Turkey Trot Race Report

Twenty years ago, on Thanksgiving weekend, I married my best friend. How do two runner/triathletes celebrate 20 years of marriage?

Mike took me to Gear West and I went home with this beautiful triathlon bike and a lot of motivation to pull out the bike trainer and start laying the base for my half ironman race next summer. Brian Flash noted when he saw my new bike on Facebook that 20 years must be the Carbon Fiber Anniversary. Swimming is out for me right now, so it’s the perfect time to get used to a new bike. It’s been a great 20 years with my favorite guy!

I ripped myself away from my new bike to make the trip to visit family in St. Louis for Thanksgiving. We kicked off the holiday with a Turkey Trot, of course. This year was a little extra special for me. Not knowing how much running I would be doing after my surgery, my race goal was to be able to run the whole 5K and not be concerned about my time. When I jogged a 5K five weeks after my surgery, I decided to run this race all out and use it as a fitness test.

The predicted rain held off but it was pretty chilly and damp waiting for the start. I tried to run an aggressive but consistent pace and felt good throughout the whole race. Here are my splits: 8:45, 8:44, 8:20 and then down a hill for the last tenth plus a little to finish in 26:53 which is an 8:40 pace.I placed 10th out of 140 in my age group! Having only been running again for four weeks, I was pleased with my race. The race organizers lost Katy’s registration so she happily stayed home and slept in, but Mike and Brady ran in addition to my nephew and they all had good races. Here  I am with Brady after the finish:

The best part of the race was seeing Brady after the finish when he said, “Mom, you ran so fast!” The only disapointment was missing Brian Flash and his wife Kathy after the finish. It was just too crowded at the finish line to find them. We’ll have to arrange another blogger reunion along with Velma when I come to visit next time.

After the race, we picked up some non-running family members and headed to Krispy Kreme to celebrate. All of the Minnesota KK locations closed a couple of years ago, so whenever we are in St. Louis we swing by for a hot one (or two or three). Here we are consuming way more calories than we just burned off in the race:

On Friday, we headed down to Forest Park for a run. This has become one of my favorite things to do when we are in town. I love running in the park and seeing it during the different seasons. My legs were a little tired from the race but I finished my 8 miles and feel like I’m on track for my Disney Half Marathon training. We rounded out the holiday with lots of eating and family time and I’m thankful for every minute of it. Happy Thanksgiving!