Vegan Festival & Women’s Fitness Festival 10k

It has been a busy weekend, in a good way. Maybe not for Leela, she has been a couch potato most of the weekend enjoying her blanket.

Even dragging it into the kitchen when she jumped out of bed for dinnertime.

I had a simple, post gym dinner Thursday of veggies and tofu sauteed in marinara sauce.

Simple, filling, and healthy.

Friday night was a little less healthy when we stepped out to Il Fornaio for vegan pizza with plenty of artichoke hearts, eggplant, and mushrooms.

What I like about living in the foothills is we’re never a far drive from completely different weather and scenery. Saturday we drove to Nevada City, which is just a short and scenic hour drive, for a vegan festival. It was the first of this type of event for the area and I hope it becomes an annual tradition. It was a smaller festival in a quint and historic building, but there was plenty of sampling and chatting.

Conscious Creamery was there and we finally got to try it! I had missed them at SacTown VegFest and a few other events in the past, so this was a treat and it’s amazing vegan gelato. Hubby and I split a serving of the lemon flavor and yum. The area is a cute, historic mountain town with tons of stuff in walking distance from art stores, book shops, eco shops, etc. And maps with vegan friendly places in the area were provided at the festival, so we set out exploring on foot after seeing everything in the festival. The area is so hilly, we got great workouts!

The first restaurant we tried was too packed for my patience with a long wait list, so we moved on to South Pine Cafe for a late lunch. They had some solid vegan options on the lunch and brunch menu with a fun, laid back atmosphere. They were also packed, but we got right in and got a table. Hubby got the vegan BLT plate with home fries and I got the spicy hummus avocado wrap.

Both great and service was fast and friendly, thumbs up.

We explored more shops and streets checking out crazy buildings and cute, historic homes.

It’s a nice area and somewhere I’d consider retiring to, love the scenery, cooler temps, mild snow dustings, and friendly vibe. But it’s also a long-ish drive to get to a Whole Foods or Costco. For now it’s a fun day getaway, especially during the hot summer.

After snacking and a late lunch, I had a light dinner of Amy’s Organic Lentil soup with bread and watermelon to fuel up and not weigh me down for an early 10k race this morning.

I had mixed feelings about getting out of bed so early this moring! My sister and I did the Women’s Fitness Festival race, a huge annual event for women celebrating women’s health, fitness and etc. For years it’s only been a 5k race around the state capital in Sacramento, but they’ve changed the options and added a 10k race this year which we did. Both the 5 and 10k races started at 7:30am which seemed brutally earlier than it needed to be for shorter races. But the weather was great, sunny and not too hot.

It was packed and always packed every year because they encourage women runners and walkers of every level to participate and learn about women’s health after. Thousands of women and families packed the area. Lots of women targeted freebies and products to buy.

And, again, the race pacers were guys wearing neon wigs. It was a good event, but the 10k race had some annoyances. It looped the 5k course twice so the first loop was packed with all runners that included groups of friends running slower and chatting blocking others from passing. And the 2nd loop was packed with groups of 5k walkers often overflowing into the narrow lane for 10kers. But the biggest annoyance for me was the crowds at the finish festival. There were a lot more 5k runers and walkers that finished before us and packed the breakfast lines, mimosa lines, and all the good freebie lines.

It would have been nice if they started the 10k runners at least 15 minutes before the 5kers. And maybe have a modified 10k course that didn’t loop. When I did make it through the breakfast line, I was happy to see vegan granola offered with almond milk, orange juice, and fruit. My pace for the race was okay, not a PR, but better for the distance and course challenges, so I’m happy. I switched back to my older, high-mileage shoes after having issues with another newer pair and apparently it’s time to replace them because my knees weren’t thrilled towards the end. And I think I just need a break from races for a bit after a busy and challenging spring season. My next planned race is in September, so I’m looking forward to throttling back a bit for the summer and focusing more on speed.

For an interesting post-race lunch, I simmered Explore Asian Soybean protein spaghetti in a miso broth with chopped cauliflower because I need to hit Costco soon for more veggies!