Renae with the dogs before the race.
All three of us and the turkey.
So I decided to travel back home to Kansas before the holidays and picked the weekend before Thanksgiving. Renae (travel and best friend) decided to go with and we noticed that Wichita's Turkey Trot was that weekend. We discussed running the 10 mile but as it came time to register and we hadn't done much running down graded to the 2 mile. Since my mom had such a funny reaction to me buying hot pink vibram running shoes at the Air Force marathon I decided to start training in them so that I could wear them during the Turkey Trot. We arrived in Wichita late Thursday night and stayed at the airport hotel and met Tarra for breakfast the next morning at the Beacon. We goofed around in Wichita with mom and Bud and then headed to El Dorado to get our feet rubbed at Heads-N-Toes. Grandma was getting her hair done at the same time so we sat and talked with her for a bit. After a grand day in El Dorado we headed to Grandma Fuller's house.
After getting up at 7am the next morning (race day) we headed to pick mom up in Augusta at 0715. The race started at 0930 and we weren't sure about parking or anything so headed in to Wichita around 0740 and got to the run start around 0800. It was pretty freak'n cold (around 25-30 degrees and by comparison to the Grand Junction Turkey Trot was a tropical heat wave) so we stayed in the car for a while and discussed our strategy. We got our race packet and discussed the awesomeness of the long sleeve shirt. We decided to start warming up around 0900. I got lots of odd looks when I was walking around in my vibrams, one guy even asked, "Are you going to run in those?"
We found out that the 2 mile started at 0940 after the 10 milers started at 0930. So after the 10 milers started we worked our way from sunny spot to sunny spot until we reached the start line. So with about a minute to start I looked over and couldn't find mom and Renae said she moved to the back of the pack. Then the gun went off and I sprinted off feeling pretty good. Of course there were tons of kids in this race who thought there place to start was at the very front. So the first mile or so I spent a good deal of time avoiding kids who would stop right in front of me or would run 4 or 5 across on the sidewalk. I checked my IPOD and it said I was just at a mile and running around 8 min miles. I thought holy crap I'm fast. I was able to keep that pace for only another 1/2 mile or so and had to slow down because I was nearly out of breath. Once I was within 400 yards of the finish I kicked back up and crossed at 19.03 which I thought was awesome.
I started walking back along the course so I could get pictures of Renae and mom. Renae was only a couple of minutes behind me. I think she finished around 23 min. Mom was a couple of minutes behind her and I ran with her the rest of the way in. She finished in 26 min I think. I was really proud of her because she hadn't run in a long time and she said she ran the whole thing. She was so inspired that she said she is going to sign up for the Jingle Bell 5k, awesome job mom.
So by the end of the trip to Kansas I had developed a cold and humidity induced water retention. So slept the entire trip back to Colorado. Fast forward four days and it is time for the Grand Junction Turkey Trot benefiting the firefighters.
Renae worked the night before so I told her I would wake her up at 0830 so she could roll out of bed, get dressed, and get in the car and I would have everything else ready (or at least I hoped). Naturally it's the coldest day to date of the year a whopping 5 degrees when I wake up. What to wear what to wear. I decided on running tights with shorts over them and my really cool new running shirt that my mom got me but covered that with a sweatshirt and what Renae has now termed my "chemo hat", nursing humor I just don't know about it.
So I get the dogs stuff ready, put bottles of water in the car, start the car (after all it is only 7 degrees now), put some breakfast in the car and head to wake Renae. Although asleep manages to dress in record time so I load the dogs and we are out the door. Oh yeah did I mention this was a dog friendly run and somewhere in our screwed up head we thought it would be nice to bring them. We got parked at Albertson's and got the dogs leashed and out of the vehicle and started walking to the race start. Well the dogs needed to poop in the bank grassy area. What is the one thing Julie forgot about, that's right poop bags. I managed to find a trash bag in my car (I don't know why it was there but thankful it was) and Renae scooped up the poop and ran it over the trash can at the gas station.
By now it had warmed up to a balmy 9 degrees. My face hurt like no tomorrow. We walked to the start line managing to avoid about 60 other dogs and 900 people. We stood up on the side walk as the race started because I wasn't sure how the dogs would do. While we were waiting I managed to throw my camera on the ground, dislodge my earphone plug from my IPOD, get tangled with Kyrie's leash, and almost kick someone. I got myself all put back together and looked up and the walkers were already passing us. I told Renae that I didn't want to pass all the walkers because I PLANNED to run so we jumped into the fray and began weaving through strollers, kids, and dogs.
Now those of you who know the dogs know that Zeus is a people greeter and Kyrie, well Kyrie needs to be on heavy doses of Xanex. I wished I had horse blinders on her she yanked, pulled, and skitted every which way while we were trying to weave through the traffic of people. A stroller would go by, she was off this way, then a runner with a dog would go by and she was off that way. Maybe a 1/4 mile into the thing I told Renae I couldn't do this and started walking so Renae who had Zeus, who was running like he had been doing it for years on a leash, was right beside her. I walked maybe 100 yards and stopped on the side of the road trying to decide whether to turn around or continue. I had this little mental debate going on when alas I saw Bethany trotting towards me. The pain in my head said turn around and wait at the finish line, however, the competitor inside me said you can do this. So I sidled up to Bethany and we walked together for about a mile. During this mile Kyrie tried tripping me twice and tried ripping my shoulder out of the socket at least 1/2 dozen times. It's a good thing animal cruelty laws are more severe then child abuse because I'm sure I thought about hanging her from a tree a time or two (just kidding, but not really). I saw Renae on the trip back down the River Trail and decided to jog a little to see if I could catch up. I bid ado to Bethany and Kyrie and I were on our way.
At this point Kyrie was doing really well until we reach the turn around point. I made the turn Kyrie failed to yield the right of way and we got tangled again. I'm sure this was somewhat comical to watch and several people commented that it wasn't the dogs fault. Well of course it wasn't it was her parents fault we all know that. Anywho, I trotted along until Kyrie tripped me and then we walked again. This whole thing seemed to take forever and I wished I were done because my head hurt. Finally, finally I saw Renae and Zeus and just let go of Kyrie's leash so Renae could deal with her while I finished. I crossed the finish line handed them my running number thingy and waited for Bethany to cross the finish line.
On the way back to the car I told Renae that Kyrie couldn't come on any more group runs without being heavily drugged. I checked the temp 15 degrees. Definitely the coldest temp I've run in. We swung by Starbucks on the way home and as I was sitting in the drive through watched as my windshield finished cracking all the way down, fascinating to watch expensive to fix. Oh well.
Once we got home I was dead quite literally. I laid down for a 3 hour recovery nap. Sucks being sick.
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