For the third year in a row, we started our Thanksgiving Day by running a family 5k down in Castle Rock.  It’s turning into a great tradition.  The race is laid back, but organized well.  It’s fun for the kids to get the matching T-shirts.

2009 Rock Trot

Prior years have been cold and dreary – not today!  Beautiful and warm.  It seems the crowds were out in record number, raising a lot of money for a good cause.  The course was mostly on a bike path, so I didn’t get much running in trying to navigate through the crowds pushing Jessica in the stroller.  With a little less than a mile to go, the course opened up and we were able to get up to speed.  Then I let Jessica get out and run the rest of the way to the finish – she did great!

Everyone did great and had fun.  Then we stuffed ourselves with a wonderful meal.

Hopped in the neighborhood 5k this morning.  Pushed Jessica in the stroller and took 3rd place out of 50 or so.  Our time was only around 26 minutes, but there was a lot of climbing – especially on the way back to the finish.  I held my heart rate over 180 for the last 5 minutes of the race, maxing out at 188.  Ouch!  Pushing 50+ pounds of stroller up a hill like that will really make you work!!

After the race I asked Jessica if Daddy was breathing kind of loud.  She replied, “You were hurting my ears!”