The Brick Wall: pie is good

Usually I like to sit around on Thanksgiving and be as lumpy as possible. At best I will go for a quick run and then resume lumping.

Today though, after nine years of racing and avoiding Turkey Trots, I did this. Not because I have had a change of heart and have decided to not be lumpy today, but because the race was organized, in part, by the fantastic Katy Otto whose full-time fun is supporting the good people of Face to Face, a very helpful community agency literally a few yards from our front door.

So when Katy asked if we were running, how could we say no? I’ve known her since we were 13, she recently moved to Philly and she's just about the nicest person ever. I wanted to show her some luv.

Bill and I made the mistake of checking the weather report last night – 31 degrees, freezing rain. Hmm. I am cold all of the time. All. Unless it is 80 degrees, count on me being chilly.

Maybe I should be lazy and stay in bed, I thought. I whine and whine in the cold and have only done maybe 30 miles since New York.

The alarm went off and I actually got up. Mostly to look out the window to see if crap was falling from the sky, in which case I would have gone back to bed (Bill was going no matter what). No crap was falling so out the door we went.

Registered. Got shirts. And then I spent way too much time deciding exactly what to wear. It would snow, the sun would peek out, it would sleet, the wind would blow. Please, weather, decide what to do.

The course is a mostly flat out-and-back along Forbidden Drive, the main path through Wissahickon Park (pretty much my favorite place on Earth). I went out way too fast, as always, but decided to race it and hang on as long as I could. There was a dude in the race with a double-wide stroller and I decided that I needed to pass him. Sometimes my ego is a pain in my ass.

A woman and I were running side by side and she must live in my brain a little bit: “Let’s pass Stroller Dad,” she said. So we pushed the pace and eventually passed him (his one kid was singing Baaa Baaa Black Sheep and was pretty damn cute).

Hit the turnaround and knew that I would be running a positive split. Again, as always. Someone please teach me how to pace myself. I did manage to have a tiny bit of a kick at the finish (I usually don’t) so I guess I could have run a dumber race.

Finished the second half 45 seconds slower than the first but I was happy enough with my time. I’ve done the course five or six times before and I was about 11 seconds slower than when I PRed there in July. I’ll take it.

I spent the rest of the day with Bill and his extended family eating, drinking and napping. A day of running and lumping. Truly a reason to give thanks.

The End.

My subconscious goal for 2010 is, apparently, to gain 88 pounds between November 1 and January 1. So far I have had two Thanksgiving dinners and it is only Wednesday. Sloth world, here I come.

Sunday marked the sixth (or so) annual Fake Thanksgiving, so called because it 1) does not involve Thanksgiving day and 2) does not involve meat. Our friend Lori is a vegetarian, as am I*, and our husbands (hers is called Dave) are not but they indulge us by having a turkey-free pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner. What nice boys they are!
We had a very beige, but very delicious, dinner, topped off with Billy’s Best Pumpkin Pie. Hooray!