Good Morning, Turkeys!

Good morning, turkeys! We started our Thanksgiving morning with a wonderful turkey trot! 

Up until last night, I thought I was running a 5k with my kids, but Weston and Myra wanted to trade their 10k tags for 5k's. So, I switched and ran the "10k" as Myra Au (for all intents and purposes)...and Myra ran the 5k for me! 

 Our immediate family was well represented with Jon, myself, Dawna, Larry, and Xochitl all participating as registered runners. Each of the kids had a running buddy and Jade relaxed and slept in the stroller during most of the race. Jon ran with Dawna (and Jade) Larry ran with Weston...

...and Xochitl ran with Myra.

Grandma and Grandpa Koberstein and Uncle Lynn also joined the race!

 So, the thing about Antioch/Brentwood (or anywhere on the other side of the mountains) is that the hot days are hotter and the cold days are colder. And this morning, it was COLD! We stayed in the car as long as possible...

...and then boogied over to the starting line!

My fingers and toes were numb until about mile 3, when we finally got to run in the sun.

Dawna, Xochitl, and Larry, anxiously shivering before the race... In our training runs the past couple weeks, we've had a hard time staying motivated for the entire 3 mile distance. But, there is something magical about music. Music got my son to keep on moving--skipping, jogging, hopping along--until the race was over. Music got a 5 year old across the finish line too. It's amazing!! :)

Everybody finished their race strong! I was so proud of Xochitl and Larry! I didn't run 3.1 miles together until I was 28 years old! Here's my 2nd grader and kindergartner running that long! I ran into Larry and Weston just as I was finishing my race. I maintained a pace under 10min/mile, which made me very happy! But I was sad to discover that the "10k" was only 5.8 miles. Way too short to count! I caught up to Larry and Weston when I was almost done with the race (Lynn and I started the 10k fifteen minutes before the 5k runners). But Larry was not distressed, because "first the worst, second the best" so he gladly took the best spot :)

Dawna did an amazing job! She has been working on running lately, running on the treadmill while watching Netflix and running around the Lake in Newark for the last few Saturdays. She did so well, in fact, that she placed third on this, her first 5k ever!!! I think having daddy to push her to run faster helped... not to mention her long Koberstein legs!

Thus it was on our fourth year running a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning, with hopes and dreams for continuing the tradition for many trots to come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now bring on the feast!