The 40 degree weather didn't stop Lori & I from running in an authentic, organized, outdoor 5K run. I don't expect this to become a habit or anything, but we had fun.
We can run the distance on the treadmills at the gym, but this offered such additional experiences like crowded running conditions, dogs, kids, strollers, potholes, hills, cold, sun, gloves, hats, gravel, wet grass, and uneven paths.
Lori's Aunt Donna runs more frequently and longer distances than we tend to and usually runs a race on Thanksgiving morning. A few weeks back, as we were finalizing Thanksgiving plans with her, Lori's Mom said Donna was running again in the Gurnee 5K.
Well, Lori and I talked and joked about running with Donna. At first we just laughed off the idea. We're not "runners". We simply go to the gym and workout and sometimes that means running and/or walking on the treadmills. Plus, there'd be 'real' runners there and people from the high school cross country team and it'd be cold. And who really wanted to get up at 5:45 on Thanksgiving morning if they didn't have to?
But we checked it out online. Turns out it was a fund raiser run/walk.
No numbers were pinned to chests and I don't think prizes were given out. Just sign a waiver, pay a fee and wait for the starting gun.
And we'd both covered the 5K distance before at the gym and ultimately concluded that it'd be a new adventure. We hadn't done this before, so why not?
Our biggest surprise on Thanksgiving morning was that Lori's Aunt Donna doesn't run in the Gurnee 5K on Thanksgiving morning, but somewhere else. We were hoping to surprise her by showing up and running, but she wasn't there.
End result - we both finished, sweaty and sore. We're glad we did it anyway - and the Thanksgiving dinner afterward was like a little bonus reward for our effort.
Back to the sterile gym environment today.
