The Thanksgiving Weekend Run Around

I'm spoiled Thanksgiving weekend. My parents host. I don't cook, and I don't clean. It's been this way for a few years, and I love it. My dad is a fantastic cook, like bring your drawstring pants good. My stepmom is a fabulous hostess. Everyone is home, and I get a chance run when the sun is out. Having a cold and a heinous lingering cough the week before worried me a little. My daughter and I were doing her first 2-miler race on Thanksgiving. Now looking back, I posted big miles.

My eldest daughter and I did the Kenosha Mayor's Turkey Day Run. Actually, a lot of family members did the race: my nephew, my nieces, my stepmom, my stepsister and her family. There were plenty of family spectators too. My daughter was pretty nervous, and my nephew's wife said the best thing to my daughter before we started. She said, "I'm already proud of you." My daughter ran the 2-miler in 23:18, with an 11:38 mm. She stopped 3 times to catch her breath. When her lungs catch up to her legs, she will be unstoppable. I (and everybody else) was so proud of her. She said she was tired, but she was willing to do it again.

She rocked it!

Before the race, I went on a long run with Bobbi and Kate. My schedule has prohibited me from running with people lately so it was awesome to catch up with them. My cough was almost gone, and I really needed the run. They both were cooking that day so we were out at 6 am. For the record, there is no one out at 6 am Thanksgiving morning. It was almost post-apocalyptic out on the roads. We met up with other members of the running club at 7 am and ran 7 miles total.

Bobbi, Kate and Me

The temperature dropped 30+ degrees from Thursday to Friday. I don't like shopping on a regular day so Black Friday is a great day for me to sleep in. It was windy enough that Seamus wanted to cuddle, but I decided to get out and do a few. Yes, that's a doggie drool spot. That may have been my motivator. It was a windy 7 miles. Sometimes I felt like I wasn't moving, and sometimes I felt shoved.

My snuggle buddy

On Saturday I met up with Carrie. I haven't talked to her in a while, and I thought 10 miles would be a great time to catch up. When we met at 9, she had set up her Christmas tree, had coffee and eaten. I had rolled out of bed and grabbed a granola bar. We ran the Des Plaines River Trail, which runs for 20+ miles along and around the river. She said that a potty would be good. I said, "Let's go north because it's prettier." She assured me that there was a potty 4 or 5 miles up. The potty going south is less than 3 miles away. In fact, the potty was 6.5 miles north from our start. Oops. We called our run "The Potty Half Marathon." We did complete 13.1 miles. It was an awesome time with Carrie, and she doesn't mind when I periodically complain about how tired I am, loudly.

We made it to the potty!

Sunday morning was cold but peaceful. I decided to sleep in and do my run in the afternoon when it was above freezing. Actually I went out after church, the Bears game, the tree trimming and making a boat load of soup. I got a chance to see the sun set and the lights people had put up in the neighborhood. There are a lot of nice displays. 7.5 miles. I'm getting closer to my 1000 mile goal for the year.

I hope your weekend, like mine, was filled with an attitude of gratitude.