Turkey Dash Follow-Up

Aloha, Heidi
Originally uploaded by kyleroth.

Ready For Hawaii!

As stated in a previous post, each race brings a new experience along with memories. The Turkey Dash was definitely an experience. The morning started out being windy with a steady mist. Okay, more like droplets than a mist. It was cold. I think Erika, David, and I were all thinking, "Why the heck did we sign up for this?!"

The route was basically in the form of a figure 8. The first quarter I felt like my face was going to freeze off. I kept thinking to myself, "Man! My face hasn't been this cold in awhile. Am I going to be able to go the entire route being this cold?" But then I hit mile one and looked at my time...10:00. "Hmmm, good job Heidi. You're doing better than you thought you would and better than you've been training too." That gave me inspiration to keep going and keep up the pace that I had set.

As I entered the second half trees must have been blocking the wind, and at that point I felt warm. Almost too warm. Time to unzip the outerwear. At mile 2 I was still quite pleased with my pace and found myself running neck and neck with an unknown female. There was no talking but it was nice to have "company" that continued to drive me. I'm not going to lie. The entire time I was thinking, "Yep, we'll run together for now, but I'm going to kick your butt at the end!" That's the competitor in me I guess.

We turned what I thought to be the final corner and I started to kick it out. For some reason I didn't see the end of the race though. Finally we had someone hollering at us, "Just under the bridge then you're finished!" "Under the bridge? What bridge?" Then a quick descent came upon us. Not too safe considering it had been a mixture of rain/sleet the entire morning. I did fine then started up the hill that followed the underpass. That's when I saw KD. As usual, I flashed my hang loose sign and continued on. All the while I'm thinking to myself, "Where the heck is the finish?" I wasn't so much tired but was confused as to where I was going. Ah ha! There it was in the distance . I kicked up my already kicked up pace and finished strong with David and Erika waiting for me at the finish.

According to my Garmin I kept up my "good" pace and was quite proud of my finish time, which was 10 seconds faster than my previous best 5K time. Recently my times have been much slower which I attribute to more clothes and the change in elements, so it was a pleasant surprise to have a better time and a much better average pace. Now I can say that I participated in a Turkey Dash/Trot. I think I'd like to do it again next year and hope that we don't have the same elements. It made it much easier to swallow all the food we ate today knowing I had already burned some of it off. And as always we were in great company with Erika and KD. We definitely have to get up there and visit them. Take a night out. It'd be fun.

The rest of the day was truly an enjoyable Thanksgiving. It was relaxing and cozy. Being with family and not being too hectic. Eating just the right amount of food and enjoying it. And then finishing up the day with a glass of sparkling juice and "The Holiday" with David. Couldn't ask for a better day. One more reason to be thankful.

I'm not sure what our plans are tomorrow. I'd like to go shopping but truly we have nothing to buy so I ask myself, "Why would I be so insane to fight the crowds for nothing?" It's fun I guess. Once again, the competitor in me. We shall see. I'll tell you this though...I sure the heck am not going to be up at 4am. Hey, I got the day off, I'm going to try to get some sleep.

Oh yeah, and by the way I did kick butt and beat the unknown female that was running next to me during the Turkey Dash. Rock on!