Thursday, November 22, 2012

Prospect Park Track Club 5M Turkey Trot: Recap

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am still in a slight state of shock that it is nearing the end of the year. I feel like just yesterday I was saying that I was in shock that summer had come to an end.

I am so not prepared for the cold and winter though. Big UGH. And for some reason I do not think that we are going to luck out with such a mild winter as last year.

Anyways. This week (and it was a short week at that) was bananas. After the high of my long training run on Sunday; Monday was off with a bang.

Work was full of meetings, on top of which, I was heading to Baltimore in the afternoon for meetings all Tuesday with our consulting firm. Penn Station the week of Thanksgiving is just a nightmare. But traveling by the Acela is always welcome. My time down there was limited as I was back home by 7pm on Tuesday. I have a feeling trips like this are going to become more of the norm for me. But the good news was that work being so busy meant that Wednesday flew by and a 5 day weekend was upon me (you know, with bringing work home, but whatevs, at least I don't have to go to the office and can work at my leisure as needed!).

While most everyone woke up this morning with thoughts of eating ungodly amounts of food; I woke up this morning to this:


Muahaha I crack myself up. Waking up at the crack of dawn on a day off? Nothing unusual about that. We had signed up for the NYC Runs / PPTC 5 Mile Turkey Trot run in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

Now it was exciting to be running in unfamiliar territory since so many races are NYRR and run in Central Park; but seriously, logistically not the WISEST choice for Thanksgiving morning.

Meant had to be out the door and on a bus by 7am to ensure that we arrived with enough time to pick up our race numbers and get situated. And, oh yeah, miss all that craziness associated with the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Minor detail.

Thankfully it was actually pretty easy and uneventful albeit longish. I left home at 6:45 and we arrived in Prospect Park at a 8:15 or so. A miracle for us since we tend to arrive to races as they are starting. It's always more fun to add the frenzy of missing the race start to the actual race.

Anywho, it was a brisk morning but clear and gorgeous. I had forgotten just how nice Prospect Park is. We arrived and walked to pick up our race bibs, and also received embroidered fleece convertible neck warmers/headbands/hats which I thought were a nice giveaway! Shirts can get old. I have so many (note to self time to donate). We had plenty of time to pin our bibs, walk to bag drop, use the bathrooms and head to the start with time to spare.


We are not the only ones ready to Trot!
Happy Runners!!!

We placed ourselves as close to the front as we thought was good considering neither of us planned to run all out, but there were about 2,500 runners registered and no pacing groups so we really just had to wing it. And oh yeah, this is supposed to be a "fun run" a "turkey trot" right, sure, I will try to not be competitive, duly noted.

There was no fanfare (no National Anthem - I thought kind of random on a National Holiday?) just the shot gun start and we were off!

As we started I was feeling a little lethargic. I should also start learning to warm up to run instead of using the beginning of the race as a warmup. I think that is an alright approach for a half marathon and distance; but these 4/5 Mile and 10K's I should probably work on doing some strides etc.

I still hadn't decided what my race strategy was...my old 5 Mile time is pretty awful something like just under 50 minutes so I knew I would most likely PR regardless of how I decided to run it.

Then I finished my first mile in 8:53 and I decided; game on. Let's do this. And I started racing. The course was pretty nice, the park is scenic and I was enjoying myself. My stomach was feeling okay as well which is always a welcome change! I was keeping up a good pace then enter the hill I think around mile 2.5 or so; maybe sooner. That sucker definitely slowed me down. But it was just a 5 miler, no reason to not push with shorter races I am trying to take the mentality of push push push; the worst that happens is you bonk out and slow down. Not like I won't finish.

My mile 3 split was exactly 9 minutes darn hill. But after that hill it was smooth sailing. I decided once it was over to pick up the pace and after settling in to something mildly uncomfortable to check my gps and try to keep that.

Mile 4 was run in 8:07 and then Mile 5 in 8:13! I was trucking along and man it felt GOOD! I am getting there, I am getting speedier!

I don't have the "official" results but this is according to my handy Garmin:

Stupid hill. Messing up my pace. Argh.
PR! Yay. Kind of angry I didn't decide to race from the beginning but I also went in with no strategy so cannot be upset with the end result. Or with the sweet medal. Medals make every holiday awesome!

Will run for medals.
Overall, I think every holiday should be celebrated with a race. But that is just my humble opinion ;-)

Today I am thankful not only for an amazing family and to be blessed with such success this year; but also for PR's and friends who are just as crazy as myself as to get up at the crack of dawn to travel for over an hour to go run 5 miles on a holiday.

This year has been absolutely amazing to me. I have worked my ass off and today I am reminded that hard work, goals and taking your happiness into your own hands will come with generous rewards; both professionally and personally (obviously speaking in relation to my running success I have found).

I have big aspirations for myself and know that if I continue to work hard that only good can continue to come my way.

I absolutely love my life and wouldn't change any of it for the world. Here is hoping that the next year only brings continued love and success.

2 comments:

  1. Nice medal! At first I thought that it would be just a piece of plastic but it's actually metallic and has a nice weight to it. Check out the photos at

    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151310341481335.525837.679001334&type=1

    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4939017199235.2198127.1412797762&type=1

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    Replies
    1. It is a great medal! And a really nice run, beautiful day, love the park - I was glad I made the journey to go run it.

      Thanks for sharing the photos!

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