Turkey Trot

I was glad to get this "eating holiday" started off in a healthy way, by running a 5K race - the Turkey Trot on the University of Michigan's North Campus, which I had done previously, in 2008 and 2010. But each time has been a bit slower (2008 - 30:39; 2919 - 32:33; today - 32:55). Honestly ... you'd think I was aging or something! I came out 48th of 67 people in my age group (men 50-54), and, though I don't know where I placed, I was able, by adding up the listed finishers for all the age groups, to determine that the Turkey Trot had 1614 participants (some of which were walkers.) And it was cooler than I thought it would be, at 35 degrees.
The beginning of the race featured an amusing (in retrospect) incident that illustrated very well my notable cluelessness. The route is sort of a modified Figure 8 ... in the past it has featured a big loop down toward the School of Music, then returning to the starting area outside the Recreation Building, and then a second big loop toward the east, up through family housing. However, this year they reversed the order, which meant that, rather than starting out going west on Hubbard, we started toward the east. However, I came out and lined up where I have in the past, and then a few minutes before the race I began to wonder why no one was joining me. I looked up ... and saw hundreds of runners on the other side of the starting line, preparing to launch forward.
This reversal of the loops also made for a severe mental challenge (which I was evidently not up to), as the latter part of the race featured a daunting uphill stretch from the School of Music. Slowing down or not - all in all, I'm glad I did it.

A new adventure

On Monday morning, October 17, I was running at about 6:30 AM on terrain I knew well, but in an unlighted patch of sidewalk I crashed into a large (6-inch diameter) felled tree that lay completely across the sidewalk. It was not pretty, as my momentum carried me over and down onto the walk, where I scraped and cut myself up pretty good (though, thankfully, I did not incur any really serious injuries). So that night I purchased a head lamp from our local running equipment store, and for the last few weeks have been running with that. I run in the morning, both by temperatment and from necessity, and at this time of year when I go out at 6AM or a little before it is pitch dark - but the light makes it work quite admirably for me, lighting up a patch 15 feet or so ahead of me (and at the pace I run, that's plenty far enough!).