Thanksgiving is typically a holiday of overindulgence. You eat way too much food or way too many pieces of pie. You hang out with your family way too much. It’s not supposed to be a holiday of discipline, but this time, for us, it was a mix of excess and exercise.

Jason and I have served as running coaches for our nephew since last August. He took on the ambitious goal of completing his first half marathon for a school class. That race, the Thankful 13, took place Thanksgiving morning. Although he was not always a consistent trainer and was sick the day of the race, he finished strong around 2:47. Jason also entered this half marathon; he pretty much did it cold turkey. (Yes, pun intended.) He finished in 1:50 at an 8:26/mile pace. I did the 5K and probably didn’t even burn the caloric equivalent of one of the many Magleby’s rolls I ate with my holiday meal; it was kind of a one-bun run.

Speaking of feasting, Jason’s family got together the weekend before Thanksgiving, which made the holiday less stuffed for us both literally and metaphorically. We were able to go to my family’s without any consumption conflicts. My family’s gathering was sadly small this year. Siblings and their families were on vacation, sick, or exiling themselves by choice. Still, the small group present ate enough food to fill the gap.

Thanksgiving provides a terrific excuse to bake fabulous things that are too sinful and/or time-consuming to justify cooking otherwise. This time, Jason and I made honeyed yogurt pumpkin pie with pistachio-coconut streusel and a pumpkin pull-apart loaf from scratch and bought a marzipan cake from Gourmandise. The cake was our nephew’s requested treat for completing his race. Even with the heaps of cuisine available on Thanksgiving, our overeating didn’t set in until afterwards. We consumed way too many leftover-turkey pot pies in the week following the holiday, an easy undertaking when homemade crusts are involved.

Thanksgiving kept us running around and eating around but in the intentional sort of way. Praise be to dessert and dashing!