We went back to the Iowa State Fair again today.

Seeing as the Fair was our sole reason (for the most part) for our trip to Iowa, we were back at it by 9:00 am.

Before we headed on out to the Fair, I did a small 5 mile training run.  Just because I am on vacation, doesn’t mean I put running on the back burner.  I figured out that I really only have 6 weeks of serious training for the Chicago Marathon before it is time to taper for that race.  Yikes, huh?  So, I am running even though I am on vacation.

So, I ran from 7:00-8:00 am and was walking through the Fairground gates by 9:00 am.  I flew!

We wanted to get there by 9:00 because there was an event we wanted to see.  It was called Cowboy Mounted Shooting Contest.  It was exactly what it sounds like.  There were men and women “Cowboys” riding their horses through an obstacle course shooting at targets.  They were timed.  There was a 5 sec. penalty for knocking over a cone or barrel and for missing a target.  The fastest time was 16 seconds.  That guy was flying!!!

The other highlight for today was in the baby animal building.  There were some piglets that had been born yesterday.  Soooooo cute and tiny!  The sign said that in 6 months they will weigh 275 lbs!  Wowee!!!  They have some serious eating ahead of them.

Also in the baby animal building, we were there when a calf was born!  That was pretty awesome.  The Mama cow was not terribly impressed with all the people crowding around her pen at that particular time but it was cool all the same.  That building has large TV monitors up all over the place and they have a camera there televising all that is happening in that pen.  It was pretty funny when the calf tried to stand up for the first time because everybody got real quiet when he tried to stand…he fell back down and the whole building went, “Ahhhhh!”

We, of course, went to see the Butter Cow.  Saw the biggest pumpkin at the Fair (over 1,000lbs) and the biggest Ram (507lbs).  We saw hog judging, sheep judging and of course at a lot.

The question remains, am I Faired out?  Well, whether I am or not, we already have tickets for tomorrow so I am going again for the last time.  They are having the sheep shearing contest tomorrow and I want to be there for that.  They judge you on how fast you can sheer your sheep and how good of a job you do.  Before we go to Fair again tomorrow, though, there is still that ticklish matter of getting out of bed and running before we can go.

Early bird gets the worm and all that nonsense.  🙂