Rolling out of bed at 5:30 a.m. Thanksgiving morn proves you are just a little crazy. There I said it. It is in the public record. I wanted to go on a training run for a forthcoming half marathon with our city's 41st annual Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot run of eight miles. My theory was that a

Runner's High beats Sleep Caused by Tryptophan.

You know Tryptophan. It is what makes you sleepy after eating the turkey. Well I survived the run and I ate the turkey later and away I go blogging so my theory proved right.

With my runner's high along the race route this is what I observed today:

Beauty - a sea of colorful humanity, particularly on two long bridges one leaving south of the downtown and the other bridge with miles of runners on it approaching the glistening skyscrapers in the blue, morning sky. Boston and New York City marathoners can appreciate the awesomeness of this spectacle. This race with its three mile fun run had 30,000+ people running, the largest in the country on this holiday.

Kindness - a lady RUNNING with her golden labrador retriever in front of me at one of three water stations picked out a cup off the table and was giving her dog a drink in full stride. Amazing. She thought of the dog FIRST.

Challenge - on one of the long uphill battles against some hills, a wheelchair racer was struggling, but not giving up to get up the hill. He made all of us around him proud of his determination with his two arms on the wheels and not giving up.

Encouragement - At the six mile mark, many missed the sign indicating that distance and others said, hey, if we were running a marathon we'd have 20 miles more to go. It made the final two miles seem like a breeze. And finally,

Humor - we live in a way too high tech world. This one guy had an iPhone strapped to his upper arm. He is Bluetooth talking to who knows who crossing this bridge. The crowd laments to him vocally give me a break!! Then we must have had some native New Yorkers or Californians in the crowd with their cell phone law background. The next one passing him said, "Don't you know you're not supposed to talk and run?" A cast of characters out there pounding the pavement.

So if you ever need the antidote for not falling asleep in the Easy Chair after the big bird and the football game, catch me south of downtown Dallas Thanksgiving day morn. You'll see some interesting people and maybe as a bonus lose some pounds for the day. : ) Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one wherever you were at.