Eat Pie Now!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :-)

We started off this morning by getting up at 6am in preparation for the 8:30 start of the Feaster Five race. Wait, isn't this supposed to be a holiday?!

Chris, Meghan's husband, was the one who lost out on the deal, as he was our driver. Meghan, Ryan and I got our packets, hit the port-a-potties, went for a quick warm-up run, hit the port-a-potties again, and then wound our way into the mass of humanity that was joining us in the 21st run of the Feaster Five. There were 8000 runners (there was a 5k option too)! Wow. Never run with that many people before. It was a bit nuts! But it was a good day for it. Low 30s, sunny and only a slight breeze. I wussed out and wore tights, instead of my shorts, but was pretty comfortable throughout. I also proudly wore my Trail Monster Running singlet over my long sleeve shirt. Woohoo! :-)

With so many people racing, it took me a while to get over the starting line and then I did the wonderful bob and weave through the mass of runners. The first mile was uphill and seemed hard for the pace I was running. Yikes. But as the route mellowed out a bit, I settled into a good pace and just prayed I could keep it up! The race wound through the residential neighborhoods of Andover, Massachusetts, so there were lots of turns along the way. Other than the first hill, the course wasn't all that memorable, but was a fair one. The last 200 meters were also an uphill which was a little mean, but then I was done!

Official results put me at #271 of #2606; 10 of 366 in my age group; and with a finishing time of 36:18, which was 7:19 pace. I was pretty happy about that, especially considering I didn't do any speed work. Ryan smoked it and came in 104th at 32:52, while Meghan in her first running race ever, came in at 49:25. She's already talking about doing a half marathon in 2009. She's hooked! :-)

The cool thing about this race is that participants get a 10" Table Talk Apple Pie. What could be a better Thanksgiving Day prize? So along with the two homemade apple pies and the pumpkin pie we made last night, we have three, count 'em three, Table Talk Pies to eat too. Time to get to it! :-)