A Turkey Trot

As another Thanksgiving rolls around, I remain grateful for the running community at Fleet Feet.

For the past 8 weeks, I trained with the No Boundaries 5k training program spearheaded by Coaches Lizzie and Nora. They broke it up into separate pace groups so everyone would have someone with whom to run. I was in the 30 second running, 1 minute walking group and it generally felt fabulous. The program’s mentors ran with me and I was pushed to keep up with the rest of the group rather than doing my own leisurely jogs the whole time. I did the 30 second, 1 minute time at this year’s Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot and completed the race in a relaxed 53:52.

Over the past thirteen years, I have done a series of 5k training programs with Fleet Feet in Durham, JackRabbit Sports in New York, and Revolution Running in Denver. I initially got into morning runs in Central Park when I was studying for the bar exam in New York and found it difficult to pay attention to video lectures all day long and keep up the energy to bang out multiple choice questions. The morning runs improved my concentration and focus and made it easier to sit still through the long days of preparation over the course of a two-month period.

I was also appointed maid of honor in my best friend’s wedding in 2013, so the most important bridesmaid duty was to help the bride get in prime shape by doing Bridal Bootcamp with her. The bootcamp involved boxing workouts to the tune of Muhammad Ali’s famous quote, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

I got really good at jabbing, but the coach encouraged me to take up the Paleo diet. A modified version for athletes called “Performance Paleo” included beans and more carbs than typically allowed, and I also opted to add in chocolate milk and Justin’s honey peanut butter after workouts. In the words of my younger brother Joseph, “Her favorite part of a workout is a post workout smoothie.”

I wanted to be able to pace myself up and down the stairs of Bethesda Terrace, so the running continued. I ran walked the Bolder Boulder 10k one year and walked it another year, but found that increased distances tired me out too much to be enjoyable. I’ve continued running whenever I’ve lived in a metropolis large enough to have an organized running program. The short distances had special effects on my mood and put me in an excellent headspace and made me believe that I was what Bruce Springsteen would call born to run.