Turkey Trot Recap

I did it!  5 miles baby!!!  And I met my goal of being under an hour! 

Official time was 54:49 and I was really happy with that.  I ran a lot faster than I did on my training runs and figured it would be right at an hour if I was lucky.   

Me - leaving my house at 6:30am

I drove down to the turkey trot that morning and got there a little after 7pm and got a close parking spot and made the mistake of getting out of my car early and walking around.  

It was COLD out!!

By the time the race actually starting I was freezing and my toes were numb from the cold!  Not cool!  I met up with my friend Laura and her mother-in-law and hung out with them until we started and then wished our Happy Thanksgivings and off we went! 

Starting Line

The crowds were insane, so many people, I think they said it was somewhere between 8,000-9.000 runners there that day and I would definitely expect that!  But lots of people, met lots of this...

costumes

I saw people in pilgrim costumes, turkey hats, full dressed up turkeys, etc.  It was fun! 

They had us split into 3 waves and we were in the 2nd wave, hoping to avoid some of the walkers which it helped some.  The first mile or so my feet were so cold and they were numb, I was just waiting for my body to warm up and eventually it definitely did!  Running with that many people was crazy. 

I didn't really focus on passing anyone or trying to get ahead.  I just wanted to find my comfortable pace and stay there.  My goal was to run the whole thing and to finish in under and hour.  The first two miles went pretty quickly but it seemed to take forever to get to mile three. 

I felt really good during miles 1 and 2 and mile 3 didn't even feel bad but mile 4 I was really having to fight myself trying to not stop and walk for a little bit.  I was hot and so badly I could be coordinated enough to take my running fleece off without falling or getting stuck in it and still keep running...but I figured that would be dangerous not only for myself but for everyone behind me so I just kept it on.  Tried to push up my sleeves and roll my collar down some just to keep myself cool but nothing worked.  I was hot!  And you know me...I don't do well when I'm hot.  Pushed through mile 4 being hot, not in pain or sore, just hot mind you.  I got my mother's genes there!  :) 

Somewhere in mile 4 and 5 I really started to get annoyed with the people around me who kept rushing passed me ad then would stop to walk right in front of me and then repeat the same thing over and over again.  I so badly wanted to yell at them...pace your damn self and you won't have to walk!  ugh!  I know patience Sarah, patience!  This one dude I swear I passed him 10 times during that race. 

Path between 3-4 miles. 

That dude is yellow is the guy I kind of wanted to trip just so he would quit cutting me off when he decided to sprint for 30 seconds and then walk.  My photography skills are awesome while I'm running I'm sure is  what else your also thinking seeing this picture! 

I was "attempting" to take a picture of the sea of people and I obviously missed a little.  The mass of people was amazing, and my thought was...we are all NUTS that we signed up to do this on a holiday!  But then I reminded myself I could have a guilt free Thanksgiving feast afterwards and I pushed on. 

Mile 5 was fun.  hahaha  Did you just hear that?  Mile 5 was FUN. 

I think I've lost it! 

But it was fun.  We came back into town and actually had something to look at besides people, trees and more people.  I could see the finish line for probably most of the last mile which was nice to be able to see the end.  Also you could start to hear the music at the finish line and that was encouraging.  I was actually able to speed up the last quarter of mile which I had told myself I didn't have to do that when I was in mile 4 but I was actually able to do it. 

I crossed the finished line and started walking through the gate and realize how my legs felt like jello and realize how tired I was.  Tried to find where the bottles of water and goodies were after the race, however, when I saw how long the lines were to just get a bottle of water I was disappointed.  I could walk back to my car faster and drink my water bottle I had in my car faster than it would take me to get through that long of a line.  That was probably the biggest disappointment of the whole race for me.  Everything else seemed so well ran.  Even the people at the water stop knew not to fill the cups all the way up but they should have definitely had a better system setup to get people water after the race. 

I walked back to my car and was so glad I was parked close because I really started to get cold again afterwards.  However, heading to my car after the race was not the best idea I thought it would be because it took me well over an hour to actually get out of the city and start my way home.  Which in turn meant I sat in my car and didn't get to stretch like I had hoped to, which caused me to be very tight the rest of the day/weekend. 

Overall though, it was a great race.  I was really proud of myself for pushing through and not stopping to walk.  I still can't believe I ran 5 miles.  Wow! 



me after the race waiting in my car



I will definitely do this race again next year and figure out a different path to take to get home quicker and avoid the crowds leaving town. 

As of today my achillies tendon in my right foot is really bothering me, I'm still walking around like an old lady and that concerns me.  I wanted to run again this past weekend, but I wasn't able to.  Ice and rest are in store for me this week probably! 

Hope you  had a nice Thanksgiving!  Did you run a Turkey Trot?