Turkey Trot 5 Miler (Race Recap)

The Race:

The Conditions:

30s, low 40s--- frigid cold!

Results:
Official Time: 38:31- 7:43 pace
Overall Finish: 787/7279
Sex Place: 166/3901
Division: 5/458

 I ran this exact race 2 years ago with Eric on Thanksgiving-- this was also one of my first 10 or so blog posts- I can see my rambling is still just as bad so I'll try to cut down this time around. 

This year Mark came home for Turkey day to meet the family, as well as spend time with his extended family who also happen to live in Dayton. Seeing as he is a runner as well, he joined Eric and I for the torture fun!

Super excited about the cold weather. 

Not exactly matchy matchy- but both in skirts and minamalist black shoes-- that counts for something. 

Although the race has over 7,000 participants for the 5 miles, and a few thousand for the 1 mile walk, it really is a no frills race. Due to the size of participants for both distances, parking can be hard to come by, so unfortunately we had to get up super early and leave the house at 630 for the 8am start.

Parking ended up being a breeze so we had time to kill and took shelter / warmth in the Baum Opera House until 15 min prior

Me, Mark, Eric

Only other time I've raced the 5 mile distance was the 2010 for this race, so literally my only goal was to just break that time and go sub 40 which I knew would be possible. I know I'm capable of running consistently (once upon a time) in the 7:50s for half marathon, so I was hoping 7:40s wouldn't be too big of a stretch.

I lined up in the first (of 3 corrals) which was open to "Elite runners expecting to finish under 40" haha. The guy that was guarding the entrance questioned if I could run that fast wearing my skirt (he was kidding of course)

It must be really if I don't take my jacket off!

When the gun went off people were FLYING like crazy past me. I was too busy just trying to keep a steady pace and run 'appropriately' that it wasn't till 1/2 mile in I realized I was running 7 min pace. I know myself and know that I cannot keep that up so I backed off a bit and clocked in my first mile right at 7:21 (same time as last year)

Because this course is extremely flat with MAYBE a 10 ft elevation, it was hard to have an advantage on hills by opening my stride, so I was consistently getting slower. Around the 2 mile mark my left calf and achilles tendon were getting tight from trying to modify foot strike in different shoe. I decided to just run normal and although it felt weird feeling my feet hit the pavement hard, it at least made the tightness more bearable. 7:46

Right at mile 3 we were passing everyone in corral 2 (started 5 min after us) on the back portion of the out and back- I kept scanning for Eric, but no such luck (darn)
I finally got hot enough to take off my jacket, normally I get rid of extra layers by mile 1, but today my fingers were frozen and I could see my breath so the additional 2 miles was necessary. Just like magic I picked up my pace with the "extra layer removed" 7:56 (yes i realize its slowest mile, thats how bad my leg was hurting)

Not a lot of exciting or memorable things happened at mile 4- 7:52

Last miles is all guts and unfortunately I was running next to a lady named Carol who everyone and their mom knew. As we were passing corral 3, 6 different people had shouted some form of "way to go Carol" - we kept doing indian runs with one another so finally I had a new goal "beat Carol". I remember last time I ran this race the finish line was deceiving and I kicked way too early- this go round I was going to wait till I actually saw finish line in distance. I never really had a "full kick", more of just picked up the pace the entire mile so I could shave some time off.- 7:35- 38:31 total time

Finish line was anti-climatic- walked to get some water, banana, and a cookie and went to find Mark (he finished in 35:22). We cheered on my brother who also beat his previous time by 2 min (41:xx) and then we went home. Yay!

Race itself is a boring, flat, nothing to look at out and back, however its a fast course and makes you feel good to get in a run on Turkey Day. They did improve from 2010 by having the timing chips on back of bib vs. have to tie them on your shoes and wait in line at end to get them clipped off (I hate that).

Eric, myself, and Mark all surprised ourselves by our times and I'll definitely do it next year. (will break 38 at that time, so it is written, it must be done!)

As a side note, as FREEZING as it was in the morning, it warmed up to 66 degrees during midday--- crazy sauce!!