Trees Greenville Turkey Day 8K

I'd kind of always wanted to do this race because it's a good cause and probably a good idea to do some sort of workout on Thanksgiving, but we usually end up being out of town, so I'd never actually done it. This year we had to work yesterday, so we decided to wait and come to my parents' house today, so we finally got to do it. Plus, since we live downtown, it was super convenient (except for negotiating around the roads that were closed because of the race).

So we got up at 7, left the house a little after 7:30, and were at the starting line ready to go by 7:45!

It was kind of cold.

Definitely a fun race! I was impressed by the crowd- close to 1500 people, some of which were dressed like turkeys and/or pilgrims. The course was good too - not just the same course as the other downtown races, which was nice. It was also probably about as flat as it could be, with a lot of it on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. There were a couple hills - close to mile 2, just after getting off the Trail (almost mile 4?), and then close to the finish coming back up to Main St on Broad St.

Almost finished! 

I'm so thankful for all of my racing experiences this year - it seemed fitting to race on Thanksgiving. Definitely a race I would do again! :)

Camp Croft half marathon

The Blue Ridge Bootleggers (my team from the Smoky Mountain Relay) reunited to do the Camp Croft half - a trail run at Croft State Park. We also camped there for the weekend, which was fun, but cold. 

Before the race:

I'd never actually been to Croft, so it was fun to explore it during the race. Since I'm not training for anything big anymore (hooray), I wanted to just enjoy this one. Kristin and I were planning to run/walk, but we ended up doing more walking toward the end because her IT band was hurting, which gave us plenty of time for pictures.

This was a pretty small race, and the aid station volunteers were great! When we finished we got a pint glass, and then there was a huge pot of homemade soup, which was amazing. I ate 4 bowls and finally got slightly warm.

We had a big picnic lunch at the campsite - it was a beautiful day.

And continuing the theme of post-China exercise that is fun, a nice paddle on the lake on Sunday. :)