Thanksgiving

As you know, I signed up for the Centreville 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning with my co-workers, Sandra & Lisa. Unfortunately, Lisa hurt her back a month or so before race day so she wasn't able to run with us. :o( S & I had a hurt knee & a hurt ankle but we decided to run anyway & just do the best we could; our main goal was to just finish, we weren't really worried about the time. I arrived a few minutes before S & S did so I decided to pick up all of our stuff so they wouldn't have to wait in line, it was totally packed & freezing. It had rained the night before so everything was still wet. After we got our gear on, we walked over to the runners section & waited for the race to start. When we crossed the start line, we were packed in like sardines. From past experience, I figured people would spread out eventually as the race proceeded but we were all pretty close together most of the time; you definitely had to watch out for people cutting in front of you, people stopping to walk that were running in front of you & little kids that were running with their parents; you were basically dodging people the entire time. Thankfully, my ankle did not start to hurt until just before the 3 mile marker; I then started to get that toothache feeling, throbbing, but towards the end of the race, the sharp pains kicked in. It didn't help that I didn't really eat anything before the race so by the 2 mile marker I was hungry. Somewhere in the first mile we lost Santiago so it was just S & I running together. As we approached the finish line, we did pick up our pace a little but with my hunger & ankle pain, it definitely wasn't a sprint. As we crossed, I told S that I felt like I was going to throw up & she said, "I don't know if I'm going to throw up or cry." I started laughing. As we waited for Santiago, we waited by their car & drank some Gatorade & my nausea went away. Once Santiago met up with us, we had tried to go back to the Community Center to get a snack & listen to the awards but it was just a sea of people & we decided to just go home. Here is a photo I took of the two love birds walking back to their car: They were holding hands. :o)

Once the race results were posted online I was able to look up our times. I had worn my watch during the race & tried to keep track of our pace & our time once we crossed the finish line & my watch said: 31:26. I did have some problems starting it once we crossed the start line & I completely forgot to stop it once we crossed the finish line. But here are our times which were tracked by the device that we put on our shoes:

1730 625 Danielle C., F Sterling VA (time) 30:29.72 (pace) 9:49

1724 2099 Sandra L., F Manassas VA (time) 30:28.40 (pace) 9:49

1787 2975 Santiago S., M Manassas VA (time) 30:45.68 (pace) 9:55

After I got home, I packed Lexi & I for our short trip to WV. We left the house at Noon & arrived at my in-laws at 1:45 p.m. Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of: Dan, Me, Lexi, Tom, Kristen, Jackson, Rylee, Kelly, Aurie, Glenn, Arden, Skylar, Vicki & Don. We usually have more family members with us but since Dan's Mom has been under the weather for several weeks, we tried to keep it small. In order to keep Vicki out of the kitchen & in rest mode, Don made the decision to have our Thanksgiving dinner catered. While we were hanging out & waiting for dinner to be ready, I gave my camera to Arden & Skylar so they could take pictures. Here is what I ended up with: Dan & Don (he looked very spiffy with his leather vest & matching cowboy boots)
Arden
Me (I have no idea)
Dan playing with JT...
Skylar
Lexi watching JT play
Arden, Lexi & I
Tom & Rylee - caught by surprise
Kelly
JT cheesin' Rylee sporting my bracelet - she loved the sparkles & even tried to eat it Skylar & Kelly Lexi - she was such a good girl during our visit Rylee & I Skylar - LOL Skylar & I
We had a great time seeing the family & getting to spend the holiday together. We hope all of you were surrounded by friends & family & had a Happy Thanksgiving. :o)