I signed myself and of course DH up for the turkey trot without bothering to look at the date. It’s on Thanksgiving right, so what’s the question? Well turns out that Thanksgiving was the Thursday after the Saturday of his full and my half marathon – oh jeez, great planning. I don’t want to bother linking to the whinnyass post over on that other forum but my half did not go well no it did not. Both of us made the observation that had we not already registered we probably wouldn’t do it but I’m too cheap to pay for a race and then not run it, so there’s that.

I was off work Wednesday so I went to go pick up the race packets. Dear LORD what a mess. They were only open for 6 hours that day and given that the 8k & 5k had a 9,000 runner cap and registration was closed, I’m going with the assumption that 9,000 people were running this thing. I think they all got to the pick up at the same time. The line snaked around the parking lot, it moved pretty quickly but I think the line was longer than the race. I finally got to the table and got my packet and just when I was about to say DH’s name we’ll say it’s Brian because he answers to that the woman beside me at the table said she was there to pick up a packet for “Brian same last name as mine”. Yup so there are TWO of them, same name, same age group and don’t think she and I didn’t notice that neither of them were actually THERE. Thankfully they don’t live in the same town so once a computer was consulted the packets were properly sorted out. Also she said that her Brian does not pack her lunch every day so I’m not interested in switching. DH said that he’s seen the other Brian before on race results so I’m kind of surprised that out of all the races he’s done we’ve never gotten the wrong packet.

Then Wednesday night while we were snugly at home watching tv, the next door neighbor’s house got broken into. Naturally they are off on a cruise but the alarm went off which set the dogs off so within minutes everyone in the street was outside running around with flashlights & dogs yelling and acting really stupid in retrospect. The police got there and the retired guy aka “the mayor” who has a key to everyone’s house let them in. You know they actually do that thing with their guns out and yell “CLEAR” like they do on TV. Seeing the gun and all made us all decide that perhaps it wasn’t real smart to race around the street armed only with flashlights and dogs – not like trained dogs either. One of them stopped to pick up a squeaky ball on the way out so she’s scary. Once the excitement was over we found some cardboard to tape over the broken window and dispersed back to our homes all pissed and worked up about it.

The race didn’t start until 9:00 which seems really late. It was odd to sleep in on a day we’re doing a race. In a way it was nice because by then the sun was up and it was pretty warm out but I kept thinking how we were going to be invaded at 1:00 so we needed to get back and finish getting everything ready.

Usually this race is one major CF at the start. This year someone had tacked pace numbers on the power polls. Looking around though I don’t think the people who needed to see that they were lined up with people planning to run a 6 min/mile really understood what the signs were about. DH was going to “take it easy and run with me” so we lined up around the 8 min/mile pace. I was figuring on doing around 11-12 min/miles but if we had gone back to that point we would have been just about in South Carolina. It turned out we were in the right place because we were fine – you know somewhere between getting run over and running over others.

Funny thing though about a mile into the race someone decided to ignore the road closed signs and drive down the street. They were totally penned in and looking around with this kind of helpless look on their faces. Everyone was yelling “happy Thanksgiving” at them, chuckle.

Some kid pitched a shoe out of a stroller and some teenagers got it and darted ahead until they found her.

People were dressed up, some guys were wearing loin cloths – yea uh ok.

So the run was nice. I was a bit tense about it given that the HM was horrid. I was afraid that I would be sore and cranky but I was fine. I kept waiting for the soreness to hit but it never did. We finished in 52 min so we beat the guess I made that it would take me an hour.

Bit of a mess at the finish though. They started the 5k half an hour after the 8k and ran a different course. Then a block or so from the finish the two courses converged into one big mesh of people. The 8k was to finish on the left and the 5k on the right but the finish was so backed up I’m not sure that people got in the right place. They gave out finishers medals, they did that last year too. They were like something out of a cereal box last year but this year they were really nice. I have some HM medals that are not as nice as this one. The medal thing really backed things up though and we probably lost a min or so trying to get through the crowd to the timing mat. Lots of confusion there really, but I sort of expect that from this particular race.

So that’s the whole story. One more race this year and it’s a 5k so I’m taking the dog.

He he, loved your comment about the hubby switching.

That medal is freaking awesome!

And did they catch the would-be robbers?

No sign of the would be robbers. They apparently tried to break in through a sliding glass door on the deck but couldn't get through. They made a real mess though, shattered one side of a double glass door. I don't know why they didn't keep going but then they broke a window and unlatched it. When they opened the window the alarm went off.

I guess the alarm did what it was supposed to do in that kept them from actually getting into the house but they still have to get the deck door and that window fixed. I was home when they got back and really glad that the alarm company had gotten up with them by then so they knew what happened.

They said they were glad they didn't know about it Wednesday because they would have been worried about it the rest of the trip and it isn't like they could do anything.

Congratulations on finishing under an hour--- even with the crowds!  Glad this race turned out better then the HM.  Awesome metal.  Though the shirt makes me wanna sing "Now everybody's on the run,  because turkey's got a gun"