Runfessions- Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving Rundown
Hi there! I’ll admit I don’t have much to “runfess” since I did that last week. But I did run a turkey trot yesterday- my first race in two years! Plus there’s always some Thanksgiving confessions to make. I’m linking up with Marcia’s Runfessional today! Last week I “runfessed” that I would find it hard not to “race” this race, but there was so much else going on this week, it turned out to be easy to put this race in the proper perspective. I showed up ready to have fun. The race started with the usual crowd of runners. Even though I wasn’t planning to run fast, and had lined up in the front third of runners, I was still boxed in. But there was a guy right in front of me pushing a double stroller and aggressively shouting “EXCUSE ME!” People were jumping out of his way in alarm, and I realized my best bet was to run right behind him. That worked great! The only problem was, I realized we were running at an 8:10 mile pace, and there was no way I had it in me to continue that. I slowed down a bit and finished the first mile in 8:40. Then, in a spectacular display of positive splits, I got slower and slower every mile. Last week when I said if I ran too fast and hurt my foot again I would be in running jail, “Birchwood Pie” suggested my mantra for this race should be “stay out of jail.” Ha ha.. I did think of that, but the truth was my foot felt fine and so did my legs- my limiting factor was my breathing. That’s the way it always is for me- I usually finish a 5k gasping for breath. I finished this one in 28:35, which is a 9:08 mile pace. Two years ago I ran a half marathon at a quicker pace, but you know what… I’ll take it! It’s where I’m at right now, and I just have to embrace it. I was really happy I did this race. My husband ran too, and it felt fun and festive to be running a turkey trot again. Then, home for the Thanksgiving dinner preparation! It’s just the four of us, and it seems every year at some point we exclaim, “It’s a good thing we don’t have anyone coming over!” THIS year, what happened was, we put the apple pie in the oven and the filling oozed out and dripped allover the bottom of the oven. This happened in the first several minutes of baking, and a horrible burnt smell filled the house. When I opened the oven to check, a huge cloud of smoke billowed out. The pie seemed fine, but the house smelled horrible and there was smoke everywhere. My husband said “Good thing we don’t have a smoke detector!” Wait! Is that a good thing? Shouldn’t we have a smoke detector? But in this case it really was a good thing- otherwise the fire department would have been there. When that pie was done baking we let the oven cool down so we could clean it, and that put the whole dinner behind by about an hour. But that’s okay, because we weren’t having any guests. We’re just not the type of family that should have guests over for Thanksgiving. Finally we got this feast on the table… We went for a walk to try and digest a little, before coming back for pie! After we ate so much we could barely move, my son tried to convince us it was time for a “family weigh-in.” WHAT??? Unlike most college freshmen, he’s trying to GAIN fifteen pounds. He’s 6’5″ and can’t seem to gain weight no matter how much he eats. He actually weighed himself and tried to convince the rest of us to join in. No! Stay away from me with that scale! All in all, it was a really fun day. We also got our Christmas tree on Wednesday! We put it up with no decorations, but after Thanksgiving dinner I put the lights and tinsel on. We’ll decorate it (and the rest of the house) today when I get home from work, because my son has to go back to school tomorrow. So Pumpkin Palooza has come to an end, and we are now starting gingerbread season! Hooray! Hope everyone is having a festive week! Did you run a turkey trot? Did you cook a Thanksgiving dinner? If you celebrate Christmas, when do you start decorating?