Happy Thanksgiving!

BUFFALO GROVE, IL -- Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

I have had a very busy but productive week here at home. Definitely not in my normal blog-writing mode, but nonetheless thought I would give a quick update.

Yesterday was a very nice holiday. Got up before the crack of dawn at 6am and headed over to Highland Park for the 2011 North Shore 10K Turkey Trot. The course was winding and hilly, it was cloudy, cold, and a frigid wind chill (35F/1C), but I managed to beat both my reasonable and 'stretch' goals. My reasonable goal was 62 minutes (10 min/mile pace), my stretch was 60 minutes (9:40 pace, but under 1 hour for the full thing). I ended up clocking in at 58 minutes and 2 seconds, a 9:21 pace. A little slower than last year at the 2010 Lincolnwood 10K Turkey Trot, when I clocked in at 55:40 (8:57), but for that race I had been training for 10 weeks straight. This time, due to all the crazy injuries and foot procedures I only had 3 weeks of training - I'm sure with another 7 weeks I could have beat that time. Overall I am very pleased! Kudos to Josh, my sister's boyfriend who smoked the course at 48:29, my brother who took 8 minutes off his time from last year, and my dad who crushed his time from last year by taking 12 minutes and 30 seconds off it, and in doing so finishing only 42 seconds behind me!

After the run we came home, got the turkey in the oven, and spent the day cleaning the house for everyone to come over. All in all we had a great Thanksgiving meal with family - the benefit of running the 10K is you can eat whatever you want (900+ calories burned). I have attached a couple of photos below. I remember a couple of years ago in London during Thanksgiving and it was very odd going to classes all day while knowing everyone at home was relaxing and together. Later that night I had a wonderful meal with some very good friends over in London, and then Skyping back to my family here at home. It is nice to be here in person instead of having to Skype in from halfway around the world.

More from this week later when I have time to update. For now, I am off to make my final big Antarctica-related purchase, a DSLR camera! Happy Black Friday to all.