Happy Thanksgiving! For the last many years, we've been at Universal Studios Orlando for Thanksgiving, and this year we are very thankful to be having a down home Thanksgiving with all the fixins with people we love. We're going to have some awesome home-cooked food today, instead of subsisting on popcorn, beer, and dinner at Margaritaville. It's going to be awesome.
This year, I also committed to participating in the Gomer PR Thanksgiving 5k Challenge. I signed up to do it back in September, and my plan was to train train train so that I could actually achieve a PR (personal record) 5k today. I would have had to run 11-minute miles to succeed. I was going to do interval training, hills, and work on getting a little bit faster every week.
It didn't happen.
I did, however, do two 5k's in October--the Beckley Half Marathon/5k, and the Oglebayfest 5k in the Park, the latter of which was the hardest race I've ever run. It had an uphill towards the end that was one of those hills that you could practically use both your hands and feet to scramble up. I don't know if anyone ran up that hill, but if they did, kudos to them. I also helped plan and volunteered for a 5k event for World Run Day, the 2nd Annual Marlinton Friends of Midwives 5k, which was a fun way to raise money for an organization I care about. I also did some non-running workouts here and there.
But as for training for a personal record 5k that would take place today, Thanksgiving Day, I did not succeed. Even yesterday I failed to prepare. I did an elliptical workout (instead of resting), ate too much food, drank some beer last night, stayed up late, didn't put together a play list, and didn't even plan where I would run 3.1 miles this morning. This morning came, and needless to say, I woke in a bad mood.
We stayed at my in law's house last night, so I wasn't familiar with the area. I considered driving into town to run at my house, or on the rail trail, or at a state park, or on a high school track... I even considered paying $20 and running in the local 5 miler today, which would have been totally crazy. Maybe next year. Finally, I whined to Bryan after he woke up that "I'm not even gonna run today, this is just stupid." He left the room, and I assumed that he was just annoyed with me.
I put on my running clothes anyway, after reading Gomer 1's encouraging tweets to all of those who will be running Turkey Trots today. A few minutes later, Bryan showed me a route he'd come up with on the iPad that would get me exactly 3.1 miles. He then took my whining butt to the van to drive the route for me so I could see it. I suggested maybe he let me out at the 1.55 mile mark, and I'd just do a Half 5k. How lame is that!? Thankfully, he didn't. I told him I'd probably walk the hills, and he said "Don't say that, you need to try to do your best."
We got back, I started up my Runkeeper and my playlist (turns out I forgot to randomize it, so I listened to Aerosmith thru The Bad Plus, so lame of me), and started. I still felt pouty. Anyway, this is getting long... suffice to say, I did it. It was super hard to do, and it took me 41:28 to get it done.
So it's Thanksgiving, and the first thing I was thankful for today was my amazing husband not letting me give up on something that was really important to me. It's Thanksgiving, I've already spent over 400 calories, I had a great healthy breakfast, and I'm ready to enjoy the rest of this amazing day.
Thanks to the Gomers for issuing this challenge. I'm sorry I didn't get a PR, and technically "failed" the challenge. But for me, today, it was awesome.
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