Wild Turkey Trot 5k

Another race down.  And, I'm glad I can say this.  The last couple of days I have been fighting a cold/allergy/sinus "stuff" and last night culminated in hardly sleeping a wink.  I was up ALL night trying to breathe and coughing my head off.  My head hurt so much.  With this happening, I had about decided to withdraw from the race this morning.  I made myself get race-dressed and go with Kent to Pensacola and cheer everyone in at the Finish Line.  Thought I could at least do that. 

After another dose of allergy medication, I began to feel a little better.  Still not planning to race, I caught up with my friend, Mo, beforehand and she wasn't herself either.  She told me that racing may help open my head up.  With that being said, I decided to try and race.  My calves have been much better this week but I was not very confident in them acting right and with my head wearing me out...well...I didn't have a lot of hope for running the entire course without doing some walking. 

The air was nice and cool and I began to see a lot of my friends as they came up.  As usual, I love the excitement in the air before a race and that didn't disappoint me; I just wasn't very confident in myself.  We got started on an overcast day and all was going well.  No calf pain and no coughing.  Within the first mile, we hit a small grade and it made me start walking as I was having so much trouble breathing!  I thought "oh, no!!"; but it didn't last long.  As soon as we leveled out I began running again and ran it the rest of the way through.  Mo and I ran together some, she ran ahead and I got ahead of her about 2 miles out.  Now that my breathing was getting better, I held "my" pace and kept steady.  Another friend, Buck, had zipped passed both of us after the first mile or so and stayed ahead, running good and strong.  He finished well, then I came in, then Mo, then my other friends.  We all did better than we expected.  Hence, the race was a success.  I was one off from placing in my age group with Mo getting 3rd and Buck 1st. 

Kent enjoys racewalking the races in Pensacola as they stress that you shouldn't run any and they start after the 5k runners leave out.  He placed 1st in his age group.  I am so proud of him.  He is such an inspiration to me!!  Okay...I know I've said that before...but he is! 

Hope you've had a good run or race today.  Looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family.  Here's wishing you a Happy Turkey Day.  But until then...after all, there's 5 days before that great day, go

Run 4 It