Outside All The Time

If there is a better way to get – and stay – in the holiday spirit than a holiday run, I don’t know what it is.

Trying to keep your weight gain down? Getting a good run in before you hit the holiday table is a great way to Eat More and Gain Little (or Less, depending on your appetite and the quality of the cook).

Annoyed by: the kids, spouse, in-laws, kids, incessant tacky Christmas carols, rampant consumerism, San Diego Chargers’ late season swoon, holiday bills or Newt Gingrich (or some combination thereof)? There is simply no better (if temporary) antidote to any and all sources of holiday depression than a good run. Throw in a coupla hundred or a coupla thousand people and a good 5 miler and I promise you’ll be good to go.

My favorite holiday run is the Pittsburgh (PA) YMCA Turkey Trot, which begins right in downtown Pittsburgh every Thanksgiving morning. For years, my fam and I have been trekking up to Pittsburgh to my wife’s family. And for years I have been running the Turkey Trot. For years, I ran it solo until my nieces and nephews got with the program. This year most of them were gone so I was on my own.

No matter – it was all good: I live in North Carolina, so I get off on running next to the Ohio River (or is it the Monongahela – try saying that five times fast – or the Allegheny? I always get confused about which is which and where exactly they all come together).

And of course, Heinz Field (home to the Steelers) and PNC Park (the Pirates) are right there too, and all the runners go past huge statues of Pirate greats Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski, might have hit the greatest home run in World Series history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix848GU0gNo

This year’s race offered a fun walk, a 5k and a five miler. I opted for the latter and finished in a respectable 38:41 – 28th in my age group of 135 40-49 year-olds and 156th overall out of 1294 total runners.

More important, I had a ton of fun, burned off a buncha energy, got to take the subway (I love trains) to the race and met a lotta really nice people – some of them with some very funny holiday headwear. Also had my pic taken with a scary elf. Here are some pics of the run.

Season’s greetings and remember: hit the road for holiday happiness this year.

I would like the words Pittsburgh (PA) YMCA Turkey Trot to be highlighted so when you click on them you go to the race site,. Same for the name Bill Mazeroskli, so that when you click on it, you go to the you tube page to see the home run. I include this stuff here so you will understand what I need to be able to do not so that you do it all the time.