Turkey Leg 5K

Going into the race this Thanksgiving, I had just a couple of goals. I wanted to improve on my best time and I wanted to have fun doing it. Using my wife's idea from last year's Thanksgiving Day run where she and her brother dressed up, I wanted to do the same at this year's Turkey Leg 5K in Willmar, MN. I had picked up a pair of Santa boxers after Christmas last year. Combine that with a Santa hat and I had the makings of a great costume. Temperatures were supposed to be about 28 degrees, but with a wind the temperatures felt like 18 degrees. From the start of the race I picked the pace up well and actually led for the first mile and a quarter. Shortly before the half way point, a couple of runners edged me out and continued to the finish. I kept the pace high and crossed the line in 18:01, which was a PR for me and significantly better than my previous PR of 18:32.9 from about a year and a half prior. I finished 5th place out of 203 runners which was awesome. I was also second in my age group. What a way to finish the season. I definitely felt like I deserved the Thanksgiving meal soon to follow. My parents actually came out to watch the race and took some great pictures of the action. The best part of the event was that everyone cheered for me as "Go Santa." It was a great way to attract the applause of everyone. Surprisingly, I wasn't cold during the run or for a while after. The scary part is I plan to dress the same way for a race in the future.