Turkeys Trotting

Thanksgiving. A day of traditions. So for us runners, that means a Turkey Trot. A fun way to go out, have some racing fun, and justify the massive amounts of food to be eaten later.

For me, that meant the local 3 Mile race that I have done 9 times now in the last 15 years. It's very low-key, un-timed, with no winners or awards. Lots and lots of walkers and joggers. But of course, I treat it as a race. And my goal this year was a course record, which would be a lifetime PR since no one else does 3-mile races.

4 years ago I ran 20:27. Two years ago I ran 20:16. So my goal was to go sub-20. 6:40 pace. Barring that, I hoped to at least PR under 20:16. I figured I had a decent shot at it.

I had my own personal paparazzo there as well, as in addition to DW, JunBlack showed up to work on his mad photography skillz. He caught me in my pre-race routine as I put on my race-face.


DW caught me as I practiced my levitation


I found a buddy from my track club to start with, and soon we were off! I was somewhere behind this turkey.



But ahead of these turkeys,




Oh, there I am! Still happy and pain-free!


 Which didn't last for long. I kind of got sucked out with the big crowd and my first pace check showed 6:21. Too fast. I tried to relax, and slowed a bit. My track buddy was running with me, but started to pull away toward the end of mile 1. I had to let him go. It was too fast and I was hurting. Mile 1 was 6:37.

Which was very close to my goal of 6:40, although I hoped to do negative splits. But I was already just hanging on. Mile 2 was looking like 6:55 pace, so I tried to step it up a little, but my body was not having it. Just maintaining was the best I could do. Except "maintaining" meant a 6:54 mile 2.

So, it looked like sub-20 wasn't going to happen. But I could still hope for a PR if I could muster a kick. I headed for home, with the last mile one straight, flat road to the finish.

But I had nothing. People were pulling away from me instead of me catching anyone. I was just trying not to give in to the overwhelming desire to slow down and walk. When my extra exertion still showed a pace over 6:50 I think I felt defeated and just hung on the rest of the way. At least I didn't give up. Mile 3 was 6:52, and I finished with 20:29.

Here is a peek at mile 3 pain.





I'm back there somewhere. I ran all of mile 2 with that double stroller guy, and then he pulled away from me. Sad.



So, no PR, but not so far off. Still a good morning's work. Earned some credits for food-gorging later. Besides, there is always another race. Like the 10K coming up next week...