Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving! And Happy Black Friday!

I will NOT be shopping today. Large crowds overwhelm me. But I will be headed into the thick of the madness in downtown Seattle because I have to pick up my race bib for the Seattle Marathon on Sunday!

Although I'm not technically "racing" this one, I'm still pretty excited for a sanctioned marathon after missing NYC. Since I have a 50k in a few weeks, I'm going to try not to wear myself out too much. So hopefully I can just have a no pressure, fun race!

I had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. I haven't spent a Thanksgiving with my family in about 10 years, so it was great to be at home. I took the ferry out to the peninsula of Washington on Wednesday and, thankfully, the ferry line wasn't too bad. The wind was howling, though, so it was one of the bumpiest ferry rides I've ever been on. Good thing I don't get sea sick!

Thursday I started the day off with a nice run! Obviously.

I was excited to be out at my parents' house because they have some fun trails and big hills in their town.

I set out with every intention of doing 6 miles while trying to find the biggest hills. What a weirdo! I feel like I have neglected trails in the past week, so I knew I wanted to get out and enjoy some.

I ended up with 7.11 hilly miles in an hour and 4 minutes. Whoooo! I was on such a running high after that, my family probably thought I was bonkers.

My family is pretty health-conscious, but we all have our favorite Thanksgiving foods. For my stepmom, it's potatoes and gravy. I've never met someone who likes their mashed potatoes so much! For my dad it's peas (don't even get me started), and I'm all about the sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts. Needless to say, we didn't have many traditional dishes other than the turkey and potatoes.

My dad asked us all to name 2 things we are thankful for over dinner. I couldn't keep it down to two, but here are a few things on my list, in no particular order:

My family
My supportive and amazing friends
Running
Chocolate
My apartment with a washer/dryer
My job
Blankets
Sweatpants
Puppies