Back on The Streets

Six miles Wednesday night was my longest midweek run since Marshall. Bonelli trails are off limits once again due to the early departure of the sun, so it was back to the streets around the neighborhood. A quick look through the logbook showed that I hadn't run any serious streets since last March. My goal was to keep the pace around 9:30, I ended up at 8:57. I was trying to keep things on the slow side in anticipation of the Turkey Trot the following morning.

Tyler had started asking about a Turkey Trot a couple of weeks back. I signed us up for The Run for the Hungry. At one point he had his little brother talked into it as well. He and I had run this together back in 2004. He ultimately backed out but he and my wife came along to watch. They ended up walking their own Turkey Trot, a 2+ mile trip to get a Starbucks before the race started. My old running partner Celeste and her little sis had signed up for the run months ago. We ran into each other at the starting line.

I had warned Tyler that the course was a rolling course, a simple out and back down Foothill Blvd in La Canada. He was really hoping to improve on his PR time by going sub 29:00. At the start he overhead some locals discussing how this race is always their slowest 5K of the year. Between that and the fact that the first mile of the race was obviously uphill, I think he was a little worried about PR'ing. I encouraged to just keep it steady on the way out and then let it fly and enjoy the downhill finish.

Rather than running together we each ran our own race. That seemed to work out better for Tyler. My hopes for the race were to go sub 24:00, still a long way from my 21:54 PR in 2006, but that's where I'm at this year. Although the route is simple it is by no means easy. I was only able to knock out a 24:35. I headed back out to run Tyler in. He looked great. He was able to knock out a huge PR of 27:18, nearly a 2 minute improvement from his last 5K 2 months ago.

We followed up the occasion with breakfast at a little place Lisa and Bryan had smelled on the their coffee run. It was a spontaneous decision but you know how we love our breakfast.

Back home Lisa made the apple pie. The pumpkin pies had been made the night before. My mother in law cooked an awesome Thanksgiving dinner as usual. My sister in law suggested we go around the table and tell what we were thankful for. After some eye rolling by the teenager and before the whole thing completely deteriorated into silliness Tyler mentioned that he was grateful for the changes he'd made toward a healthier lifestyle and fitness. Very cool.

Dinner was followed up with the yummy pies and a game of Dominoes that included a lot of uncontrolled laughter resulting in much snorting and near pants wetting. But it was fun.

I hope everyone had a great day with family and friends. Here are a couple of pics from the Turkey Trot:

Me "gliding" to the finish.And Tyler rocking his PR. Check out that knee lift!