Turkey Surprise!

Well I ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. My nephew Thomas showed up at the race also. We did a warm-up together and discussed, among other things, how embarassing it would be to get beat by the guy running with his dog on a leash.

Now as I mentioned, Wednesday, I've run this race 8 times in the past. Usually in bad weather (snow, mud, even fog!) but Thursday's weather was brisk but clear. The course was soft but certainly not sloppy. It was a beautiful day to run.

I started too fast (being that I'm still just working my way into shape), but other than getting slowly passed throuhout the race (was 20th at the first turn, about 1/2 mile), I have no evidence because I didn't wear a watch.

Around mile 4 I did indeed get passed by the guy running with his dog. And to add to the embarassment, the dog quickly stopped to squat. I got ahead and then they started running and passed me again. About 1/4 mile later, this squatting - passing - getting passed experience happened yet again.

I did not get passed during the final mile, which was a plus. I finished in 48:59, 46th out of 224. At the awards, I was hoping for 3rd in my age group, but they didn't call my name. Then when they called the 2nd place guy, it was a soccer coach I know, wearing a bright yellow shirt, and I thought, "I don't remember getting passed by that guy."

Much to my surprise, they called me 1st and I won a trophy with a turkey on it!

Junior High Cross Country and Yoga Booty Ballet

Tonight after work I drove out to Norwalk to pick up Luke. I got there in time for his pre-season cross country parent's meeting and also the coach allowed me to tag along in practice.

We started with a warm up of about 1/2 mile, then stretching, then several "drills", toe walks, skipping, butt-kicks, and such.

Then she broke the team into groups and sent them out for a 2-mile run at staggered intervals, with the slower runners starting first with the intent that the kids would work on catching the group in front of them.

I ran with 2 boys in the first (slowest) group and they kept up ok, one girl from the next group back almost caught them but that was it.

Then we did 2 "strides" and 4 "sprints" of about 75 meters, and then about 1/4 mile cool down, and then more stretching. Hopefully they will have a good season. Their first meet is in about 1 1/2 weeks.

Then when we got home, Victoria and I did day 1 of Yoga Booty Ballet. YBB is another exercise program from Beachbody, the company that distributes P90X.

Day 1 is watching a 15 minute video describing some basic yoga moves and poses, and then a 10-minute ab workout with a squishy ball. It was no P90X for sure, but the ab workout was ok and it's great to be exercising with my wife!