Just kidding ... maybe.
Like so many others, Mark and I found (with three of my cousins) ourselves at the start line of a Thanksgiving day race - the 104th annual Thanksgiving Day Race. I tell you what, those Cincinnatians sure are creative. As will be this recap.
About the race: One of the oldest and largest Thanksgiving races, the 10K features 14,000 runners and walkers plodding through downtown and northern Kentucky.
Course: The course was changed this year, featuring no turns in the first mile, a jaunt past Fountain Square, a downhill finish and a clear shot to the end, with no looping back (the last being one of my pet peeves) along Third Street. There was one water stop, in the same place as previous years, but with this change it was farther in the course - just after mile 4.
Pre-race: A hot mess. Traffic into downtown was backed up for a good mile, and we inched along for 20 minutes until reaching the exit. Another 10 were spent inching two blocks to find a parking garage as the free parking was gone or hard to get to. Mark and I still had to pick up bibs, which is the dumbest thing ever with 14,000 runners. We had to push through lots of people in the hopes of finding the table as there were no signs. With minutes to spare, we shivered as we pinned on our numbers and made our way to the start line. Our late arrival meant we were at the far back of the pack. This means two things: We waited 10 minutes to cross the starting line and were behind well-intentioned walkers.
Race: Mark had these funny ideas that we were going to push hard during this race but within a block I clued him. It was not going to happen. Not in 20-degree weather, not with the streets crowded with walkers. We spent three miles - THREE - trying to find an open space to run and get in a groove, though I'm not sure we ever did. Frustrated, I finally told Mark that we needed to give up on pace and any goal and have FUN. We needed to stop the cat and mouse game, run together and take in the gorgeous landscape of Cincinnati. So we did, or did our best. And then I got smoked by a 7-year-old at the end.
Happy Thanksgiving to me.
The week, in training:
Monday: 9 miles on trainer + heated yoga + 3.35-mile run
Tuesday: 4.16-mile run + 40-minute treadmill walk
Wednesday: Bodypump
Thursday: Thanksgiving Day 10K
Friday: Rest/shopping
Saturday: Bodypump + 11 miles on trainer
Sunday: 4.59-mile run
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