On Thanksgiving morning I laced up to run my 2nd annual Drumstick Dash in Indianapolis.  The race is a 4.5 miler that raises money for the local homeless shelter to provide meals. The morning was a bit cool, but otherwise great! I was supposed to meet my friend Dennis to run the race together, but this year the crowd of runners had grown from 9000 to 15000+ so it was a bit difficult to find each other in the crowd.

Last year I lined up around the 10min/mile crowd, but this year I was feeling confident and lined up in front of the 9min/mile runners. The race started a little late due to the size of the running group having grown so much.  I’m betting that next year the organizers will have to start staging the runners or separate the competitive (timed) runners allowing them to start before those who didn’t purchase a timing chip for the race.

Regardless the race eventually started and everything went great!  Mile 1 and Mile 2 went by at a 8:30 pace.  Mile 3 I ran a little slower at an 8:40 pace.  I walked thru the only water stop so Mile 4 ended up being at a 9min pace. I finished up with a 00:39:30.1 finishing time.  I PR’d over last year by 2min and 13 seconds!

I have one more race before the Goofy Challenge in January.  I have a 5K Jingle Bell Run on December 10th and then it’s waiting time until Marathon Weekend!