2010 Flying Feather

For whatever reason I am really in to racing this winter season.  I’m constantly looking for races to run and this year I took a look at some Thanksgiving day races.  I would be running anyway so why not run a fun race?

I took a look around and found The Flying Feather which is a 4 mile run on Thanksgiving day and the bonus is that it is literally 10 minutes from my house.  Score!

But more importantly, what made me decide to run this race was the finish swag.  Not only would I be getting a medal but I would also be getting a bottle of wine.

Yes!

The wine is also one that Scott and I really enjoy.  It’s a lovely mild red that won’t break the bank, Beaujolais-Villages! This was by Georges Duboeuf (we typically buy Louis Jadot).

I picked up my race packet the week before and I have to tell you that this race has the best swag! Not only did I get a shirt, but a sample of lotion, gloves, a winter hat, small bottle of whiskey, and then of course the medal and wine at the finish.

Heck yeah!

I was nervous about this race.  Not because of the race but because of the weather!  Wednesday afternoon it started raining and raining really hard.  It wasn’t stopping and was not supposed to pass our area until Friday.  Thursday morning I woke up to pouring rain.  It was also cold and damp.  I watched the weather and tracked the race page to see if the race would be cancelled.

No dice.

I wasn’t about to bail because um, I wanted that bottle of wine.

Scott and I got there about 1/2 an hour before start time.  We walked to the race area and hung around until start time.  It was cold and still raining but thankfully not that hard.

This race was huge!  There were 3.500 people running and that doesn’t include the kids that were there for the Gobbler Chase before hand.

Eventually it was time to get moving!  The rain stopped which was perfect because running in the rain stinks.  I still can’t believe how many people were out on Thanksgiving day to run a race!  Plus all of the supporters taking pictures and cheering everyone on.

Even though there were so many people running the race, it surprisingly wasn’t that congested.  I didn’t feel squished nor did I feel like I was fighting and clawing my way out of the pack to get my pace going.

This picture shows so much!  You can get an idea of how wet everything was and how many people were actually running the race.  We’re taking up the entire road!  You can also see all the spectators bundled up because it was cold!

The weather was a little odd because it was cold but it was only in the 40s so it wasn’t too cold.  However since there was so much rain it was damp and that’s what made things really cold if you were just standing around.

Running was a whole other story and eventually I got hot!  I unzipped my hoodie and pushed up the sleeves as much as I could.  I also took off my gloves and stuffed them in my bra.  I looked really lopsided!  I didn’t really care though, my only concern was that I hoped it wouldn’t chafe.

The start of the race was on a road but then we headed right into a park and the majority of the race took place there.  It was a paved path and made for a lovely run through some wooded sections.

There was one water station at the 2 mile mark and that was the first indicator of how far we’d gone.

Scott said I caught him off guard and showed up at the finish earlier than he thought.  Ha!  I finished the race around 38 minutes.

Don’t under estimate my motivation to run for a bottle of wine.

Bonus, we got to see our friends, Emily and Jim!  Remember them from last week?  They were running this race too and amazingly enough we were able to find each other and meet up at the end.

I have to say that this race is really a great race to run on Thanksgiving day.  It’s short, a 4 mile run which makes it the perfect length.  You are getting some exercise in before the big day but it isn’t a super long amount which means you get more time to spend with loved ones.

Plus it’s a fun race! Everyone (well almost, you naturally have the folks who are actually trying to compete) is there to have a good time and just have fun!  Everybody is in good spirits and you get a bottle of wine at the finish!  If you are around next year, you should give this Thanksgiving day race a run.

Huge Thanks goes out to the best husband ever!

He goes to all my races, sometimes standing around for hours while I run.  He’s gotten up at 5am on days that he normally sleeps till noon.  He’s stood out in the rain, the cold, the heat, and the snow just to get some pictures of me running and to be there for me at the finish.

I think he might have caught the bug though, he said next year he’ll run this one with me. :D

8 thoughts on “2010 Flying Feather

  1. You’ll have to let me know if the wine is any good. The year I did it, it was some sort of white wine from Covey Run that I didn’t care for. I should have opted for the cookies!

    I’m glad the race went so well- maybe next year I’ll get to run it. Medals and bottles of wine are always good motivation! I can’t believe there was whiskey in your swag bag- lucky!

  2. Ugh, I raced on T-Day in the pouring rain too. Only our rain was freezing rain and now I’m sick. :( Boo! I wish ours would have been cancelled.

    Glad you had fun girl!

  3. Heidi says:

    That race looks so fun! If I ever stay in Cbus for Thanksgiving I will definitely do it! I wound up skipping the 4-mile race I was going to do near my inlaws. It was really cold and poured rain all morning. Pouring rain is about the only weather condition I don’t like to run in. So I made up for it by doing a hill repeat workout the day after Thanksgiving! Congrats on your awesome time in the Flying Feather!

  4. Don’t underestimate the husband’s desire to keep you going for that bottle of wine he’s going to share. Good for both of you. It was miserable starting out with freezing rain on Wed, and raining all throughout Thursday.

    Whiskey’s a good way to keep warm on a rainy day.

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