one with goat's milk soap.  It is always good to find soap!

Falmouth is the town we stayed in and the home of the wool festival.

We ended our trip by finishing the puzzle.  I don't do a lot of puzzles at home, but I really enjoyed working on this one.

It was definitely a fun filled trip, but with time for relaxing.  So glad I got to have several days exploring Kentucky.  It was a great week!  

Lots of horses in Kentucky

 

There are lots of horses and horse farms in Kentucky!  So on Thursday, we took a tour of thoroughbred horses and horse farms.  It was a lot of fun and interesting.  The first farm we toured was a retirement farm for horses.  We were able to give peppermints to the horses and see one get his teeth brushed.  I also learned that there are horse dentists so to speak.  Who knew!  And horses can live about 30 years.      

 

Horses like to stick their tongues out!

The horse cemetery

And the pet cemetery

One of the horse tombstones

The next farm we visited had a lot of mares and their foals.  Most of the horse babies are born between January and March.  I really want to visit again in March or April and see the foals after they have first been born. 

More tongues sticking out!

The barns are very nice

Before we went to visit the last farm on the tour, we stopped at a really good bakery called Midway School Bakery.  It was housed in an old school.  

Their gingerbread cookies were SO good!

The last farm was Margaux Farms and it was the prettiest.  We weren't allowed in the barns to not spread germs among the horses, but the outside was beautiful.  This farm has two practice tracks and we saw a jockey riding a horse.  

 

After our horse tour, we then toured Mary Todd Lincoln's house.  I had read Jennifer Chiaverini's historical fiction books about her and was impressed with how much information I knew from reading those books.  The house itself was presented very well and was an enjoyable tour.  

We then went for lunch at Stella's Kentucky Deli and got a really good hot brown!

We walked around Lexington and enjoyed the town, even though we didn't find any cute stores to look in.  I'm sure they must have some, but we didn't find them.  

We ended our day as tourists at the UK Arboretum.  It would be a nice place to run, but this time of year, there was not much blooming.  After we got back to the house, we had another night of hanging out and working on the puzzle.