2015 Turkey Trot

Mr M pushed the boys and Sunshine walked with him (she insisted on wearing that ugly hat)

Thursday I ran our local Turkey Trot for the 6th year in a row. Crazy that we've been here long enough for that to happen. Anyway, between being busy and wanting to rest and recuperate after the trail half I didn't actually spend any time on the treadmill between the trail half and the turkey trot. I thought about it a couple days before the race, but my legs were still feeling fatigued, so I gave it a pass.

I had hoped that all the hill work in the half would help me conquer the hills in the turkey trot, but I only experienced a marginal benefit from them. My endurance and mileage base just aren't high enough and the hill work couldn't compensate for that. So this week I'm committing to finally getting back on the treadmill and building that base up. Since I just signed up for a virtual marathon I need to be doing that anyway. Two birds, one stone.

We love Phil! The boys traveled in style and the adjustable handle bar means Mr M and I can both push it comfortably. In this pic, River wanted to get out and play and Ocean was napping.

The weather was perfect for running- low 40s I think, but it felt warmer than that so we weren't freezing. I ran in just a long sleeve shirt layered under a short sleeve shirt and left my jacket in the stroller.

I ran 3.13 miles in 33:30. I had hoped to finish in 32:something, but just couldn't quite manage it, even with my sprint into the finish line. The .4 mile hill up to the final 100 yards or so is just so brutal, which you can see in my times. My first and second miles were at a consistent pace, but I just couldn't keep it up in the third mile because of the multiple hills. And the final .13 is where I sprinted to the finish. Though to be honest I started my kick a smidge too soon- I really had to work to keep my speed up the whole way in.
1st mile: 10:04
2nd mile: 10:26
3rd mile: 12:03
final .13 mile: 7:30

The first mile I did feel a bit creaky as everything warmed up and loosened up, but overall I felt pretty good. After I finished, I walked back to find Mr M and the kiddos, then walked with them to the finish. This turned out to be a nice mile-long cool down for me.

Ocean woke up towards the end of the race. 

I caught this picture of him after the finish- love the ever-present spit bubbles!

This was my 2nd fastest time in the 6 years I've run this race and it was only 5 seconds shy of this year's PR (33:25) that I ran way back on New Year's Day. So despite feeling like my legs were still fatigued, I had a good race even if you look at it from just a numbers point of view.

2015: 33:30
2014: 34:22
2013: 35:35
2012: 37:58 (pushing Sunshine in the jogger)
2011: 32:44
2010: 35:05 (pushing Sunshine in the jogger)

This race was my 14th for the year and the 8th towards my 40 by 40 goal. I have two more races planned for December: the 5k I ran last December and the Virtual Army Marathon.

2015 Races:

Month	Race Time
Turkey Trot (November)	33:30
Trail Half (November)	3:35:17	Actually 13.61 miles
Kilted Trail 5k (October)	38:12
Corn Maze 5k (October)	37:42	Ran without stopping
Hill Valley Virtual Half Marathon (October)	3:43:00
September 5k	37:36	Almost 10 weeks postpartum
August 4 mile	1:00:18	almost 6 weeks postpartum
July 5k	47:44	38 weeks pregnant
June 5k	41:19	34 weeks pregnant
May 5k	40:05	29 weeks pregnant pushed River in the jogger
April 5k	42:36	28 weeks pregnant pushed River in the jogger
March 5k	35:32	22 weeks pregnant
February 5k	33:55	20 weeks pregnant
January 5k	33:25	12 weeks pregnant

40 by 40 Progress:

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Cumulative virtual
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race

DIY Jawa Costume

River's Jawa costume came together pretty quickly, but it did require a little advance planning for part of it. It consists of four parts: the robe, the bandolier, the bag, and the hood with eyes.

1. The Robe

I wanted to use a rustic, loosely woven fabric, but couldn't find any. I ended up using a double layer of the crinkly gauzey fabric I used for part of my Jedi costume last year, and it turned out fine. I found a tutorial on instructables that advocated using a tube for the body and tubes for the arms. That didn't really work for River since he's such a tiny little guy, so I ended up just making a loose robe by cutting  the shape on the fabric. The seams run up each side from the hem to the armpit to the wrist. I put a cut in the back of the neck and sewed some ties to it to keep the robe on.

2. The Bandolier

I used some of the black vinyl that I used for Mr M's boot gaiters to make the bandolier. The vinyl wasn't horrible to sew if you were sewing with the right sides together, but it still wasn't super neat. I sewed a long tube for the strap and made 3 little pouches that I sewed to the strap. I even added velcro to hold the flaps in place. The vinyl was a pain to work with, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

3. The Bag

I'm not sure if Jawas actually carried bags, but I thought it fit in with the costume and it gave him a built-in trick-or-treat bag. I used more of the icky black vinyl and made another tube for the strap and a larger version of the little pouches I made for the bandolier. I didn't add velcro to this one though.

4. The Hood with the Eyes

This is the part that I'm particularly pleased with and it's also the part that required advance planning. I found some pet collar lights on Amazon to use for the eyes. They come in several colors, and I went with red. I purchased three just in case one of them didn't work, but they all worked fine. They shipped from China, so it took a while (3-4 weeks if I remember correctly) to arrive. Hence the need to plan ahead.

The hood itself is basically a rectangle folded in half and sewed into a peak. I put velcro on the front corners since it's supposed to wrap around the neck. The tutorials I found all talked about using a mask of some sort that you cover with black fabric and then attach the lights for the eyes. We don't wear masks, and even if we did, River is two. There's no way he'd actually keep it on if we were able to get him to put it on in the first place.

After some thought, I decided to try placing a baseball hat under the hood for shape and to attach the eyes to. I used a safety pin to keep the fabric of the hood on the hat.

I used a couple stitches to attach the lights to the brim of the hat. There's a button on the back of each light to turn it on, make it brighter, make it flash, or turn it back off. Super easy to use.

We put black sweatpants and a long sleeve black shirt under the robe for warmth. Black gloves would have been a good addition, but I didn't even attempt them since I knew he wouldn't wear them. I thought about making a blaster out of PVC pipes, but I didn't have time and I didn't think River would be able to keep track of it.

This was a fairly simple costume and I'm happy with how it turned out. It wasn't until I was almost finished that I realized that River might not want to wear the hood. He's worn hats before, but like all toddlers a lot of things can be hit or miss. Sure enough, he wanted nothing to do with the hood:

Good thing he's cute :)

I dubbed him the reluctant Jawa. I had Sunshine hold the hood with the eyes turned on, but it just wasn't the same :(  That's what you get with two year olds.

doesn't Sunshine look so thrilled here?

We did finally manage to get the hood on him at the ward activity, but he wouldn't let us do up the velcro or straighten out the "eyes".

And then the hood was back off again. You can see the safety pin at his shoulder that we used to keep the strap in place. They just kept sliding off, so that was the easiest solution.

When we tried pictures again the next day he let us put the hood on him again, but still wouldn't let us do up the velcro. Looking at these pictures makes me think I might have spaced the lights a little far apart. Here's where a cooperative kiddo would have helped, but I still think it turned out great. Though in the first picture below he actually seems to be channeling Emperor Palpatine rather than a lowly Jawa.

This would be a fun costume to do again when he's a bit older and more cooperative. It's a pretty simple build and a re-do would allow me to play with different materials for the robe/hood and bandoliers. If we do a repeat I'll most likely also make a blaster to go with the costume. I had fun making our lightsabers of pvc pipe parts last year and making a Jawa blaster would be fun as well.

You can see this year's family of Star Wars characters here

Last year's family of Star Wars characters can be found here