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I Must Be Crazy

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By marydalene

If you follow my Twitter feed, you’ll know about this already. But for the rest of you, I competed in the Earn Your Turkey 4-mile run on Thanksgiving. When I signed up, I did it for solely for the experience and fun of running in a race – I had no illusions of grandeur expecting to win.

I also apparently did it to test my endurance in frigid temperatures. It was a balmy 6 degrees Fahrenheit when I woke up early on Thanksgiving morning. By race time, it was 9 degrees, but it didn’t break into the double digits until after the sun got up. If you live in my area, you know it didn’t get much above 20 degrees all day. But me and about 800 other competitors (some in the 2-mile walk and kids races), braved the cold and ran on Turkey Day. Yep, I’m crazy.

Since it was so cold, I told my husband and kids to wait at home for me and just meet me at the finish line. During the race, I met two running friends, Chamaine and Angela, who offered to run with me since we were all running about the same pace anyway. I was quite prepared to run alone, but it was nice to have someone to stick with to make sure my pace wasn’t lagging.

And thanks to them, I ran my best 4-mile time: 45:21.1. My 11:20 split (my average per mile) was not the best time in the world (I got lapped by the top runners who were doing 5-minute miles), but I knew going in I wasn’t fast and I didn’t run to win. I ran to have fun and at that I succeeded. I placed 44th in my age group and 371th overall.

Since I ran so fast, Jared and the kids weren’t ready to meet me at the finish line. But we met up in the gym to see my results and document the occasion. As usual, my kids steal the show.

Sarah had fun carting the camera bag around. Timothy had fun pretending the floor was super slippery. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Comments

  1. JanetNovember 28, 2010 at 9:51 PM

    Congratulations! That's quite an accomplishment--just the training and preparation let alone the actual running in the frigid temperatures :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. GrammyzanneNovember 28, 2010 at 10:38 PM

    I am impressed. Congratulations on setting a goal and achieving it - in spite of the weather. And is sounds like you did even better than you expected.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sandy BrunsonNovember 29, 2010 at 1:24 PM

    Good for you! I'm excited to get back into running after having Isaac. But I'm not sure I'd enjoy running at that temperature...yikes!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lynda/MomNovember 29, 2010 at 4:55 PM

    Brrr. At least running warms you up. I'm glad you succeeded and exceeded your expectations. I'm in admiration--I never was much of a runner, but I like the idea of it. Aunt Lynda

    ReplyDelete
  5. JoanneNovember 29, 2010 at 10:09 PM

    I'm impressed! That takes determination. Congratulationson your run!

    ReplyDelete

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