The Gobbler 5K 2011

Thanksgiving morning found us in Nags Head on the Outer Banks, which could mean only one thing....  time for the family to run the OBX Gobbler 5K, put on by the Outer Banks Running Club! 

I knew based on how the house was shaking overnight that it was going to be windy, but holy crap it was blowing hard!  The air temp was low 50s, but the wind chill made it feel much colder, so everyone layered-up and grabbed hats and gloves and delivered a large quantity of good natured whining about how they could have stayed in bed!   We met up with a bunch of friends at 7:30 am and headed over to the start area for an 8:00 am start. 

The Gobbler is in it's third year (we've managed to be at every one so far) and is very much a family friendly event that encourages walkers etc.   Timed race, but no timing chips - just a fun family morning with lots of coffee, hot chocolate, sausage biscuits and pumpkin bread!.  Never-the-less there are always some super fast people running in the 15 min range, and this year was no exception.   The field has grown to 600 and this year the race sold out about a month in advance.

Some of our assembled crew....   The Dominatrix and family also ran, but she was too fond of her bed and didn't make it to the start in time for the photo!

The race started pretty promptly at 8:00 am - no inflatable starting arch this year, as it would pretty soon have been heading out over the Atlantic somewhere!   I was going to run with my girls, but we had people running and walking at all sorts of paces, so after running with some of the gang at a very easy pace for the first half mile or so I deceided that I could stretch out a bit.   The course is essentially an "out and back" and was "with the wind" on the way out, but straight into a headwind on the way back.   I felt surprisingly good (I guess the two week training hiatus played a part!) and after running and chatting with Wolfgang (another triathlete) for a while I ran in alone at a nice comfortable pace.  I was very surprised, given that I had gone very slowly at the start and chatted along the way, that I crossed the line in 24:02.

They even had finishers medals this year!

We stayed a while afterwards for the raffle and some goodies before heading home to get ready for what we termed our "redneck waifs and strays turkey day dinner at the beach"....   five families and more food than you can imagine.  I say we earned it...   yum!