Trotting Turkeys

I'm sporting a bright yellow running turkey on an equally bright red shirt. Yes, I wore a race T-shirt to church today. I didn't wear running shorts, though, because it was too cold. Nor did I wear my trainers, but I probably should have done, because I did a lot of running around the building. (Christmas tea is a week away (thank goodness), so I'm doing a lot of strenous exercise at church this week.)

Waddaya know, I managed to get more posts for November than there were days. I would be happy at how much I had to say, but I know that a lot of it was drivel. Thank you, my ever-faithful readers, for sticking with me.

So, I have another race report for you. (Good news-- after this one, there's only one more this year. Then we start over again in January. Ha! Ha!) Thursday morning, we ran the Turkey Trot. Now, I've been taking the longer mileage option at every race this year, partly because it's a better value (same price for either race), and partly since I wanted to get 66 miles worth of racing in. Since I already hit the 66 miles, I wanted to hit a 10:00 per mile pace in a race by the end of the year, and Chad had rotations every day except Thursday this weekend, we opted for the 2 mile race.

I have nothing of note for myself, except to say that I was already hurting at the 1/2 mile point. I really pushed as hard as I could. It was worth it, though.

No, I was impressed by the award ceremony at this race. The womens overall winner is named Brittney. She is a cross-country athlete at Lubbock Christian. I don't actually know her, but I do know of her (and I've seen her in the paper). Traditionally, turkeys are given as prizes at the turkey trot, but when they tried to give her one, she refused it. Why? It is against NAIA rules for her to take prizes for a race. I personally doubt that the NAIA is that worried about a frozen turkey, but what do I know? Anyway, rather than compromise her integrity and potentially lose her scholarship, she left the turkey sitting on the table.

The really great moment came when they handed out the children's awards. All age groups get three medals handed out, but they ordered some extras for this race so that all the kids got one. I was really happy to see that, if only because I like encouraging the kids in this sport. When all the experts and whoever are rightly concerned about inactive children, I say let's do whatever we can to convince them to be active. Anyway, in addition to everyone getting a medal and a round of applause, the first-place boy & girl each got a small savings bond. Wow, how many good habits can we encourage at once? Great job, West Texas Running Club!

So, that was November. Enjoy the last three hours of it.