2009 Flying Feather 4 Miler

For the third Thanksgiving in a row, we drove down to central Ohio early to run the Flying Feather 4 Miler before heading over to Johnstown for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to see the sky clear out the further south we went. We left home in a light rain and I was worried we would get wet during the run. And while that wouldn't bother me so much, I was worried how much Jr. P would not like it, as he was going to be running his longest race to date.

Clear skies on Interstate 71.

The highway was as empty as it would be for Thanksgiving Day and we had a nice drive down. We didn't get to park as close as we wanted to the start/finish line, but we found a spot close enough. After getting our numbers and visiting the trailer contained port-o-potties, John and i ran the course in reverse for a warm-up. Well, a warm-up for him and a good run for me. You see, Mrs. P was running hard today so Jr. P and I would be taking on the four miles together.

We ended up running nearly 4.5 miles at a 7:27 average pace, with our max pace being a 6:02. The course was in great condition with only a few puddles left on the paved trail. It felt good to get out and run after the nearly 2 hour drive down. And I knew there would be much walking during the second time around.

Before the start, Jr. P was looking a little nervous.

Jr. and Mrs. P waiting in the cold. Notice the large yellow creature walking past in the background.

He was heading over to his trailer for either a costume change or a break.

It was actually quite funny watching them try to pull his head off. That thing was on tight!

John and I after our warm-up, waiting for the start.

Team Pythagoras was running this morning.

We cued up toward the rear of the field, which had filled it's 3,000 person capacity.

Once in the crowd, Jr. P was starting to relax a bit.

He did pretty good, running the downhills, (mostly) running the flats, and walking the uphills.

This is where we began to get sleeted and/or freezing rained upon. (Thanks Mrs. P for jinxing us by saying, "I don't think it's going to rain on us!") Well there was rain in there too!

Out on the course.

For a shorter distance race, there were certainly a lot of people running.

Jr. P had a case of the yawns during the run. I told him it was because he wasn't running enough!

Half way!

Right before John made his way back and found us (after finishing in 25 minutes) the clouds broke apart and gave us some sunshine. It was nice while it lasted, which wasn't very long, and didn't do anything to help my hungry stomach.

We had a decent run, finishing in 53:18, averaging 13:03 per mile. Mrs. P found us too and ran us in. She managed to cut a HUGE chunk of time off of last year's race! I was proud of Jr. P for pushing through the cold to finish. We saw one mother giving a piggy-back ride to her daughter who "couldn't" go any further, but he made it all the way by himself. Not bad for someone who doesn't do any running other than at recess. And with my back, I couldn't have given him a ride anyway.

With my 8.5 miles in I was prepared to tackle the Thanksgiving Day dinner table with a clean conscience. And that I did, eating a little too much like I always do on Thanksgiving. The drive back home that afternoon was different from the one down in the morning given the additional traffic and the snow. That's right. SNOW. I'm so not ready for snow that I will write no more about it. Except that we had enough this morning to cover the grass. Ugh.