Cold Turkey 6K, and miscellaneous

The miscellaneous - really busy with Thanksgiving and the aftermath so this will be fast. I thought I was getting better and did feel better until last night (Thursday night) when I crashed hard after dinner. Still managed bike & elliptical this morning as well as on Wednesday morning. Will this cold EVER end??? Fatigue, sore throat, coughing, congestion, etc. It sucks.

***


Photo: Diane and I before the race.

Cold Turkey 6K - Thanksgiving Day race here. It was predicted to be -5F but was actually 9F (-13C) so I was happy with that! It was sunny, too, which helped. However, it's a hilly course, and it was pretty icy in many spots up the canyon, plus it was crowded with all the runners vying for the non-icy spots on the road. Hard to pass on the uphill (the first 3K of the race). I was going to do this as a 6K kickdown and start easy then accelerate, but I ended up starting out moderately hard and then going harder as the race progressed. You can't tell at all from my times that I was working hard, but I was...this illness is really slowing me down, but I'm thankful it's only temporary (I think!). Splits here. I did my slowest time ever for this race, at 39:09 (+/- a few seconds - that's my watch time). The course was a little different than usual - not as much downhill at the end, so that accounts for 30 sec or so, plus the ice and crowding (more than usual) accounts for maybe another 30 sec - 1 min. Even so, if I subtract 1.5 min it's still my slowest time on this course. Oh well. I was sick, and at least I was out there and I did have fun. At the end I went back for my friend Diane and finished the race with her (she's a fast walker - at age 70 she did this course in 53 min!). Age-graded, she usually beats me quite soundly :).

The weather ended up being a non-factor. I dressed warmly (too warm, actually - got hot and had to take off my gloves at the end, and wished I could remove my jacket but the bib was pinned on it and was over the zipper!), and Diane and I remarked that the cold was much better than rain. She did the race one year when it was pouring and said it was just miserable.

I got lots of photos of the loons out there wearing Native American loincloths and nothing else (brrrrr) and the funny turkey hats, etc. It's always a pretty fun race, and this was no exception, despite my illness and slow time. Oh, and I did win the walking division, so I came home with some more hardware for my brag rack in the hall.

more photos and some video here - including what I wore for the race and other randomness