Our Turkey Day Tradition

It’s time for the Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot AGAIN! Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is literally right around the corner.  We actually got the email Tuesday that said Packet Pick-Up was starting Wednesday.  WHOA!

We love this race because  1.) it’s super fun 2.) the atmosphere around this race is hard to match 3.) it’s pretty much a tradition for us at this point oh and 4.) who doesn’t find it great to burn 800+ calories and enjoying everything you eat that day!  That’s right because each we like to participate in the 8 mile portion of the this race.

Apparently we aren’t the only ones that like this race. Time Magazine actually just listed it as one of the Top 5 Fun Runs to Try Now! Fun Run is exactly the correct terminology, while you could definitely hit a PR in this type of race (both of us did last year 🙂 ) it is definitely not its true purpose.  Even though it is actually one of the largest fun runs in the country, the race is well organized and put together, but some cramping occurs at the beginning making it more fun to take in the atmosphere and enjoy the run through some of the best parts of Dallas! Many families come out for the 5k distance and you are even allowed to bring your pet! Teal is not sure Wilson could handle it though, he is too chicken. 🙁

The Turkey Trot always comes up with something fun and after 40+ years they haven’t run out of new ideas. Last year you might remember that we dressed up as Turkeys and participated in the Guinness Book of World Record challenge to gather the most people dressed as Turkeys in one location! Oh and we did actually break the record! Does this make us famous??

Check out our awesome costumes and Beth’s sewing handy work.

This year they have decided to start the Mascot Trot.  They have invited all of the Dallas area schools to come cheer on the North Texas professional mascots as they race each other around Dallas. There will be “Champ” from the Dallas Mavericks, “Ranger Captain” from the Texas Rangers, and “Rowdy” from the Dallas Cowboys’ mascots and they will all compete in a race with the official Turkey Trot mascot, “Tommy the Turkey.” We didn’t even know they had one!  This happens the day before the race so anyone can come out and watch, even the runners! Maybe you could even be spotted on Good Morning Texas!!

This will be our 3rd year in a row to run together as Life is a Run, but this is something that has been around us for a long time dating back even into our high school running days and hopefully we can keep it up!

Turkey Trot 2010 with Bitner and Chase

There is ONE more thing that makes this day special in addition to it being a day of family (Thanksgiving) and the Turkey Trot, but it is also Teal & Michael’s 4th wedding anniversary!

Who is running the Turkey Trot this year?? We as usual would LOVE to see you.

Lazy Solo Running Weekend

Beth here with my running recap for the weekend! 🙂  My weekend turned out to be NOT what I was expecting, but exactly what I needed! After my long run Saturday morning I was suppose to be hitting the road to Austin with my sister for a wedding, but life happened and sister felt she needed to stay in town to be with a friend.  I took full advantage of this and slept in on Saturday morning!  And by slept in I mean until 7:30 a.m. Woohoo!  My favorite spin instructor at my L.A. Fitness had been out of town last Monday on my usual spin day, so I skipped it.  I decided spin class on Saturday morning [since favorite instructor would be back] made more sense than Sunday morning and then back to spin class Monday after work.  So I did spin, I did a 30 minute yoga class and then I spent hours with my littlest nephew!  It was a fabulous Saturday! Here’s what my sister and I did to our nephew on Saturday –

This was inspired by what Jack’s Mom did to him last week.  Jack being the first grandbaby of Cindy[#TeamCindy] who we are running Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half in memory of and raising money for breast cancer.  And here’s me getting some good cuddle time in with Easton!

Sunday I slept in until 8 a.m.  That was some glorious sleep! I wrote thatWhat’s the Deal? post a few weeks ago and to be honest I still hadn’t fully snapped out of it! I’m pretty positive I was wearing myself out during the week and then just going, going and going on the weekends.  Pretty much since the weekend of August 20th I had been going on long runs then drinking tons of coffee in an effort to stay up and go out to celebrate things like: my sister’s birthday, my boyfriend’s birthday, being in California and running a half, celebrating one of my best friend’s birthdays, celebrating a 1 year old’s birthday, celebrating a 2 year old’s birthday, hosting a baby shower, celebrating my oldest nephew’s birthday and my sister in law’s birthday – see what I was doing to myself??

Anyways, I laid in bed Sunday morning catching up on my DVR until I had to get up and meet a friend at yoga at 1:00 p.m.  I ate a late lunch and decided to lay in bed longer while my food digested before I could go out for my long run.  And something happened that NEVER happens – I took  nap!  I am in no way a napper!  I just lack the ability to take a nap and wake up refreshed, so the only times I do it are if I’m sick or I’m apparently wearing myself out THAT much.

Shortly before 5:00 p.m. I was off on my long run for the weekend!  This run I decided to take with me a Clif gel I’d received while I was out on the Tour des Fleurs 20k race course in September.  Like I do every long run I stuck it in the hidden pocket inside my Nike shorts only problem was that the Clif gel packaging is wider than the GU gel packaging I usually take on my run.  I ran through the gel pack poking me for 4 miles then I had it, took it out and ran holding it for 4 more miles until I opened it.  Now I am a HUGE chocolate lover, but I am now not a fan of chocolate flavored gels which is what I had!   But don’t worry Clif! I have not given up on you just your chocolate flavored gel. 🙂

And there is my cut/chaffed area/what have you on the right in the picture above.  I’m not going to tell you where that is exactly, but if I put the pack in an inside pocket of my shorts I think you can use your imagination. 😉 [Sorry Mom if you are reading this and are shaking your head at me! Love you!]  Ok, back to long run – I didn’t know how this would go since I have never run more than 8 miles by myself and Teal had left me to go on an awesome trip to San Francisco!  SO jealous! But it went great! I was so proud of myself for keeping my pace under 10 minutes the WHOLE entire time!  I had a couple times where I wanted to stop more because I needed to use the facilities than being tired. 🙂  I guess that’s the downfall of running not at my usual time.   I explored a little bit and ran a slightly different area than Teal and I have ever run before and overall I felt great during this long running!

I ended my Sunday night with some #runchat, Chipotle, Rangers, wine and my Tommie Copper calf sleeves [if you don’t own any – what are you waiting for?? Seriously!]

Check back with us tomorrow for Teal’s San Francisco Running Weekend recap!

Are you a fan of Clif gels? What is YOUR favorite flavor?