Turkey Trot 5 Miler

So yesterday was the Turkey Trot 5 Miler. I didn’t get a good sleep the night before, but when I woke up and looked outside, I was glad to see it wasn’t snowing and the streets looked clear. accuweather.com said it was 39F so I decided that was shorts weather. I threw on a toque, my yellow long-sleeved shirt from the Columbus marathon (the one with the flap to cover your fingers) and shorts. Went outside to find it had started snowing. Drove to FrontRunner through snow and a decent amount of wind. Drove PAST FrontRunner to find parking, and noticed that no one else seemed to be wearing shorts…

Before the race started, I managed to meet up with Doug and his sons, Meredith and Mike, Helen and her friend Andy, and Cheryl. All were nicely bundled up. I did see a few bare legs, but not many, and I was definitely cold. Shortly before 9 we headed to the start line, and the group splintered. I ended up lining up with Doug and his son Al, and Cheryl.

We started, and naturally there was a ton of jostling for position. We’re talking thousands of runners and walkers here! It was great to run with Doug, though, we haven’t done so since the week after Detroit. So we chatted away and talked about races (he’s doing Vegas next week, lucky bum!). The course was an out and back, and before too long we were being told to move to the right, as the lead runner was coming back. Doug’s son asked how far in we were, and Doug said we probably hadn’t even hit 2 miles yet.

I think it was at about that time that I started thinking, “ya know, this really isn’t that fun”.

I stayed with Doug and Al for awhile longer, but as we saw more and more people on the return trip (a lot of the front runners were wearing shorts – those were my people!), I became more antsy. I was like a horse pulling at the reins, and finally I told Doug I was going to have to take off at the turnaround.

First half: 22:45 (9:06 pace)

Now, I love me some negative splits. But generally that means you do a lot of people-dodging on the second half. This is even worse on a short but crowded race. I was weaving in and out of people the whole way back. With about a mile to go, I felt like my butt was numb. My legs had been red for awhile, but this was a bit of a weird sensation.

The route turns back onto Lane Ave with maybe 2/3 of a mile to go, and we were greeted with an uphill, with snow and a harsh wind in our faces. It was absolutely miserable. I saw a few kids on the side of the road, looking like they were going to get sick. People were stopped and walking, and those who were still running were looking pretty rough. I just wanted to get done.

Second half: 18:21 (7:20 pace)

Overall time: 41:06 (8:13 pace)

I got my coupon for a free pumpkin pie, grabbed a gatorade and received my pie. Saw Mike and Meredith and Helen and Andy again at the end of the race, but everyone left pretty quickly; it was still miserable out. I wanted to wait to see how everyone else did, but my fingers were really starting to feel numb. It was hard to leave the relative shelter of the building to head to my car, but eventually I jogged out to it. I could barely wrap my fingers around the car key to open the door. Yuck!

So that was the Turkey Trot. I’m glad I did it, and I do feel better about my running; I didn’t feel any sort of soreness or anything (perhaps I was too numb!). I think I’ll try to go out for 16-18 this weekend, and start running during the week again. Disney is only 6 weeks away! I’m not too excited about the fact this is my PR for the 5 Mile; since it is slower pace-wise than my PR at any other distance. Ah well, just means I’ll set a big PR next time 🙂