Thanksgiving 2008 Part 1: The Turkey Trot

Around 6:15 on Thanksgiving morning, Nick was wondering why anyone would choose (of their own free will) to get up early to run a road race. But I was feeling chipper. I had no idea if I'd finish the race with my IT band issues, but I was still excited. A little before 7:00 I was off to my parents place, where we walked 1.6 miles to the start. We also had to pick up numbers and timing chips, which was hilarious. I've never seen timing chips so big. Around 7:45 people started to aimlessly wander into the street, where we were all assuming the start was...And then with no warning people just starting running! Not the most organized start, but there were mile markers with clocks so that was nice.

My mom wound up doing great! She beat her goal time by 2 minutes, and she finished in the top third of her division! Now she's talking about training for a half marathon in May. (It just so happens that I'd also like to run a half in May.) My dad had a little trouble though. He's been fighting a calf injury. Of course, he's also been running for over 20 years now so that probably has something to do with it. I sometimes run with guys at work who have all been running for a few decades, and one of us is always injured with something.

How did my IT band hold up you ask? It was quite a trooper. Before I was having issues, I really wanted to break 21 minutes, and I wound up running 21:15 (pain free). What a shock! I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish. I'm not out of the woods yet though. I tried to run on Saturday and after about a mile it started to act up again. Ugh...the smart thing to do would be to take two weeks off from running and continue my stupid foam roller stretches. And I'll probably do that, but I hate taking time off! Now that I've been running again, I'm totally addicted.