Turkey Trot 2010 race report.
I realized when I signed up for the Turkey Trot that I hadn't done a standalone road race since the Houston Marathon in January. But I love the Turkey Trot, and figured it would be a good test to see where I was. Most of the running I'd done in the past few months was trail running, and the last month has been pretty much just for fun, no serious training, and not much dedicated speedwork. So I didn't know what to expect. Will "faster in general" trump "not really training"? AM I faster in general than I was the past few years? I was going to find out!
And then as it got closer, I checked out the weather forecast, which said it would be warm and humid. My least favorite weather, as evidenced by the horrible San Antonio half marathon last year. So I decided to reassess my not-really-goals-anyway and just go out and run because I love the Turkey Trot. I'd run by feel, not ever looking at my watch, and just see what the day brought. I figured I'd try to progressive pace it, starting out comfortably pushing it and ramping it up until I was pushing hard at the end.
Sure enough, the weather was warm and humid. The morning started out partly sunny, then while Kris and I were warming up for a couple miles, big clouds moved in and we could tell the promised cold front was COMING, but it didn't look like it would arrive in time to cool the day down for the race.
I lined myself up right at the 8-9 minute mile sign and waited for the start, as untimed 6-kid families wearing jeans pushed their way in front of me. Surprisingly, though, when the gun went off, I was able to run even before we got to the start line, and the crowd spread out pretty quickly such that I could actually run from the very beginning. (Due to a home UT game, the Trot was relocated for the second time since I've been running it (2004), this time from the Long Center, basically an extended Dog Pound Loop.)
Just ran by feel, trying to keep my breathing relatively under control even though the humidity meant there wasn't much air to breathe. It's always fun getting to run down the middle of 6th Street, and it's always fun passing so many people on the uphills. The miles were ticking by pretty quickly, and I was pushing as much as I comfortably could, knowing that my body was more used to doing 400m speedwork and not multiple-mile repeats with no recovery.
I had looked at the map, but not closely, so when we got down to Lake Austin Blvd, I was expecting to turn around at Deep Eddy. Except we turned onto Veterans, and never made it to Deep Eddy. I figured I'd misread the map.
Then as we got to Cesar Chavez, I looked at my Garmin and realized there was no way this course could be 5 miles unless they had changed the route from the map I'd seen. A few of the people around me were murmuring about this, too, and we all agreed this course would definitely come up shy of 5 miles by a considerable amount. And we were all running up the hill on Cesar Chavez, pushing, panting, miserable weather, and we all agreed that nobody minded if the course was short at that point. Just wanted to be done.
Tried to give it all I had left as I neared the bridge, tried to smile for Matt as I ran by him and he tried to get a picture with his phone, did some dodging and weaving on the bridge to get around people, and then turned the corner and pushed across the finish line. I was sweaty. Far sweatier than a person should be when running in late November.
Sure enough, my Garmin says I ran 4.53 miles, and most people seemed to agree that was roughly what they got. According to my watch, my splits were:
8:27
8:14
8:00
7:54
and the last 0.53 at a 7:36 pace
(And for my future reference, 28/221 AG, 36:35 (8:05/M).)
So a pretty perfect progressive pace run. I found I was a little disappointed in those times, and I'm not even really sure why. That's GREAT for me. I think I'm comparing that to last year, when I was in better running shape (i.e. had been doing focused run training), and comparing it to the times I've been getting for much, much shorter intervals. And I think I could have done a ton better if it had been 30 degrees colder, which it WAS a few hours later. Stupid traitorous cold front.
So another great start to a fabulous Thanksgiving, and a nice metric of where I stand as I prepare to start up another bout of Ironman training next week.
And then as it got closer, I checked out the weather forecast, which said it would be warm and humid. My least favorite weather, as evidenced by the horrible San Antonio half marathon last year. So I decided to reassess my not-really-goals-anyway and just go out and run because I love the Turkey Trot. I'd run by feel, not ever looking at my watch, and just see what the day brought. I figured I'd try to progressive pace it, starting out comfortably pushing it and ramping it up until I was pushing hard at the end.
Sure enough, the weather was warm and humid. The morning started out partly sunny, then while Kris and I were warming up for a couple miles, big clouds moved in and we could tell the promised cold front was COMING, but it didn't look like it would arrive in time to cool the day down for the race.
I lined myself up right at the 8-9 minute mile sign and waited for the start, as untimed 6-kid families wearing jeans pushed their way in front of me. Surprisingly, though, when the gun went off, I was able to run even before we got to the start line, and the crowd spread out pretty quickly such that I could actually run from the very beginning. (Due to a home UT game, the Trot was relocated for the second time since I've been running it (2004), this time from the Long Center, basically an extended Dog Pound Loop.)
Just ran by feel, trying to keep my breathing relatively under control even though the humidity meant there wasn't much air to breathe. It's always fun getting to run down the middle of 6th Street, and it's always fun passing so many people on the uphills. The miles were ticking by pretty quickly, and I was pushing as much as I comfortably could, knowing that my body was more used to doing 400m speedwork and not multiple-mile repeats with no recovery.
I had looked at the map, but not closely, so when we got down to Lake Austin Blvd, I was expecting to turn around at Deep Eddy. Except we turned onto Veterans, and never made it to Deep Eddy. I figured I'd misread the map.
Then as we got to Cesar Chavez, I looked at my Garmin and realized there was no way this course could be 5 miles unless they had changed the route from the map I'd seen. A few of the people around me were murmuring about this, too, and we all agreed this course would definitely come up shy of 5 miles by a considerable amount. And we were all running up the hill on Cesar Chavez, pushing, panting, miserable weather, and we all agreed that nobody minded if the course was short at that point. Just wanted to be done.
Tried to give it all I had left as I neared the bridge, tried to smile for Matt as I ran by him and he tried to get a picture with his phone, did some dodging and weaving on the bridge to get around people, and then turned the corner and pushed across the finish line. I was sweaty. Far sweatier than a person should be when running in late November.
Sure enough, my Garmin says I ran 4.53 miles, and most people seemed to agree that was roughly what they got. According to my watch, my splits were:
8:27
8:14
8:00
7:54
and the last 0.53 at a 7:36 pace
(And for my future reference, 28/221 AG, 36:35 (8:05/M).)
So a pretty perfect progressive pace run. I found I was a little disappointed in those times, and I'm not even really sure why. That's GREAT for me. I think I'm comparing that to last year, when I was in better running shape (i.e. had been doing focused run training), and comparing it to the times I've been getting for much, much shorter intervals. And I think I could have done a ton better if it had been 30 degrees colder, which it WAS a few hours later. Stupid traitorous cold front.
So another great start to a fabulous Thanksgiving, and a nice metric of where I stand as I prepare to start up another bout of Ironman training next week.