Thundercloud Turkey Trot 2014 race report.
I didn't really notice when I signed up for Wild Hare that it was less than a week before Thanksgiving. When I noticed, I thought, "Eh, I'm just doing Wild Hare for fun, and the Turkey Trot for fun, so not a big deal."
Turns out, 31 miles, even for fun, hurts afterward. (And duringward.) Especially with the addition of a sea of slidey mud.
But I can't not do the Turkey Trot! It's the only race I've done every year since I first started doing events (for a while the Rosedale Ride held the same honor, but I failed that several years ago), and it would be my 10th anniversary! So I signed up.
I had my doubts when I still had to descend stairs very slowly and deliberately on Tuesday, but by Wednesday my quads felt a little better, and I knew at the very least I could run/walk the Turkey Trot. Or hoped I could.
On race morning I parked near Zach Scott Theatre, figuring I'd warm up to the start line, and that would be my test as to whether my legs would even work at all. Good news is: they did! I felt very slow and my quads were sore, but I was able to ambulate successfully to the start line.
I chatted with Josh in the start chute, happy that I'd convinced myself to underdress rather than over-.. the temps in the 50s made a lot of people wear long sleeves and tights, and with the late start and the sun shining down, it was definitely shorts and short-sleeves, or even sleeveless, weather.
I started fairly far back, knowing I wasn't going to be running as fast as normal, and so there was a bit of dodging and weaving at the beginning to find some open space.
And then I just ran as fast as I could convince my legs to run. The uphills were tough, with the aforementioned full sun, but they were much more pleasant on my sore legs than the long downhills, which tortured my poor left quad.
I never looked at my watch, just ran by feel. And I never ended up taking any water from the three water stops, because I just didn't feel like negotiating with the press of humanity that tends to surround them. And before I knew it, I was rounding the corner onto the bridge, heading toward the finish line.
43:51 (8:46/mile)
Definitely the slowest Trot I've had since I really figured out how to run faster. But I wasn't convinced I could run sub-10s on those tired legs, so averaging 8:46s made me really happy! And picking it up as I warmed up, in addition to having most of the uphills be at the beginning, gave me a nice progressive pace run, THIS time in the right direction!
9:05, 8:52, 8:35, 8:23, 8:17
Wouldn't have figured my legs had an 8:17 in them less than a week after running a 50k!
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)
2013: 39:45 (7:57/mile)
Glad that I decided to go out and give it a try, and happy 10th Turkey Trot anniversary to me!
Turns out, 31 miles, even for fun, hurts afterward. (And duringward.) Especially with the addition of a sea of slidey mud.
But I can't not do the Turkey Trot! It's the only race I've done every year since I first started doing events (for a while the Rosedale Ride held the same honor, but I failed that several years ago), and it would be my 10th anniversary! So I signed up.
I had my doubts when I still had to descend stairs very slowly and deliberately on Tuesday, but by Wednesday my quads felt a little better, and I knew at the very least I could run/walk the Turkey Trot. Or hoped I could.
On race morning I parked near Zach Scott Theatre, figuring I'd warm up to the start line, and that would be my test as to whether my legs would even work at all. Good news is: they did! I felt very slow and my quads were sore, but I was able to ambulate successfully to the start line.
I chatted with Josh in the start chute, happy that I'd convinced myself to underdress rather than over-.. the temps in the 50s made a lot of people wear long sleeves and tights, and with the late start and the sun shining down, it was definitely shorts and short-sleeves, or even sleeveless, weather.
I started fairly far back, knowing I wasn't going to be running as fast as normal, and so there was a bit of dodging and weaving at the beginning to find some open space.
And then I just ran as fast as I could convince my legs to run. The uphills were tough, with the aforementioned full sun, but they were much more pleasant on my sore legs than the long downhills, which tortured my poor left quad.
I never looked at my watch, just ran by feel. And I never ended up taking any water from the three water stops, because I just didn't feel like negotiating with the press of humanity that tends to surround them. And before I knew it, I was rounding the corner onto the bridge, heading toward the finish line.
43:51 (8:46/mile)
Definitely the slowest Trot I've had since I really figured out how to run faster. But I wasn't convinced I could run sub-10s on those tired legs, so averaging 8:46s made me really happy! And picking it up as I warmed up, in addition to having most of the uphills be at the beginning, gave me a nice progressive pace run, THIS time in the right direction!
9:05, 8:52, 8:35, 8:23, 8:17
Wouldn't have figured my legs had an 8:17 in them less than a week after running a 50k!
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)
2013: 39:45 (7:57/mile)
Glad that I decided to go out and give it a try, and happy 10th Turkey Trot anniversary to me!