2013 Turkey Trot 5 miler

This was my first time at this race and my first Thanksgiving day race.  Unlike most runners, I'm not a big fan of turkey day races.  My philosophy is that I spend most of the year doing races or workouts that its nice to just have a fat day.  My sister was running this race and talked me into doing it.

It's been a cold November here in Ohio and today was no different.  It was freezing and the wind off Lake Erie cut right through you.  To make things even more pleasant.  It began to snow about an hour before the race.  Luckily, they had a building open for us to stay warm in prior to the race.  Just forget using the potty as the line was as long as the race.

Since it was so cold out.  I made the mistake of being late to the starting line.  This was a pretty large race with close to 8,000 runners.  So, it wasn't a bright idea to start in the back.  During the first mile, I just zigged and zagged.  Trying find open space and dry pavement.  The road was still packed through the first mile and a half.  It was so bad,  I ended up running on the sidewalk to trying to establish a pace.

The route

Next up was the only climb of the race and I made my second mistake of sticking on the sidewalk.  Apparently, quite a few others had the same idea and they all decided to walk up the hill.  To make matters worse the sidewalk is blocked by a cement divider and I had no place to go.  Time was clicking by and I was pinned in till mile 2.  I had a goal of running 45 minutes as I had a Christmas Ale bet with my friend Liz and to have a shot of winning.  I needed to run a 44-45, but was already close to a minute off pace with 3 miles to go.

Elevation chart

The last 3 miles were flat.  The snow was continuing to come down and road conditions became worse with every stride.  I still picked up the pace and planned on trying to run a 5K pace back into town.  Race traffic wasn't terrible the last 3 miles, but the road conditions were miserable.  The slush had become so slick that I had zero grip with my shoes (which were new).  It became a fine balance between trying to go fast without pulling a muscle.

My splits for this race. 

Miles 4 and 5 clicked by and I finished in 45:13.  Despite the weather conditions it ended up being a pretty good race.  I've been doing speed workouts the past month and it was good to see them begin to pay off.   I hadn't been running well this Fall as doing runs after long rides this summer left me with zero speed.  I ended up 110/256 in my age group and 1683rd overall.  I'll definitely take being in the top half as this was a very competitive race.

Post race with my sister.