Ladd's own Half , Thanksgiving Day 2008

Last week , the whole week before we left for the Outer Banks I only ran 5 miles mostly because I was sick and it was pretty cold. Weeks before we were leaving for this trip we planned on running the OBX turkey trot but a month before while checking out the race we found out it was sold out for 2008 in 10 days. Maybe next year. Marsha and I ran 4 miles Sun., 4 miles Mon., 5 miles Tuesday and took Wed. off. I wanted to do a long run on Thanksgiving (in place of not running a 5k) but Marsha did a strength workout inside so I decided to go ahead and do it while the rest of the family watched the Macy's Parade. I got geared up and headed out the door with 10 miles on my mind , 5 out 5 back , when Marsha says she is taking Cassie to Walmart to get a book when I get back. Walmart is 15+ miles away and I think it's crazy to drive 30 miles to go get this book , but as I get out to the parking lot and get the GPS going I get this thought that I'll just keep running towards Walmart and they can pick me upon the way. I head out and tell them about my pace and to not let me run for more than 2 hours forgetting that heading in that direction every day so far has been into the wind. All week we headed that direction early in the morning so we could have the wind at our back on the way home and all week it was cold going out and warm after the turn around. Again it is windy and right in my face but much warmer than the morning runs , maybe getting close to 50 , I think I go out slow for a mile (but later I realize I went out at 8:15 for the first mile, not my intention) and then just run a comfortable pace. I stop at 4 miles and take a drink then stop again at 7.5 for a Gu in just over an hour , now I get to thinking I want to hit 13.1 before Marsha and Cassie find me and at 12.75 Marsha yells out the window to me and pulls over up ahead. Hardly slowing down as I toss my gloves to her and tell her to give me another half mile, long enough to finish my own Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon and walk for a short while. I finish in 1:47.30 almost to the second Marsha's PR. Time went by pretty fast for this run because I borrowed Marsha's mp3 player and had music to listen to for 1 hour and ten minutes before it went dead.