Turkey Trot and Turkey Not

I woke this morning at 6am, had some breakfast, got dressed and hopped on a bus. My first stop was at a coffee shop where I switched bus lines. The coffee shop is one that I would not normally frequent(bartsucks or some jumblewords variation), but it was open. My next bus arrived quickly which was good because it was cold windy and rainy. I was downtown quickly and I headed into the convention center to register.

The Cleveland Turkey Trot is a five mile race thru downtown. The weather is always the big question. Two years ago the course was cut short due to dangerous conditions. Last year it was perfect. This year was mid 30's rain/snow mix, wind, basic suck. The lakefront was sure to be nasty. So the morning talk centered on what to wear. I went with the tights, long sleeve Coolmax top, a coolmax short sleeve for a second layer, gloves, and a hat.

We had a good showing from CTC. The hour pre-race wait flew by. with 10 minutes till the gun, we all headed out to lakeside and waited.

Ding ding ding, and we were off. I had no plan, just run and see how it goes. My hammy strain from this past Sunday quickly began to flair up. I was aware of it, but it didn't bother me enough to convince me to back off. I hit mile one in 8:15.

Soon after that IronJack caught up to me. He had shown up just in time for the start. The two of us stuck together through much of the run. It helped me out quite a bit. We ran this race together last year. We make each other work.

Though the weather sucked, it was manageable. I enjoyed the harder effort and just kept pushing. At the final mile I pulled ahead of Jack a little and started racing those around me. I crossed the line in 43:11. No PR by any stretch. I felt great, turned around and waited a few seconds for Jack.

Following the race, The CTC folks all gathered. JenC Had a big smile and held up her finish time for me to see. She had a good race.The mood from everyone was very positive.

A few of us headed to Bartsucks because it was open.

I hitched a ride home with Jack and Showered up.

Once home , I started cleaning my apt. Man, did it need it. I felt very domestic. I cooked my tofurkey and went to my folks.

In addition to the Notbird, my family was very conscious to keep most of the sides vegan. To replace the Thanksgiving triptofan, I had a little extra wine. Dinner was good. My whole family was present and we all got along.

Before desert, my moms centerpiece caught on fire. I reacted quickly and smothered the flames with my hand. I have a nice blister on my index finger now. The pain was really intense. I held a straight face, but my lil'sister saw through my stoicism. We treated it and drank coffee. Thats how we handle adversity......Kind of funny, during the toughest part of IM, I looked for caffeinated gel.

Anyhow, Happy ThanksGiving.