I ran at the Oceanside Turkey Trot for the 4th year in a row this year. It was great. I really love our family tradition of waking up really early on Thanksgiving morning and driving to Oceanside’s Pier to race. I started when I was 7 years old, running the mile race. This year, I decided to run in the 5k race AND the mile race.

It was another beautiful day and I hadn’t run a 5k in over a year, so I was excited to see if I could maybe get a new PR. Every year this event has grown and this year there were over 5000 runners in the 5k! I felt okay during this race. My tummy was bothering me for some reason but I just ignored it. I finished in 18:11 which was a new PR for me by over a minute. I wasn’t feeling to well after the race and I needed to sit down. After about 20 minutes and a little bit of food, I started to feel better.

The results were posted and it turned out that I won the 12-unders division- yeah! My mile race was coming up so I went to the starting line. I wasn’t sure how I would do since I already had a 5k in my legs, but I would do my best to run as if I were fresh.

I don’t know what happened but during the race, I FELT AMAZING! I felt so so so strong. I couldn’t believe how good everything felt. I caught up to the rabbits and passed one of them. As I neared the finish, I felt like I could have gone on and on. I didn’t feel tired. It was really really cool. I ended up winning the 12-unders and got a new PR for the mile, too, with a time of 5:23. This is me catching the rabbits 🙂

After my race, I quickly ran back to the starting line to meet my little sister who was also running the mile race. She is 7 years old and her race was going to start in less than 10 minutes. She likes it when I run with her so I wanted to make it back in time. Luckily, I did but I held back to let the kids get off the starting line. Mia was in the front group after about 50 meters when I hopped in next to her. Even though she doesn’t like running as much as I do, she runs really well.

As we neared the finish, I jumped out of the race to let her finish by herself. She took 2nd place with a time of 7:04! I was really proud of her.

What a way to start Thanksgiving! We all went home and Mom cooked a delicious turkey and we had the best apple crumble pie and ice cream for dessert! Yum!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!