Earn Your Turkey 4 mile Run/Walk 2009

This was a fun little four mile race put on by Runner's Corner and Sojourner's Running Club. This is the first short race I have competed in since 2006. I entered it because my 7 year old daughter wanted to run a race. She entered the kids 800 meter run, and I entered the 4 mile run. I bought her a special new running suit the night before, and gave her some special running food (sports beans) to put in her pocket. She was stoked! She has been talking about running a race since spring.

The race started out very cold, but warmed up pretty fast. I had wanted to finish in under 32 minutes, but I started near the back of the start line, and trying to push through 529 people made my start slow down. I ended up finishing in 33:26, but the official time recorded was 33:37. It was not chipped, so unless I read the 3 as a 2 they or I were off by 11 seconds.

My finish place was 10 out of 65 for my age/gender group. I thought I had only seen 307 on the finish report and it has my finish as 66th out of 307, but on the email they sent out it says my place is 227 out of 569. So I am not sure was the 66th out of 307 means. Maybe that was over all women?

Helen did great for her first race she finished in 4:58, and 52 out of 71. She was 10th out of 14th in her gender/age group. She thought it was cool that we were both in 10th place. It was fun, and I ran the 800 meters with her and gave her encouragement so she would keep running and not walk. She got tired about half way and wanted to walk, but pushed through it, and she was happy at the end. I wanted her first race to be positive so that she wants to do more, and I think it was!

I am planning on doing more short races this winter and hopefully challenge my speed. I have a goal of getting a 21 minute 5 K by March.

I am planning on signing up for a 50 K Snowshoe race in January. Stay tuned..................