Thanks For Giving 4 Miler 2015

I had no business doing this race.  I have been battling a terrible cold for the better part of a week and was still quite congested with a bad cough yesterday morning.  I was already signed up, though, and I thought it would be okay.

Hail, Hail, the gang's all here!  Dave, me, Anderson, my sister, two of my nieces, a nephew, my mom and dad, and some of my sister's friends and their kids.

The day started with the Drumstick Dash, a kids race, where my youngest niece and nephew and Anderson ran.  I should say, we carried Anderson for most of the race until the crowd was out of the way and then he decided he wanted to run over the finish line all by himself.  He got a medal with a turkey on it.  He's way cool.

Our race was a four miler that wound through the neighborhoods, had many turns, and did some of the race on the bike paths.  It was definitely not a PR course but I did get to see part of New Albany that I've never seen before.  Of course, you've seen one Georgian house, you've seen them all.  (Google New Albany, OH and you'll know what I'm talking about.)

The first mile I went out at a pace I thought I might be able to sustain for the race, even being sick.  But I quickly realized that I was still way sick and should not be running this hard or even running at all.  By the second mile I was toast and needed to stop and cough.  At this point, Dave passed me, asking me if I was okay.  I got running again and stayed right behind him.  I was on the cusp of passing him at mile 3 when I needed to cough again.  This time I thought I might lose a lung.  Seriously.  The last mile was another coughing mess.  I finished the race in 32:05, just a few seconds behind Dave and a few second faster than my oldest niece.  Even with what I consider a poor performance, I finished fourth in my age group just narrowly missing getting a full-sized pumpkin pie.  (That's alright.  I don't like pumpkin pie anyway.)

So here's what so cool about this race.  This race started a few years ago when a few neighbors got together to enjoy a run before Thanksgiving.  Then they started doing it in conjunction with donating money towards services that would provide meals for others.  This year was the first "official" year of the race and it was 100% donation/charity.  You could pay a little; you could pay a lot.  You could pay nothing.  ALL money raised was given to charity.  The shirts and other goodies were donated by local businesses.  Now, I'm not one who runs charity races for the cause (I like to race to race), but this is a good cause and model I support and will do again.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.