Thanksgiving Weekend Round Up

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Mine is pretty traditional.  Every year we switch between my Aunt's house and my parent's house.  This year was my parent's year and I love that for a few reasons.  It's closer to me (about a 15 minute drive) vs. my Aunt's house which is a good hour away.  I also love my dad's cooking.  He cooks relatively healthy, we always have and there is no use of butter or anything like that.  But do not be fooled!  The food is incredibly delicious!  In fact, there was hardly any left.  We had turkey which he cooks on the grill, garlic/dill mashed potatoes (no cream or butter), plain green beans, the most delicious homemade stuffing.  I took a little mashed potatoes and turkey home with me.  My Aunt does make pie and it's completely full fat!  She makes pumpkin pie and pecan pie.  I'm not a fan of pecan pie but LOVE pumpkin pie.  I do know how to make a good low fat pumpkin pie but I don't want to step on anyone's toes so I just leave it and suffer the fattening consequences.  I will say that I have a pretty hilarious family (it's my dad's side that comes) so it's always a pretty fun time.

Thursday morning, how could I forget, was the Pilcher Park Poultry Predictor in Joliet.  As far as turkey trots are concerned, I never used to do them before a few years ago.  I never would run after August, after the Rock N' Roll half marathon.  Well, times have changed and I've done a few different turkey trots around Thanksgiving.  I love to run ON Thanksgiving so I feel better about all the food I'm going to eat.  This year I opted to do the Poultry Predictor.  The run was inexpensive and the point was to predict your finish time.  The people that came the closest would win a pie or turkey (they probably gave out 40+).  So it doesn't matter if you are the fastest or slowest, you only win if you come closest to the predicted time.  Sweet!  I might finally win something!  You couldn't use your garmins or any watches.  There were no clocks on the course or at the start/finish.


I met up with a bunch of F'N Runners.  Our F'N Runners were actually scattered all around and several different turkey trots but since there are so many of us...we still managed to round up a nice size group at the Poultry Predictor.  And we mostly all wore our shirts too so it's always fun to see us out on the course.

F'N Runners at the Poultry Predictor

The temps were pretty decent that day.  It was going to be a high in the 60's and was probably about upper 40's for the run (I can't remember now).  I predicted a finish time for me at 38:25.  That was about a 9:36 pace.  This run was a 4 mile run and I felt that that pace was slightly challenging but not impossible. The run was through a nature preserve and a rather beautiful area to run in.  It was a little difficult trying to figure out what pace I was running and there were no indicators of the distance we traveled throughout the run either.  I kept thinking that I didn't want to run too fast or too slow because...A. I needed to finish the run and.. B. I wanted to come close to my predicted time.

I actually really enjoyed this run.  I liked the "rustic, old-school" feel it had.  I liked the fact that I could win a prize even though I wasn't the fastest.  Turns out, I was way ahead of my predicted time.  I came in at 37:02 (predicted was 38:25) for an average pace of 9:15.  I was very happy with that time.  It's actually a 4 mile PR for me.  I've only done 1 other 4 mile run and it was last years turkey trot in Palos.  I was having knee trouble and ended up at about 44 minutes.  In fact, a couple days after last year's turkey trot, I tried running and ended up walking 2 miles home in tears because of my knee pain and took 3 weeks off until I found out it was runner's knee. lol.

Anyway, I did not win a pie but my friend Becky did!  She was only 2 seconds off of her predicted time!

Friday, I headed out to Waterfall Glen in Darien to run the 9+ mile loop with friends.  There were Yankee Runners, Frankfort/New Lenox Runners, Bloggers, etc.  It was nice to meet a few different people.

Black Friday Waterfall Glen Group

I ended up running with my friend Julie and Jill.  As soon as I started and I hit the first hill, I wanted to turn around and go home.  But I trudged along with my friends, we chatted, they gave me advice on some issues I'm having personally and we tried to make sure we were having fun!  I love Waterfall Glen but man...it's rough!  And we went the easy direction of the loop.  The opposite way is harder. It's a hilly run almost from start to finish and with the loop being 9+ miles, it's a pretty good distance to do for hills.  The last (and only) time I was there, I did my 20 mile training run for the Illinois Marathon here.  We went the easy way loop first and the hard way loop second, and I almost cried at mile 15 when yet another giant hill came up! lol.  I was really glad to only be doing one loop this time.  And during this run, my friend asked me, "You did your 20 miles here???"  Yes.  That is all.

Elevation Chart from my Garmin at Waterfall Glen

The 9+ mile loop at Waterfall Glen.  I like loops... lol

The run ended and I was happy again.  I was going to Columbus, Ohio that weekend to see my nephew.  Can I tell you how NOT fun it is to run a hilly 9.3 mile loop and then sit in a car for 5.5 hours??  I got out for gas and could barely walk. In fact, at my brother's house, they asked my I was walking like I had an ear of corn up my butt....that's true, they did ask me that! lol