An “Iron Turkey” run

A local running store (Tortoise and Hare -  http://tortoiseandhare.com/) sponsored a Thanksgiving Day/Veterans Day run this past weekend at a local metropark and offered up a 5K and a 10K race (www.a2turkeytrot.com).  But to make things interesting, they staggered the starts so that runners could run the 5K race and then line up to run the 10K event as well, and if you completed both events you would be awarded an “Iron Turkey” race medal (and be the envy of the running community….).   So naturally, I had to sign up for this.

I figured that since I was probably going to run 8 or nine miles on that day anyway, I may as well contribute an entry fee for a good cause (a couple of different veterans organizations), and get another t-shirt.  And it was fun.

The way it worked is that the 5K started at 9AM and the 10K would start an hour later.  Out of the 1400 or so people that signed up for either the 5K or 10K event, only about 300 ran both events (which kind of surprised me….).   I planned on running an easy but aggressive (now there is an oxymoron) 5K, finishing somewhere between 27 and 30 minutes.   That would give me 30 minutes to rest a bit before lining up for the 10K, which I would want to run a bit harder.

I wound up doing the 5K in 27:13 (a 8:47 min/mile pace).  I then did the 10K in 52:27 (a 8:28 min/mile pace) and I was really happy with that.  I was hoping for less than 52 minutes, but it didn’t happen (I got a little screwed up with my timing and made a math mistake while calculating my pace during the run).   Overall, for the “Iron Turkey” I was 99 out of 304.  Separately in both the 5K and the 10K I managed to be in the top third overall.

I am still very frustrated with regards to speed and my inability to place higher in my age group.  For the 10K I placed 13 out of 35 runners (in the 50-54 age group) – which is ok I guess, but for comparison, the top three positions in that age group were 53, 53, and 51 years old respectively and they all ran 6:xx min/mile.  They literally finished 10+ minutes ahead of me.  How do they get to be so fast?

In conversation with a guy who came in first in the 55-59 age group in the 5K event, he explained to me that many of the guys in our generation era were high school track runners, and so they learned at an early age the subtleties of running fast.  His advice to me was to stay healthy and continue to work on speed, but most importantly: stay healthy.

The only thing of particular note that happened during either event occurred during the 5K.  Around Mile 2 there was a guy coming up behind me that seemed to be yelling at people.  First I need to explain that the race was along a park path, which given the number of participants, was somewhat narrow (10 feet wide) and sometimes in order to pass slower runners it was necessary to run on the dirt or grass – no biggie – in fact I took to running on the grass when possible since it was softer than the asphalt.  But this guy coming up behind me was yelling at people to get out of his way as he passed them and clearly did not want to run off the path. He was huffing and puffing and being, in general, just a nasty asshole.   My first inclination was to not let this bonehead pass me – I had the juice – but I decided to continue to run my race plan.  As this guy came abreast of me I asked him why he had to be such a rude  asshole – and he just sort of looked at me like I had 2 heads and huffed and puffed his way past me.

I kept my eye on him, and as we got closer to the finish line I was speeding up, and so he never really got that far ahead of me.  On the final straight stretch I finally decided that enough was enough; I dug deep and I went into a full out sprint, running as hard as I could for the finish line.  I passed him about 30 feet from the finish line and whispered something like “see ya” and finished ahead of him.  He was huffing and puffing so hard I’m not sure that he even noticed me, but after the finish, as we were all milling around, he kept looking at me funny and I just let him be.  I was tempted to go over and talk to him, but didn’t….  perhaps a missed opportunity for something. 

Unfortunately, my right knee and left ankle are bothering me – and it bugs me because I don’t really know why.  I’ll baby them for a day or two.  In the meantime, I need to find a new event to run!