Calvary Baptist Turkey Trot - I can totally say I raced this because I won a prize!

This has been a fantastic awesome amazing two weeks. We did the "Rawson Family Tradition" of participating in the annual Turkey Trot, and it was definitely memorable! It's my second time racing it. I had PR'd the first time, and it became my PIPR (Post-Injury Personal Record) 5K.. The day started off in the 20's, being the coldest Thanksgiving Day on record in the area. I planned to get there early and do the thing myself but Aunt Kelly and Uncle Mike decided to join me and I'm entirely grateful for their company! We started 45 minutes early, and I really was slower than I had hoped because of the cold weather. I was hoping for a 1:30, wanted to beat my old PIPR from this year of 2:05, and came in at 1:45. I was awarded a cooked turkey for coming in last, woohoo! ;) Nic's sister Laura Zaunbrecher had a "slow" day and came in 2nd OA, and Nic was 5th OA whilst still recovering from an illness. Then we ate a lot of food and passed out. It was great!

Great company the whole way!

I *might* have cried here, overcome by emotion of all the people cheering etc, and had to bury my head in Mike's shoulder to hide.

Our awards!

This week I started training with Damian Living with Anytime Fitness Upper Lafayette. It was a great surprise to me to find someone as knowledgeable as he is about strength training, including muscle groups and concentric vs eccentric training, and basically how to train muscles to remember what they're supposed to do. I've been incredibly impressed with Anytime Fitness and their support; as a company with web support from work outs to nutrition and a knowledgeable personal trainer, to the specific experiences I had with the people at this particular location. Also BIG thanks to Aileen Bennett for the hook up! She's here: Creating Clever. I already see this becoming a vital part of my recovery. Totally excited to see how much this is going to change things!

It's been a week of PIPRs, starting with the Turkey Trot. I'm up to 3000 yards swimming (Swim Log) with a 4s/100y PIPR on Tuesday, breaking it by another 7s on Thursday. Wednesday I had a 27:59 min/mi walking PIPR (the cleaner and improved Training Log). It's been great to be able to get back on a bike trainer again! Pilates has been awesome too, Alyce (my instructor) has really been a major influence on me mentally and physically. She told me about "Groove Church" which is a freestyle dance session once a week, and I attended it. It's so much a different scene for me, but I really like her thought process that I have to work out in all planes, not just linear such as running and biking, and especially swimming. Also, to do something not structured since the rest of my workouts are very structured. I have officially started training for the 1/2 Marathon (I was unofficially training for this 5K up until now) and honestly I'm not sure I can do it in the time limit. Wulf had said this would be the case, but I only have 2 months to go and would need to increase my speed by about 1/3. Meh, I'll figure it out. AND the Competitor Group said they'll work with me, so no worries!

To end with two Nelson Mandela quotes:
"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
"Does anybody really think they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?"