Marin Turkey Trot 10k and Thanksgiving Feast

What a week!  Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday.  Cuts the week short, involves cooking and eating good food, and it's a holiday that encourages rest and relaxation. Can't go wrong.  But before I get to that I just have to cover the week leading up.

Monday I went to the gym and rode on the upright bike for 25 minutes.  It was hard but I pushed on through as usual.  After that I did legs/shoulders/core for strength training.  This is Week 3 in my 4 week cycle so next week will be a rest/recovery week.  I'm actually looking forward to that.  Tuesday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill in 27:49 and did intervals from 6.1 to 7.1mph.  I looked it up and it's time to move up to 6.2/7.2, a move I am more than ready for as you will see.  I did chest/triceps/core after the run and had an amazing workout.  I don't know why, but I just felt great!

Wednesday was my day home with the kids.  My mom came over in the afternoon so I got to sneak out to Goodwill to look for more pants.  I'm wearing mostly size 6s and 4s now.  Doesn't that just make you sick?!  No, I know, you're just happy for me.  Feeling and looking good is a big reinforcement to keep this lifestyle going.  I remind myself all the time that I had to work to get here and will need to work to keep it.  But it's worth it, so worth it!  And besides, the "work" is mostly fun anyway.

Wednesday night Miguel and I ended up going out last night.  A new restaurant/live music venue here in town had their soft opening.  A few of my girlfriends were there too.  I had a couple beers and even danced a bit.  It was really crowded.  But I kept things pretty tame knowing I had to run the next day.  I was in bed by midnight but stayed up another hour reading.  And I felt like I tossed and turned all night.  Probably the beer, alcohol really does mess with my sleep. 

So that brings us to Thursday (yesterday) - the big day.  I got up around 6am and started getting my stuff ready for the run.  I hadn't prepped at all.  I had breakfast and some coffee and hit the road.  The run was barely a 5 minute drive from my house, which was nice.  I got there way earlier than I needed to but didn't have to stand in any lines.  Got my bib and timing chip and then sat in my car reading the news on my phone waiting for the time to pass.  It was a little chilly but I could see it was going to be a gorgeous day for a run.  Clear, blue skies, no wind...perfect.

I headed back to the crowd and looked for a couple friends.  My friend Danielle was doing her first event after having baby #2 and I wanted to wish her well.  Unfortunately I couldn't find her but I talked to her lately and she had a good run.  Great job Danielle!  She's doing the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 marathon in April with me.

I was also hoping to see Erica, a work colleague that was doing her first run.  She's a serious swimmer who I'm trying to convince to do a triathlon.  This run was step 1 in my plot to reel her in to the tri world.  She was excited and looked adorable (which is always important, right?).

Go Erica!

 I'm looking forward to doing a triathlon with her some day.

I also looked for Nina, a mom friend of mine who is embarking on what I know will be an amazing journey of transformation.  I recently shared my blog with her and I hope to help inspire her to keep on plugging along.  I couldn't find her until after the race but I was SO happy to hear she didn't drop out when her regular exercise buddies couldn't make it (most people would use that as an excuse to bail).  Instead she networked and found a friend to go with her.  Good job Nina!!  And she finished the 5k feeling good.  Nina is on-board with doing a Tri for Fun too, go Nina!!!!  Here she is post-run.

Love her race number! Save that bib Nina, you'll get more but your first is always special.

So my run was great.  I saw Neil from TriMore Fitness and got some awesome feedback on looking fit.  I trained with TriMore a bit when I was prepping for the Marin sprint tri last year so he's seen me trim down this past year.  Thanks Neil, it always feels good to have people notice.  I went over to the start area and  ran into another mom, Shannon, and her 6 year-old son, Conor, doing the run.  She said he loves to run, how exciting!  I hope Marek and Myra get the running bug too.

It was almost time to start and I tried to get my Garmin going but it couldn't find the satellites.  Ugh.  We started out and it eventually found one but I lost about an 1/8 of a mile from the start.  And I didn't think to bring any energy gels.  I think I was so focused on this being a "fun, relaxed" run that I didn't think to bring fuel.  Something super cool though was Neil filmed the start of the race!  If you don't blink you'll see me waving at him (in a blue shirt) around 0:14.



How cool is that!  The run started with some rolling hills on a path, boy were those tough.  But the crowd pulled me forward.  I checked my Garmin after about 3/4 of a mile and saw around an 8:34 pace.  Whoa tiger!  But I decided to just run by feel, since that's been serving me well lately.  Once we were off the paved path and onto the roads there weren't any more hills to speak of.  Definitely periods of mild incline and mild downhill but no real climbs.  I was feeling darned good for most of the run, but I was definitely working hard, pushing myself to go.  Around mile 4.5 I had to start in with the self talk, I was having moments when I felt like I might need to walk.  "No walking, just run. Run. Run. Run."  The route was an out-and-back and when I got back to those rolling hills they just about did me in.  I started chanting to myself, "I will. not. stop."  And I didn't, I made it up and over that last hill with not a whole lot left in the tank.

I crossed the finish line and saw the clock, whoa!  My official chip time was 56:28.6 for an average of 9:07 minute miles, or 6.5mph. What?! Woot!!  The clock time is a tad bit more because I didn't cross the start line right at the horn.  So who did  I see just past the finish line?  Miguel and Marek!!!  They came out to cheer me on.  How fun!!  Miguel snapped a few pictures of me approaching and crossing the finish line.

Digging deep for the last push.

Done...phew!

Boy was I happy to stop running!  But I felt so happy with my time.  9:07 pace, I never would have guessed I would run that fast.  I bet if I'd paced myself better and had some energy gel I could have broken the 9-minute-mile pace.  Next year I'm going to crush it!  (If it doesn't rain).  9:07 people, 6.58mph for over 6 miles with hills.  With. hills.  How cool is that?!  So I finished 13/27 for my age group (AG).  I've been wanting to break the middle of the pack position and did, if only by one and only for my AG.  Overall I was 167 out of  271 so I didn't break the top 50% there.

After getting my high-fives from Marek and Miguel, and getting my swag bag and turkey trot coffee mug, I went home and helped my mom with Thanksgiving dinner.  We had the whole deal - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, brussels sprouts, etc, etc, etc.  I ate to my heart's content.  We ate around 1pm and not too long after I felt the strong urge to take a nap.  I mostly tossed and turned because I'm not a good napper but I know I slept some too.  Instead of dinner I opted for pumpkin pie with generous servings of whipped cream.  I ended up eating three slices. Yes, three.  And I enjoyed every bite.

After the kids went to bed Miguel and I stayed up watching The Proposal.  Fun, easy movie for post-food coma.  I went to bed feeling good about the day.  We all had fun and we all have much to be grateful for.  Oh, let me share a conversation I had with Marek about Thanksgiving.

Marek:  I want Star Wars Legos for Thanksgiving.
Me:  Thanksgiving is not a holiday where we get presents, it's a holiday where we celebrate the things we are happy about.  What are you happy about?
Marek:  I'm happy about the Star Wars Legos I'm going to get.

Ha!  Ok, fine.  Gratitude is probably a learned sense, right?  Anyway, I'm happy that I have the health, love and happiness of my family.  Not much more important in the world than that.  

I'm also grateful for Weight Watchers.  I went to my meeting this morning and hopped on the scale knowing the full Thanksgiving feast won't show up in the numbers for a day or two more.  I maintained my weight and checked off another week of maintenance toward achieving Lifetime status.  And in the meeting I shared that now that the official holiday is over I want to be done with the high-calorie foods as well.  I really enjoyed my meal yesterday and I want to leave it at that.  I might make a turkey vegetable soup but other than that, I'm staying away from the stuffing, gravy, pie and everything else.  You know why?  Because I deserve to treat my body well, I deserve to feel good, I deserve to have the life I want.  And when it comes to food and fitness, I'm the only one that can give it to me.