A turkey trot the morning of Thanksgiving has been a tradition for many years, and for 2025, I decided to return to the Skinny Turkey 10K in my city of Raleigh for the third time in four years. I had been under the weather for a couple of days, so I became concerned if my body would allow me to hold my standard pace on these intense rolling hills. Clocking 8:06 for the opening mile, I got my answer early on. Just over two miles in, thanks at least partly to the heavy wind, I dropped my left earbud that felt loose in my ear the entire race, ironically after telling myself this would never happen because it never had in my last hundreds of runs. I turned around, retrieved the earbud, and sprinted forward to catch up to and pass the runner who had been right in front of me, and I needed the following half a minute to catch my breath and regain my composure and rhythm. In spite of the continuous ups and downs, my pace never fluctuated wildly, and I recorded my fastest mile of 8:01 in the final full mile, pleasantly surprised by how little fatigue I felt.

Nearing the end, already knowing this was my fastest time yet on this course motivated me to push even harder in an attempt to blow the previous two comparable times out of the water. Maneuvering around countless 5K participants, I crossed the finish officially in 52:13.810 with an elevation gain of 489 feet according to my COROS Pace 2. Albeit far from my PR, considering all of my PRs came from much easier and flatter courses, I do not believe reclaiming my speed from just over half a decade ago to be out of reach. I will have to find out in the next several months, before Raleigh becomes insufferably hot again. Happy Thanksgiving!