Race Report: Turkey Trot

Karolina and I decided to continue our Thanksgiving tradition of running a 5k the morning before the feast. The past couple years we've raced the VA Run Turkey Trot in Centerville, VA and decided to do it again with some friends.

The first time we did the race was back in 2004 when we came home to visit my parents. Karolina and I were working in Thailand at the time and went into the event hoping for a fun race. The majority of my training in Thailand was on a treadmill at that point and I hadn't raced a 5k in years. I remember taking it out in 6:45 and slowing down dramatically as the pain seared through me. The highlight of the day was Karolina's race. It marked her first race ever and beginning of her running/triathlon career.

2004 Result -- 22:50

In 2007 this race marked my 'return' to training after taking a month off (following my Marine Corp marathon melt down). Once again I took it out hard and tried to hold on. My lack of training showed and the final mile was another burn session.

Mile 1 6:27 HR 158
Mile 2 6:39 HR 177
Mile 3 6:50 HR 180
Mile 3.1 0:52 HR 184

2007 Result -- 20:51 HR 172

This year I went in without any expectations. My stretch goal was to run sub 19 but my lack of speed workouts hurt my confidence. The main difference between this race and previous efforts was a more extensive warm up. I got in over 2.5 miles of warm up with strides before the race. I decided to take it out hard but hold back a little before opening it up after the one hill at 2.5KM. The race went well overall. I ran with Dan O'Connell for the first couple miles before he slowly pulled away. Dan would go on to run 18:52 which is an awesome time given his recent IT band issues. I ran well within myself and was pleased with my final time of 19:23. I was also excited to see my buddy Shawn Clark ran an awesome PR of 19:57. Mikey Orton killed it like usual in 17:17.

Mile 1 5:56 HR 170
Mile 2 6:19 HR 179
Mile 3 6:24 HR 180
Mile 3.1 0:45 HR 184

2008 Result -- 19:23 HR: 176

The results show some interesting data.
- In 2008 my starting HR was much higher than 2007. This is largely due to getting in a solid warm up where the previous year had little to no warm up.
- The delta between mile 1 and 3 was 23 seconds in 2007 and 28 seconds in 2008 -- very similar.
- The average and max HR data was very close. The averages were nearly identical both years over miles 2 and 3. I clearly max out in the low to mid 180s.

Overall it was a great day for racing. Karolina and I had a blast and really enjoyed the event. I saw some great friends there including Brad Pigage, Jason Goyanko, Jill Coleman, Shawn and Julie Clark, and el'presidente Keith Bohnenberger.

I couldn't have asked for a better start to Thanksgiving with family and friends.