Happy Thanksgiving! Fisher Cats 5K

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Grateful for health, family and community! All of which were in evidence this morning.

Kristen, David and I ran Millennium Running’s Fisher Cats Thanksgiving Day 5K starting at the Fisher Cats stadium and running down through the Millyard. It was a fast course and a perfect day to run, blue sky, windless and crisply cold.  I ended up with an 18:38.85 net time. Looking back, it turns out this almost exactly my PR time from the Shamrock Shuffle (18:38.8) back in March of this year! Was a little nervous when at about 1.75 miles into the race my left hamstring went knotty on me, but it never got so bad I had to stop. Which is good, because the Cap’n (who took second in the 50+ age group) was just off my shoulder and it would have been bad form to break down in front of a guy who manages physical suffering with such … gusto.

Kristen and David ran together for most of the race, and David ended up with a PR – 10th in his age group! It’s easy to watch him and see just a bit into the future, when he becomes teenage David, and is dropping 16 minute something 5Ks as a matter of course. At that point, he can wait at the end with the camera and get shots of me, instead of the other way around.

I love having family out there  – and seeing so many great friends from our Manchester running community. It’s an amazing group.

Top male finisher overall was Matt Paulson in 15:06 and top female was Samantha Goodnow in 18:21. Stephanie Burnham was second in 18:38 (Gun times, not net. Stephanie was 18:34 net, though the Cap’n and I hung with her and exchanged a few pleasantries before getting out kicked in mile 3.)