Race Recaps and Baking Fun

Because I am super behind and lacking motivation to do super huge full race recaps I am going to do these in bullet form with just a few pictures.


Galloping Gobbler (4 miles)  -  11/24/11
official time: 33:30
overall: 615 / 3075
age bracket: 21 / 257
gender: 144 / 1690

splits:

1	8:39.7	1.00	8:40
2	8:19.4	1.00	8:20
3	8:01.9	1.00	8:02
4	8:15.8	1.00	8:16
5	:17.6	0.04	7:16

 - this was my one year "runiversary" as I like to call it.  Last Thanksgiving I spent my morning doing a turkey trot at the Y, most of it was walking.  I tried to jog some so that I wasn't the last one to finish but I couldn't run for more than 30 seconds without getting winded.  Oh what a difference a year makes!
 - super cold weather, late start due to registrations
 - still recovering from the flu so I wasn't feeling up to par
 - some pretty good consistent up and down hills through the cemetery but pretty run (and this is coming from someone who doesn't do well with cemeteries)
 - people dressed up as turkeys, pilgrims, etc
 - they had self seeded pace markers which I was really excited about
 - but, not sure they worked.... I started out exactly where I should have pace wise in the 8-8:30 group, but spent most of the first 10-15 minutes passing people
 - mile 1 was slow due to crowds
 - miles 2 and 3 worked out pretty well for me, negative splits
 - struggled by the last mile, my legs were aching from all the ups and downs of the hills
 - overall, I would definitely recommend this race because it was well organized and a fun start to Thanksgiving
 - don't have many pictures from the race since hubby wasn't able to be with me because he was home sick with the flu
 - the only downside... I wasn't a huge fan of the shirts!

pre-race photo

only race photo I have, purchased from race photog

pretty scenery on St Francis Campus

Me after the race

the crowd behind me

the crowd in front of me

The Gift 5k  -  12/10/11
official time: 24:02
overall: 19 / 41
age bracket: 1 / 1
gender: 3 / 14

splits:  (inaccurate, my garmin wouldn't start until more than .25 mile into the race)

1	7:42.4	1.00	7:42
2	7:58.9	1.00	7:59
3	6:29.9	0.77	8:26

 - this race was SMALL, like, smallest I have done in a while
 - I dressed up for this race and was the only one, I kind of felt like a fool!
 - no chip timing and I didn't start at the front of the group, whoops.. was too busy screwing with my gps
 - so, so, SO cold.  I think the temps were around 10 degrees!
 - the course wasn't the most interesting but it was pretty none the less
 - they gave away nice little gifts to 1-3 in each age group which meant that most people ended up getting something since it was a small race, I thought this was a nice touch.
 - I struggled from the beginning of this race, it was hard to breathe in the cold, it was painful on my lungs
 - no water stop which was fine, but at the same time I am so used to them that it felt weird to not have one
 - ended up having to walk a bit towards the end, which you can definitely see in the splits
 - overall I was pleased with my time, 2nd fastest 5k to date - about 20 seconds off my PR
 - I was 1st overall female up until after mile 2, it was hard to watch those girls pass me but I just didn't have it in me to push harder, I knew they were high school age so I knew that I still had my age group and for whatever reason that was enough for me that day.

coming in to the finish

finishing "strong"

And, last but not least I needed to do some baking as gifts for my daughter's preschool teachers.  We ended up making chocolate "haystacks" and reindeer cookies for each of her teachers, in addition to giving each of them an ornament hand picked out by Natalie. 

cookies and ornaments all packed up

Reader Poll:  What are your best ideas for teacher gifts for Christmas (and end of year)?  

 

Last Question:  What is your favorite holiday tradition?