On Thanksgiving Day, more than 29,000 people participated in the annual Run to Feed the Hungry benefiting the Sacramento Food Bank. The race is a Sacramento tradition and takes participants throughout the beautiful streets of East Sacramento, California.
Runners and walkers can choose to participate in either a 5 or 10k race.
The mood is festive and light, but it’s also a beautiful course to push for a nice PR.
I’ve participated in the race the past five years. Three of those years I ran the 10k. Last year, I switched it up with a little biathlon of sorts.
I started my day with a spin class at TEAMride, an amazing spin studio in Sacramento, and then I hit the course for the 5k.
I loved my experience last year, so I opted to do the same thing this Thanksgiving.
Leading up to the race, I really wanted to try and beat my time from last year in the 5k, which was 24:08. It also happened to be my PR in a 5k.
A couple of weeks ago, I started pushing my speed for the first 3 miles of each run I was taking. It was so helpful in getting comfortable with the pace that I wanted to hit come Thanksgiving day.
This year, Thanksgiving morning in Sacramento was really beautiful.
Although it was a little chilly (it is November after all!!), the temperature was in the high 40s/low 50s.
I started out the race feeling a little shaky. Early on, the pace felt more uncomfortable than my normal morning runs. But I pushed past my urge to slow down and promised myself to keep it up until I heard the autocue for my pace at the first 5-minute mark (I was running with the RunKeeper app).
When I heard that my first cue was faster than my normal pace, it suppressed my early doubts and helped me push on.
5k races are awesome because they are quick and you can do your best to never let off the gas. This race provided that exact challenge. It seemed that just as soon as it started, it finished.
I was thrilled to see that I beat last year’s time by over a minute, finishing at 22:55.
And I was among some speedy women!
My time (which I was thrilled with!) landed me in sixth place for my age group (35-39). The fastest woman in my category finished with an amazing 19:05!!
It was a wonderful start to a fun, relaxing, and super yummy Thanksgiving day.
While training for a marathon in June, I think it’s also going to be very helpful to sprinkle in shorter races along the way to stay motivated and on track.
For now, my next race is the Shamrock’n Half. But perhaps there will be a few others on along the way??
If nothing else, it’s always fun to add to the race t-shirt collection!
