Thanksgiving Recap!

lots of people! That was the theme of this thanksgiving with a 10,000 people full race morning, 9 people staying at our home for the whole long weekend, and 13 for thanksgiving dinner. It was all wonderful!


I'm keeping this short for now [edited- haha, when have I ever kept a blog post short? This one kept with tradition of long-windedness after all], as I have a 8-10 page paper due tomorrow that isn't quite started (I know, I know), but some pictures from the weekend got posted (all photos curtesy of David Badgerow), so I thought I'd do a bit of an update (and procratinate some more :) )

The race(s) went really really well, surprisingly, with the main thing holding me back being a horribly nasty cold that hit wednesday night and is still going strong (moved into my lungs, which means no running for a bit, as breathing is hard right now)

The 10k went great, with tons of people and the best running partner ever (Ed). It was his first race ever, and he promised to stick with me. We started conservatively and then I decided I wanted to push a bit and get in under an hour. About 2 miles from the end I started feeling somewhat lightheaded, so we backed off a bit, still making it in in 59:24. And, like the gentleman he is, Ed let me beat him by a whole one second :D

looking a bit tired still after the 10k. Refueling with a banana before the 5k that'll start in about 30 minutes

After resting for a bit in the car, we met up with the rest of the running group who were all doing the 5k

(back row, then front, left to right) My dad, Ashley (my older sister), James (her fiance), Ed, Pat (James' mom), me, and David (Ashley's good friend) all ready to go. My mom and little sister stayed home, per tradition, to watch the parade and make us breakfast :)

While waiting for the race to start, we figured out racing strategies. After much consideration, Ed decided to run alone, as he wanted to see what it would be like to push himself a bit. He's much faster than me, so I decided to let him free :) James and his mom would walk the race, and james was all set in his flip flops. As my dad and Ash both weren't doing so hot on the running front lately (my dad hurt his knee somehow and has been taking it really easy lately), they decided to stick together with the plan to run a bit a walk lots. David had been training apparently and wanted to try running the whole thing, so I offered to stick with him, so long as he wasn't too fast. He ended up being the perfect pace, so it was a good match!

Before we all split up into our respective paces

Ed had an awesome race, running a 23:04! That's a 7:26 pace, after doing the 10k, mind you. Being the amazingly sweet guy he is, he said that he was so used to running with me, that it really wasn't as much fun on his own, and he missed having me as his running partner :)

David and I had a great race, keeping a very conservative pace and catching up the whole time. The 3ish miles flew by and we coasted in with a 32ish minute 5k, per chip time.

This was the first time David ever ran the whole 5k (he's done this race with us a number of years) so it was really exciting for him that his training paid off. I felt great after the race, much better than after the 10k, but after the endorphins wore off, the sickness really took hold.

Thanksgiving dinner was great, with a huge table of fabulous food, friends, and family

Unfortunately, my cold really started hitting hard, and I had to excuse myself early to go lie down, missing out on dessert :(. That's when I know I'm really sick, as I always always eat dessert when I can.

Friday we went to Mission San Juan Capistrano, which was awesome Ed and I walking in the ruins of the mission

(more pictures from that to follow) but it exhausted me so much that the rest of the day was spent watching movies and resting. Ed stayed home with me that night while the rest of the crew went to the big bad voodoo daddies concert. We watched White Christmas on tv instead, and had a lovely evening :)

Saturday was Christmas decorating day (as per our thanksgiving tradition). With nine of us, the tree was decorated in record time, names were exchanged for the ornament exchange, and eggnog was drunk.

(all of us sans my mom, the photographer, with our completed tree)

All in all a great wonderful thanksgiving. Ed got along perfectly with everyone and was wonderful to have to share this holiday with. I'm so lucky :)


Less than three weeks until the quarter ends and I'm back home for a extended break. Just gotta make it to then!