thanksgiving 2011

Another Thanksgiving, another City Creek Cold Turkey 6K!  This year it was quite warm - about 50 F - and no issues with ice on the road, so our start was at the capital and the finish was down in Memory Grove; I was able to wear shorts, cotton socks and didn't even need gloves.  Another difference: personal spectators!  H's folks came out for the holiday and so I had a full four person cheering section.  The race went off right on time and the 650ish runners and walkers surged up the canyon.  I felt pretty good for the duration of the race but I didn't feel as though I was as strong on the uphill as I've been - didn't pass as many folks.  The downhill portion seemed to go fairly quickly and soon enough I was across the finish line.  I ended up finishing with a time of 35:41.33, twelve seconds faster than the first time I did the race (and I'm not factoring in last year's time since the course was different), 11th out of 27 in my age group and 249th out of 656 overall.

Nice shot of the port-o-johns!

Here's another difference from the last couple of years: we couldn't find a dive bar open early enough to host our post-race beers.  H expanded the to-call list to about thirty bars and found none of them open before noon this year.  Maggie McGee's, which had been open at 10 a.m. for the last two years, wasn't even unlocking its doors until 3 p.m. - far too late for our purposes!  So we shrugged off our disappointment and went straight home after the race, and popped open a bottle of cheap champagne the moment we set foot inside.  That seemed to work just fine.

Clear shot to the finish

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching football, cooking (roast chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, salad, cranberry-orange relish and rolls), eating, drinking good Utah beers (Cutthroat (with their gorgeous new logo design), Full Suspension and the house-brewed Deep Pow Pale) and playing games (Quiddler and Rummikub).  We were amazingly too full for pie (craziness - I am never too full for pie) and I had to go to bed well before 10 p.m., tired, full and very happy with the day.  I hope all the rest of you enjoyed your Thanksgivings as much as we did ours!