I spent Thanksgiving this year at my in-laws, and I was excited that my mother-in-law was interested in running the local turkey trot again with me. She and I did the Give 'Em the Bird 5K for the first time back in 2019, and this year, her sister and cousin joined us on race morning. (We failed to get a group picture). 

The four of us got to the race start on a cold, but at least sunny morning. It was in the 20s when we got there, and I was very glad one of the nearby buildings let us wait inside and use their bathrooms in the heat. 

About five minutes before the race start, we headed back outside and lined up. 

My goal for this race was to use it as a solid tempo run. I was about two weeks post-DC half marathon and one week pre-Rehoboth half marathon. So I wanted to push myself but not over do it.  

The course is a big loop that starts on a bike path before veering onto some neighborhood roads that eventually drop you back onto the bike path.

There's one decent size hill around the half way point, but then you get to finish on a pretty gentle downhill for the last mile or so. 

I let myself warm up for the first minute or two and then consciously worked on picking up my pace. 

When I got to the hill, I tried to keep my effort consistent and powered up without too much of an issue. I credit my hilly neighborhood for my ability to better tackle hills in races these days. 

I made what I knew was the last turn onto the bike path and decided it was time to push the pace. Glancing at my watch, I was excited to see I was holding steady well below a nine-minute pace, and I didn't feel like I was exerting too much effort to maintain that. 

I gave a final kick as the finish line came into sight and crossed the line in 27:47, an 8:51 per mile average pace. Turns out that was good enough for 15th overall in my age group. It also happens to be about 30 seconds faster than when I ran this race two years ago. 

I was quite happy with my time, and it was really fun to have a group of family do this race to kick off the Thanksgiving festivities.