earning the turkey

Today I'm sore, sore from running hard for 25 minutes and 4 seconds. That was my time at the Turkey Trot yesterday. Not a bad time for me, especially since I really don't run that much. I have good intentions and enjoy running but I was really expecting the weather to be much worse this time of year but it's been awesome. I tend to save most of my running for days when riding would be less than desirable. It's hard to head out for a run when I've got two Niners sitting in the bike room and nice weather on tap just about everyday.

The week leading up to the Turkey Trot 5k there was alot of chatter online about who was running, who was running where, how many PBR's were gonna be on hand and if Alan would actually show up. Alan has gotten into this habit of always saying he might show up or that ride sounds interesting. You never really know if he's gonna be there until he rolls into the parking lot. I've just decided that if he says maybe then that's the same as no and if he actually does show then it's a nice surprise, this way I'm never disappointed. So yesterday when he didn't show for the 5k it was no surprise. Fat Tony who has been on a serious running streak for a couple of months has been faking a foot injury for almost a month now so he wouldn't have to compete against us. We caught wind of his lies when Amanda posted up his dishonesty on Facebox and he ran to Florida in fear for the weekend. Andy "I'll punch you in your freakin face" Mullins just got screwed up on which Turkey run we were actually doing. Evidently there was another Turkey Day 5k going on in the Tri-Cities and he went to the wrong one, or so he says.

I joined in on all the talk about the 5k and added that we should have a warm PBR for the last GRT teammate to cross the line. I had a feeling once I realized it was just b-RAD, Iron Man Dillow and myself running that I would be the one consuming that fine beverage. The night before the race I.M.D. kept sending me pictures of a 6 pk of tallboys he had picked up earlier that day. I started noticing that everytime a pic was posted a beer was missing from the pack. The last photo I saw only one so I think it was safe to assume that Joy was out of the house that evening and I.M.D. was left to his own demise.

The day of the race I arrived just barely on time to line up with the other health nuts who actually care what they look like in the mirror. I searched and searched but could not find b-RAD or Iron Man Dillow. I hopped in the crowd, cranked up the Ipod and ran as hard as I could hoping to post a decent time. It's been 2 years since I last ran the Turkey Trot and I finished it in 26:42. This year I finished the race in 25:05 beating my 2009 time by 1 min 38 sec. which I was thrilled about until I finished and saw b-RAD's time of 18 minutes! Iron Man Dillow finished in around 20 minutes putting both of them somewhere around the top 5 in our age group. Out of 1539 runners I finished in 359th place not too bad for someone who only runs when I can't ride my bike.

So, did I chug the warm PBR tallboy? Of course I did and then we all shared a grower of Depot Street's finest. Alan, Andy & Anthony I hate you missed it, Depot Street has really stepped up and produced some fine ale.