Last race of 2013

I knew I wanted to run a "turkey" race this year. With our holiday plans this year Nov 23, Turkey Lurkey, worked out the best for our family schedule. So as I got on the runkra website and found the date/website and just registered. I knew it was set to run in Winona, which I was very familiar with and that was it.

My routine was the same as usual, ate really well Thursday and Friday, went to bed early on Friday since I didn't sleep well AT ALL on Thursday. 

I was keeping an eye on the weather knowing it was going to be chilly but WOW!, heavy frost and 27 degrees. BRRR!

While eating my 2 eggs/toast and drinking my spark, I thought I'd look over the course map and see if the route was any different than what the Winona route usually is. UH, Hello, "challenging trail" run. I must have missed that part in registering. 

With it being so cold the boys ended up hanging with Dad this morning. I layered up and headed to Warsaw.

After arriving I checked in, got my bib and looked for my friends that I knew would be there. 

We had a runners meeting and a prayer (thank goodness). He mentioned again challenging route, be careful with the frost. O my! I thought. 

We took off, I felt great, headed towards familiar ground,then, BOOM, wooded bike trail, skinny, tree rooted, frosty leaves  trail. My first mile was good then....came hills, up and down, pretty rugged and for never running trails before, I kept my eye on the ground so I would stay up right. Trail went by the creek/river with a pretty good drop off, which made me a bit nervous. 

Here are my mile times:

I had a goal to finish out the year with a PR (personal record) for a 5K, but that didn't quite work out.  However, now I have a goal set for next years Turkey Lurkey, to beat 36:29.

My friends had a goal of finishing in 40:00 which they finished in 39:25!! Whooo!

Alyssa's turkey boxers took the cake! Too cute!! They enjoyed themselves and ran hard.

With December being so busy, this concludes my racing until next year. I'm already scheduled to run another half marathon May 3 (Indy) and maybe more than one. I want to run the F4F again and that would be either a 10K or a half. We will see.   

Remember just because it is cold out doesn't mean you have to workout inside. Dress for it and get out there!

Enjoy you Thankgiving! 

Thanks for reading.