At the start I could see a lot of women ahead of me on the line. The race took out pretty quick and there were too many women ahead of me to count them. I knew I was where I should be because I was running behind Thomas. The race started and ended on Broadway which made for a nice, wide start. Within about a half mile we turned onto the Watco trail which was quite a bit narrower and things got more congested. I was passing quite a few people on the trail and moved up to 9th overall female from what I could see. We hit the first mile while on the Watco trail and I was super excited that my split was 6:53. I felt really strong and was pretty confident that I could maintain that pace for the entire race. Coming off the Watco trail I passed a woman and I had moved into 6th overall female. I told myself I could run a faster back half of the race than the first half and could keep picking off women. I was a bit surprised by how strong I felt. I didn't think I was going to run a faster 2nd half of the race, I knew I was. Somewhere on the Watco trail a guy in an inflatable turkey costume came up behind me and was running along behind me for much of the rest of the race. It was a little annoying to listen to it swishing along behind me.
During the 2nd mile I could see the female running in 5th place quite a ways ahead of me and the top 4 women were all decently close to her. I told myself to keep hammering and it was possible to catch them. I was slowly closing in on Thomas and could see him during the whole race. When we ran past Lakeside school, I saw Thomas throw his gloves by the fence, but forgot about it. The next day mom and I found them and picked them up for him when we were going for a walk. It was funny to have the flashback to him tossing his gloves in the race when I saw them. I went through the 2nd mile in 6:48 and told myself to make my last mile the fastest. The guy in the turkey costume was still hanging right with me and I decided it was my goal to beat him. I pulled up next to Thomas a little bit before turning onto Broadway and he picked up the pace to go with me. When we turned onto Broadway, I had really been chipping into the lead of the woman ahead of me. I kept telling myself she was first in my age group and I needed to catch her, but I just couldn't find another gear. My 3rd mile was 6:42 which I was thrilled with. The finish was a very slight incline which I felt more because we could see the finish line for such a long time! I was pushing really hard and didn't feel like the gap between the woman ahead of me and me was narrowing at all. My pace for the finish was 6:38 so I hadn't been able to drop the pace much, just like it felt.
Renato who runs the race gave me a high five as I was nearing the finish line and told me not to let him get me. I didn't know if it was Thomas or the guy in the turkey costume and I kicked it into another gear. I remembered the finishing clock being at 21:20 as I was closing and I was stoked about that, so I was surprised to see my official finishing time. I must have looked at the clock way early. My official finishing time was 21:40 with an average pace of 6:48! I was so excited about that and feel confident that I can get my 5k back down under 21 minutes in the spring! When I looked at the results later in the day, I saw the female I was chasing down at the finish was actually only 14! I was 29th out of 1,022 overall and 6th out of 599 women. I also won a blanket again by taking 1st out of 61 in my age group. I was so darn excited about my average pace! My time was slower than the past 2 years because the course was a bit longer than those years at 3.19 miles, but my pace was significantly faster. I did not expect to run that fast and was on a high for days afterward! Running faster than expected in a race is always the best feeling, but it was also how strong I felt the entire race. It was the most solid race performance I've put together in a very long time.
I grabbed a water and told Thomas good job, then headed back out on the course to run Elise in to the finish. She wanted to run by herself this year so she could walk whenever she wanted and just have fun with it. I knew she was old enough to do that and there were plenty of people around, but I really wanted to go check on her! I started my cool down about a minute after finishing which was definitely a record! I usually drink a bottle of water before heading back out. I missed dad finish, but made it out to run in with Elise. She seemed like she had a really good time and was happy to run for a bit and then walk when she felt like it. Thomas finished in 21:43, 3rd out of 35 in his age group and 30th overall. Dad finished in 27:21, 1st of 21 in his age group and 178th overall. He got a kick out of Renato saying into the microphone, "I didn't know you were 65+!" When dad went up for his award. Elise finished in 36:09, good for 22nd out of 66 in her age group and 515th overall. Jeremy ran/walked in 38:07 which put him 28th in his age group and 548th overall. Mom walked with Pippin and finished in 1:00:25, 14th of 20 in her age group and 916th overall. Ty and Carter walked together and finished in 1:09:40, 1003rd and 1004th overall. Find past Turkey Trot posts here: 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013.
Great pictures. I didn't find them all so it was nice to see. Poor Carter, Pippin was exhausting.
ReplyDeleteThey pictures were all so good!
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