Thundercloud Turkey Trot 2013 race report.
Standard Turkey Trot plan: No plan, just run however I feel.
Almost a month out from Ironman Florida, and in full on off-season recovery mode. Which is not to say doing nothing. Actually I've been running somewhat consistently, if not more than 3 times a week, and with some speed work thrown in, and running has felt pretty good. But I was prepared to dial it back and just run with joy if things didn't feel good.
Lucked out this year with weather, especially compared to last year. It was dry and cool, and I'm fairly sure everyone overdressed. It was in the 40s, which is cold when you're just standing around waiting for a race to start. But once you start running, and it's sunny, you heat up quickly.
The start wasn't quite as perfectly organized as last year. They still split us into timed and untimed corrals (with lots of thousands of people running untimed and 800 or so running timed), but the timed corral was teensy compared to last year, and not broken up into paces, so everyone was just mixed together. I moved up to what seemed to be fairly closeish to the front, and called that good. I didn't see anyone else I knew, so I was hanging out alone, waiting to start, and someone poked me on the shoulder, and Danny A. was behind me. And next to him was Michel and next to him was TriZones Lauren. None of whom know each other, and were just randomly right behind me. But none are my pace (I thought, though it turned out Michel's time was less than a minute faster than mine, so I should have clung to him, evidently), so when the gun went off, I took off alone.
Even though I thought I was close to the front, the first mile was a big pile of congestion and dodging and weaving. It also contained my favorite proselytizing homeless guy from last year! I guess he's declared himself a Turkey Trot tradition.
Matt and I had tried to find water after our mile warmup, because it was very dry out there, but we'd not found any, and so by the time I got to the first aid station around mile 1, I was parched, and took a cup of water. That was enough to last me for the entire race, so I never ended up taking water again.
And not much to say after that. As I said, it was warm once I started running. I had on shorts, long sleeved shirt and gloves. Took the gloves off about half a mile in. A quarter mile later tried to roll up my sleeves, but the shirt I was wearing has tight sleeves, so I couldn't get them very far up. It wasn't horrible, but I would have been comfortable in a sleeveless, especially given those hills.
I just kept it a nice hard but sustainable pace, but never looked at my watch. I tried to build once I got out of the first mile congestion, and once I was up to the top of the Enfield hill, and then tried to pick it up even more when I got to the mile 4 marker (and saw Travis R running out for his cooldown, ha).
Crossed the finish line not having looked at my watch the entire time, and saw it was sub-40! I didn't know what my PR was, but I knew that 2012 was the only time I'd gone sub-40, so if it wasn't a PR, at least it was a good time for me.
And it wasn't a PR!
39:45 (7:57/mile)
History!
2004: 52:24 (10:29/mile)
2005: 52:45 (10:33/mile)
2006: 47:54 (9:35/mile)
2007: 44:35 (8:55/mile)
2008: 39:48 (7:58/mile) (suspect it was short)
2009: 40:59 (8:10/mile)
2010: 36:35 (8:05/mile according to official time) (definitely short)
2011: 40:29 (8:06/mile)
2012: 38:58 (7:48/mile)
So I ran almost a minute faster last year, in crappier weather, but with ~3 more months of recovery from an Ironman. I'll take it!
Splits were:
8:16
8:09
7:52
7:38
7:30
I can rock a progressive pace.
Another fun race and great tradition. And next year will be my 10th Turkey Trot anniversary!
Almost a month out from Ironman Florida, and in full on off-season recovery mode. Which is not to say doing nothing. Actually I've been running somewhat consistently, if not more than 3 times a week, and with some speed work thrown in, and running has felt pretty good. But I was prepared to dial it back and just run with joy if things didn't feel good.
Lucked out this year with weather, especially compared to last year. It was dry and cool, and I'm fairly sure everyone overdressed. It was in the 40s, which is cold when you're just standing around waiting for a race to start. But once you start running, and it's sunny, you heat up quickly.
The start wasn't quite as perfectly organized as last year. They still split us into timed and untimed corrals (with lots of thousands of people running untimed and 800 or so running timed), but the timed corral was teensy compared to last year, and not broken up into paces, so everyone was just mixed together. I moved up to what seemed to be fairly closeish to the front, and called that good. I didn't see anyone else I knew, so I was hanging out alone, waiting to start, and someone poked me on the shoulder, and Danny A. was behind me. And next to him was Michel and next to him was TriZones Lauren. None of whom know each other, and were just randomly right behind me. But none are my pace (I thought, though it turned out Michel's time was less than a minute faster than mine, so I should have clung to him, evidently), so when the gun went off, I took off alone.
Even though I thought I was close to the front, the first mile was a big pile of congestion and dodging and weaving. It also contained my favorite proselytizing homeless guy from last year! I guess he's declared himself a Turkey Trot tradition.
Matt and I had tried to find water after our mile warmup, because it was very dry out there, but we'd not found any, and so by the time I got to the first aid station around mile 1, I was parched, and took a cup of water. That was enough to last me for the entire race, so I never ended up taking water again.
And not much to say after that. As I said, it was warm once I started running. I had on shorts, long sleeved shirt and gloves. Took the gloves off about half a mile in. A quarter mile later tried to roll up my sleeves, but the shirt I was wearing has tight sleeves, so I couldn't get them very far up. It wasn't horrible, but I would have been comfortable in a sleeveless, especially given those hills.
I just kept it a nice hard but sustainable pace, but never looked at my watch. I tried to build once I got out of the first mile congestion, and once I was up to the top of the Enfield hill, and then tried to pick it up even more when I got to the mile 4 marker (and saw Travis R running out for his cooldown, ha).
Crossed the finish line not having looked at my watch the entire time, and saw it was sub-40! I didn't know what my PR was, but I knew that 2012 was the only time I'd gone sub-40, so if it wasn't a PR, at least it was a good time for me.
And it wasn't a PR!
39:45 (7:57/mile)
History!
2004: 52:24 (10:29/mile)
2005: 52:45 (10:33/mile)
2006: 47:54 (9:35/mile)
2007: 44:35 (8:55/mile)
2008: 39:48 (7:58/mile) (suspect it was short)
2009: 40:59 (8:10/mile)
2010: 36:35 (8:05/mile according to official time) (definitely short)
2011: 40:29 (8:06/mile)
2012: 38:58 (7:48/mile)
So I ran almost a minute faster last year, in crappier weather, but with ~3 more months of recovery from an Ironman. I'll take it!
Splits were:
8:16
8:09
7:52
7:38
7:30
I can rock a progressive pace.
Another fun race and great tradition. And next year will be my 10th Turkey Trot anniversary!