Turkey Trot Flop

This year my family was going to be out of town for the thanksgiving holiday. My daughter attends college close to my husband’s family and the boys wanted to hunt. Since we only have one reliable vehicle I offered to stay home (didn’t have any vacation days from work). I made the last-minute decision to participate in a race thanksgiving morning. Being a sucker for bling I went with the race that had a medal even though it was a little farther from home.


Since they boys took the reliable vehicle I was left to drive “the truck”. I hate driving the truck. It is old, smelly and prone to having battery issues. On Saturday I tried to move this horrible vehicle into the upper driveway, and it wouldn’t start. For days I begged my husband to charge the battery and drive it before they left.

Thanksgiving morning, I am up early ready for my hour drive to Annapolis. The green hunk of junk that I’m driving seems to be driving okay. The idiot light comes on about 15 minutes from my destination, so I stop for gas. Start to pump the gas and it starts following back out of the car. Weird…maybe I don’t have the nozzle in right. Readjust and try again. Gas still not going in. Must be a trick to putting gas in the truck that I’m not aware of. Call hubby who is sleeping soundly in Pennsylvania with my reliable car. Nope no trick to putting gas in the car. Maybe the clerk can help you. Well…Now I have been pumping gas for many years! I remember when the gas cap was behind the license plate. The clerk walks out to the pump with me and the gas is still not going in. The clerk informs me that “it’s obvious that the tank is full”. I try to explain that there is no way that the tank is full but “it’s obvious that the tank is full”. At this point I am late for my race and smell of gasoline.

I decide to move the truck to the closet shopping center parking lot and contact my friend/race partner. She agrees to come get me. I’m also told that this is karma getting me because I didn’t tell her about the race. If you listen to her story, I called at 4am but it was really 7:45. While waiting for my rescue hubby calls to let me know that the evap vent is either clogged or shifted. He tells me that I should be able to put gas in it, but it will be a slow process. Skip ahead to when my friend arrives, and we get a junk 1-gallon gas can. The gas can must have required a PhD to use. We get enough gas into the truck to drive it to the gas station (we wore most of that gallon).

It takes us 20 minutes to put 20 gallons of gas in the truck. Literally an ounce at a time!


I drove the truck home with my friend following me. The truck seemed to be running okay, so I wave good-bye and drive the last 7 miles home. Well…the truck started to run rough. Make it home and decide that the rest of the day will be spent in my pajamas watching Netflix with the dogs.

Moral of the story…Do not sign up for races until you have talked to your running partner. 

Good news! I was able to pick up my medal so now I can make it a virtual run.

Goat 10k training and Vitrual Across the Bay

October - Got back on the walking train. I decided to use the parking lot at wrestling practice as my track for steady paced walks. Turns out that I had a cheering section. They would goat nuts every time I walked by. On my strength training days, the local roads provided variety. I struggled to find the time to get my workouts in on the weekends. We traveled out of state for wrestling tournaments. The driving, early morning weigh-ins, and waiting for the next match to start made it impossible to get in my activities.

I was finally about to get my medals hung in my office. This year a lot of students have been commenting on "all the marathons" I have done. I do explain that so far, the longest distance is 6.2 miles. The students have helped me stay focused on working towards completing a half-marathon. They are so kind and encouraging. 

November - I knew that the wrestling commitments would slow down until regular season in hopes of getting in a few workouts before my December race (more on that later). Started off the month with a crick on the left side of my neck/shoulder and a sinus infection. This didn’t help my training schedule. I was able to get the weight machine and treadmill into their rightful places now that construction is done. Across the Bay 10k was virtual this year and this allowed me to find out that the closet liquor store is 3.1 miles away. Even though I didn’t do any training there was a great desire to participate in a few races to finish out the year. This desire led me to sign up for the local Jingle Bell Run and the Celtic Solstice 5 miler in December.

Unfortunately, the pain in my neck/shoulder continues and the 1^st round of antibiotics did nothing for the sinus infection. I will participate in my December races without any training. This scares me! Hoping to just cross the finish line.