Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving! Since I'm a "runner" now, I participated in my first ever "Turkey Trot". I was excited to be able to join the masses on Thanksgiving morning - and those people being those running a 5K around neighborhoods instead of those at an arena watching college basketball. Okay, please don't get me wrong, college basketball is what pays the bills but I'm enjoying not working on Thanksgiving. I was excited to be running a Turkey Trot. I got up on a BEAUTIFUL Thanksgiving morning - 50 and sunny - and ran with some buddies from Team in Training. I thought it was pretty enjoyable to run in capri pants, tank top, and long sleeve shirt - yes, that's it - pretty bizarre for the morning in late November. So, it wasn't my best 5K run ever due to the strike of the migraine around mile 2, as well as the most hilly course ever, but I crossed the finish like 38.05 minutes later. After spending a little bit of quality time with the running buddies, I went home to skype (video chat) with the family in CT for Thanksgiving dinner, stuff my face with cranberry sauce and apple pie (without feeling AS guilty because I burned 300 calories this morning) and watch the Dallas Cowboys win another amazing Thanksgiving Day football game. :)

Today's Miles: 3.0

Total Miles: 9.0

Jack Quinn's

Finally, after months and months of watching them run by us while we were at track practice, I was finally able to run a Jack Quinn's run!! Jack Quinn's is an Irish Pub downtown (yes, I love it!) that sponsors a weekly 5K all year long. It starts at the pub, runs around downtown, along the trail near the CC track and then finishes at the pub. If you get back early enough, you're greeted with pasta dinner and there's always half price beer. Yes, half price beer :) After you run 10 races, you receive a Jack Quinn's Running Club training shirt - the almighty coveted shirt. I've been wanting to do this all summer long but it's the same night as our TNT track practices so I haven't been able to. Well, we weren't sure if were going to be able to use the track at CC quite yet because of the lights and definitely weren't going to be able to tonight so a bunch of us decided to take advantage of it and run Quinn's. Jim, Sonja, Kelly, Russ and I ran it. Okay, not running for a month and trying to run a 5K with what I call "super runners" was a bit tough for me" but it was still fun". We set off with our head lamps and Jim and Sonja even walked with me for a bit. It was a lot of fun! Jim even treated me to beer afterwards ... I even strayed from Bud Light to a wheat beer ... but only by force :)

1 run down .. 9 to go. I'm hoping to have that shirt in my possession by the end of February!!!

Today's Miles: 3.0

Total Miles: 6.0

Timed Mile!

Yes!!! It's time to get started again. Today's the first official day of the Inaugural Spring Season of Team in Training. As we do with every season, we start off with a timed mile. It was nice to have the whole group together (huddled around the heater in the tent because it was only 25 degrees). They were excited and nervous and I definitely remember being in their shoes 6 months ago. We did our standard warm-up walk to the bridge and went to the track. One of the turns of the track was covered in ice so we had to modify - I have a feeling that we will be doing that a lot this season. We ran the mile - I ran a 10:50 - I think it's the fastest timed mile I have ever run. I was feeling pretty good, especially since it's the first time I've run since the half marathon over a month ago! I'm excited to get training and running again. I learned so much last season that I can use to my advantage this season and I'm looking forward to improving so much. I feel like I'm starting at the beginning again right now but I'm sure that will come back really quick. Day 1 to the Nashville Country Music Marathon done! :)

Today's Miles: 3.0
Total Miles: 3.0