2008 Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving in Mesa. It stormed all the night before. I was resigned to not participating in the run, as it wasn't that important to me that I would run through a downpour. Steve and Denise showed up, ready to do their 2-mile event. Well, Steve was eventually ready to do his 2-mile event after some convincing and some borrowing of apparel.

The streets were soaked, but there was no rain falling as we waited for the 1-mile and then the 2-mile events to take place. Brian convinced me to do a little bit of warm-up running. This breaks a time-honored tradition for me. For the last 4 years, any warm-up infringed on my energy stores for the race. This year, 6.2 miles just isn't that long, so I needed to loosen up my legs.

This is the first year that they used timing chips for the Turkey Trot. I love timing chips. I can sit back and let the pushing at the start line happen without me. Brian still got up towards the front. He dislikes having to weave for the first 2 miles around strollers and walkers that push their way to the front of the line for some unknown reason.

And now I understand Brian's reasoning. For this entire race, I passed people. It felt really good to be making what felt like an effortless push to run steady and fast. I had an ipod meltdown at the beginning so I did this race in silence. Well... almost silence. Silence if not for all the huffing and puffing that people were doing around me.

I had meant to run about 10 minute miles for the first 5 miles and then push as hard as I could for the last 1.2 miles. So the first mile I was a little frustrated with how often I was getting stuck behind walls of runners running side-by-side. It didn't seem like I was working that hard, I was hardly even breathing. So I was sure when I got to the 1-mile mark, I would see 11 or more minutes on my watch. So I was pleasantly surprised - and then worried - when I saw 9:20. Oh well, it felt good, I would just keep that up and as soon as it got hard, I would back off the pace and still be able to come back strong on the last mile.

It was perfectly cloudy and cool, but I still got pretty warm and thirsty around mile 4. At this point, I was still right around 9:20 pace so I stopped and walked for a minute to have a cup of water. After all, my goal was just to break 10-minute pace.

So I start running again and around 5.5 miles, I see Brian. I wave to him because he's not even looking for me. He looks surprised to see me. I ask him how he did and of course, he has no idea. He doesn't wear a watch. (We find out later that he broke his P/R as well.) He tells me that I'm really moving. It doesn't really feel like it except when I hit the tiny little uphills. He leaves me with the last .2 miles to go and I put everything I have left into running hard up the final hill. I see a guy panic when he sees the hill and falter. I'm determined to pass him strong. I do.

There's a little bit of confusion when I see there are two timing mats at the finish. Which mat should I push stop on? In confusion (and maybe low blood glycogen), I end up pushing stop some time after I have crossed both mats. Oh well. It's chip-timed. They'll have that information online later that day.

I look down at my watch and am amazed. I have just ran a 58:07 10k. Almost 7 minutes faster than my previous best this February. My final pace is 9:22. My goal was to just break 10 minutes. What a great feeling that was. I felt great after the race. Perhaps I could have gone faster if I wasn't worried what that would do to the marathon a week from today.

It seems like running has been part of my life longer than the 4 years, 3 months that it has. I'm enjoying it more and more and noticing fundamental changes in my body in terms of bone and tendon strength. I've also noticed a huge difference in cardiovascular capacity. I'm excited to see what the next 4 years hold in store.