finally it was time to actually hit the road on that wednesday evening. now mind you we had just gotten back from southern california a few days before, but we were going anyway:) we made it just before midnight and mom and i turned in pretty early for our turkey trot in the am! just about the only thing we took from thanksgiving last year was to run a turkey trot. we had so much fun last year and i found one fairly close to where we were this year. 5am came awful early the next day since we had a little bit of a drive to dana point from lake forest. plus we needed to pick up our bibs and park which we knew there wasnt a whole lot of down there. fortunately we were early enough and parked super easy on our way to packet pickup. there was actually a whole expo for the race and TONS of people! i have never seen a 10k/5k so big. it was the 35th year running and people had been turning out for years. we huddled close together since the sun was still hiding in the marine layer and it was pretty chilly. before i knew it we were headed out!
im ready! |
we continued on and rounded the last turn around soon to hit the 5 mile mark. i looked down at my garmin and couldnt believe what it said, i could soundly set a new pr even if slowed down quite a bit. of course i kicked it up instead and sped across (well for me anyway) the finish line with a shiny new time! 52:55 flashed on my garmin and i couldnt believe it:) my last 10k pr was a 56:31...thats a 3:30 minute improvement!!! i grabbed some water and spot on a higher sidewalk to wait for my mom who finished with a time of 1:29:30! there wasnt much in the way of food so we headed back up the road a bit to grab some coffee near the hotel. we saw 2 very young looking marines grabbing coffee ahead of us and we went out to thank them after grabbing ours. turns out they were from idaho and kansas, which means they just couldnt make it home for the holiday weekend. instead they had been "adopted" for the day by a local guy for the holdiay! it was so cool and they were sooo young, i mean they looked 12. crazy that my brother looked like that when he was a new marine too.
finishers! and we got bling:) |
most of my big, crazy family! |
friday morning we slept in a little and i avoided the black friday craziness for the first time in 2 years! we headed to rogers garden instead:) its a family tradition to go every year! everything is so beautifully decorated and really puts you in the christmas spirit:) once finished we even convinced my dad that we needed to go to the beach instead of back to the hotel for a nap! it was super overcast, but beautiful as always.
he tried to splash me so i got even! |
saturday morning we were up bright and early to go to the swap meet!!! i know this sounds pretty silly, but this swap meet is different. its in orange county so its much better stuff than a traditional one. we wondered the aisles and browsed through the endless cell phone covers, sunglasses, and fake plant booths. my parents like to take me with them because i try on all the silly sunglasses and hats along the way! i did however score a really sweet christmas present for my brother:)
one of the best quote aprons ever! |
this year we switched things up a little and decided to come home saturday night instead. best decision ever! it was nice to have the extra day at home before going back to work. not that we spent it totally relaxing. i ran that morning, probably farther than i should have, then we spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon moving and storing the rest of my furniture from the apartment. it was a big relief to get everything else out and just be done. now i can really move on!
thanksgiving this year was a blast and so different from my last couple. i was really able to just be me and not have anyone else to worry about. plus it was like my family really decided we were old enough to do things like drink with them now haha! good thanksgiving:)
I like the sounds of your Thanksgiving - PRs, Rogers Gardens, the beach, the OC swap meet... all things I love. :)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to run with you on the beach again! It's getting closerrrrr!