SOME 5k Turkey Trot Race Report

This is the first year that I have ever done a Turkey Trot and it was a blast. I choose to run the SOME Turkey Trot 5k because it had a start time of 9am and it was nice and close to my house. I wasn't nervous about this race at all because well I wasn't racing it :) It was more or less just something fun to do before heading to my mother -in - laws house in West Virginia.

M and I both had a chocolate chip muffin and a banana before heading out the door. Perfect race food right? And as soon as we headed out the door at 8:15 turkeys were one the loose!

There was even one spotted trying to ride the metro!

We had plenty of time (15 minutes) before the race started once we arrived at Freedom Plaza. There was a ton of people, around 7,000 I believe. It was the perfect temp out for a run, a little chilly with some sun shin.

  

lots of people

 

and the turkey had time to stretch...

I had decided the night before that I wasn't going to race race this 5k even though I really wanted. I would have loved to see if I could hold a 7 minute pace for 3 miles, but I had signed M up for this with me and thought what would be the point of doing this as a family if I bolted ahead? 5k PR... another time I suppose. Plus wearing turkey hats was the high light of this race ... not PRing.



I think this is the chicken dance ....not turkey...

When the gun went off it was crowded and we just walked our way to start line trying to get ahead of baby strollers before we crossed the timing matt. With a race this big I really think baby strollers shouldn't be allowed or they need to start in the very back!

When we finally crossed the timing matt we began weaving in and out of people. With-in 2 minutes of the race a guy tripped over another person and wiped out! It looked like it really hurt. Kristine somehow found me and she came running up from behind and we chit chatted bit. I didn't want to hold her back, so off she went.

We hit mile one at a 9:22 pace. Not to bad for M considering he hasn't ran since the Baltimore Half .. tsk tsk!!!! As we continued to run I enjoyed watching the turkey on his head bop up and down as if it was saying "gobble, gobble."

Before we knew the two mile mark came up and we were right at 9:29. Wow I thought: "I really love easy runs and we only have 1 mile left." I tried pulling out my camera to take pictures while we were running, but it didn't seem to work out that great, I wonder why? I don't even know why I thought this was a good idea to begin with?

Once we were running back on Penn the finish line was getting closer and closer. I told M that he should try to negative split his run, but he didn't really know what that meant and we hit the 3 mile mark with a 9:36 split. Close enough I suppose. The last .1 (.16 on my watch) M decided to go balls to the wall and took off like a bat out of hell to make sure he crossed the finish line before me #mean. We finished, I mean I finished in 29:40.

Overall it was such a fun little race and I loved wearing the crazy hats! I think this is something that we will do every year now :)

Did you Turkey Trot yesterday? If so I hope you had as much fun as I did.

2 Things Wednesday

1. Yesterday I complained and complained how I didn't want to go for my 7 mile run in the rain. I really didn't want to skip my run though because I went on a bender last week and really almost did nothing at all. I made sure I complained on twitter because putting something on the internet means that people will know if I don't run, so I guess that was my motivation to get my butt out the door. It was raining and gross out but to my surprise it really wasn't that bad of a run! I only saw two other brave souls out there running and we just smiled at each other as we ran by. The most annoying part of this run was the tourists. Now I figured there really won't be too many out, but there still was and they were out there with their big fat umbrella blocking the entire side walk! Annoying. I was soaked when I got home, but I was happy.

 

 

2. I'm running the SOME Turkey Trot for Hunger 5k tomorrow.

 

 

I can't believe that there is going to be 7,000 runners there tomorrow!!! That is one crowded 5k! As much as I would love to run this 5k as fast as I can, I'm not going too. M and I got awesome turkey hats to wear at the race, so I will be sticking with M and running by his side all while trying to get awesome race photos. I haven't decided if we should run down (3 miles) to the start line or take the metro?

 

Happy Wednesday all and I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!