This Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for all that I am blessed with. My husband, family, friends and health all rank right up there. It helps to put the Ironman training in perspective. How fortunate I am to be able to have the experience of training and racing an Ironman triathlon!
Yes, the training has officially started. And my husband is my coach! This will either show how awesome we are together or what a bad idea it is to change the husband/wife relationship in such a way. My bet is on the former.
Actually, I love having a coach. I trained myself for my first two Ironman races and that wasn't so bad. But, it's nice to have someone else planning my workouts for me. And, I don't even have to pay him (well, not with money)!
I have a time goal for this Ironman, but I'm not sure if I want to share it yet. Maybe I'll wait until after the race.
Today, we completed our 11th straight Turkey Trot. After all these years, there are now over 3500 athletes who participate. I am so thankful that I have the ability to be one of those athletes. It's so easy to get caught up in race times, training, the number on the scale, that we forget that we are so blessed to have a body that allows us to do what we do.
The race is a difficult 5K, uphill for 2+ miles, with a nice downhill at the end. The problem is that the first two miles are so tough, it's hard to enjoy that last downhill! However, my 5K PR is on this course - 24:08 in 2003. Randy said he'd pace me to try to go under 24 today, but it just wasn't in the cards for me. However, I was secretly hoping to go under 25 minutes, and I clocked a 24:55! This is my post-surgery PR (imagine what I could do on a flat course!). Randy tried to keep the pace up for me, and I love him for that. As my husband, he is proud of me and as my coach, he now has some data to plan my training.
After finishing, we ran back to find my mom and brother, who were walking. My mom has done it every year too and when I was unable to run, I walked with her. We found them when they had about a half mile to go. Man, my mom walks fast! I had to jog to keep up with her. Her time was 42 minutes - walking!!
So, now it's time to make the guhuggafuggah (Randy's name for my cranberry/apple concoction) and head to the parents' house for dinner. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
