The coldest day of the new winter just happened to be today. And today, Thanksgiving Day, was the day that Sara and Pat, Jacob and Sandy, and Sam and I were all going to run the 5K on the Sprint campus. The good news is that everyone ran, finished, and is no worse for the wear. It was cold - too cold to properly warm up, too cold to run fast, and too cold to really enjoy the ambiance that a race like this should have provided. Add to that the somewhat nonchalant nature of the race itself and its participants and it is clear that time was not the objective. Therein lies the bad news. The weather and the crowded conditions precluded any chance at running fast. Regardless of all of that, I think the kids enjoyed themselves.

Under 20F is just too cold to do much of anything well. I'm not sure what the official temp was at the start but I do know that upon race start, my fingers and feet were numb. Need less to say, my attempt at running a fast time was never in play. I lined up between what was supposed to be the 6 and 7 minute milers. That was a big mistake, since very few people paid any attention to the signs. We walked over the starting line and dodges those individuals running slower for about 800m. Split at 1 mile was somewhere in the 7:45 range and at that point, I decided just to enjoy the rest of the race. Overall, I finished at just under 23 minutes. There was no chip timing so I used my watch to provide time. I could have been off a few seconds, hardly important.

Overall, I felt pretty good. No pain, no aches - just cold. The first mile was difficult because I did virtually nothing to warm up. After the first mile, things began to click and the rest of the race was easy. No heavy breathing and more like a daily run than a race. Of course, that was what I was doing at that point.

The kids finished in good shape, cold but otherwise unaffected. I'm sure that there wil be some sore legs tomorrow, since no one really trained. The encouraging parts were 1) Sara told me that she signed up for a 10 miler in May, ending on the 50 yard line at Soldier Field, 2) Jacob suggested that we make this a Thanksgiving tradition, except in Florida or Las Vegas, and 3) Sam DIDN'T say that he would never run again.

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone reading this. I am grateful for many things but especially my family, my friends and supporters, my country and all those who work so hard to make this a wonderful place to live.