Saturday, November 9, 2013

39th Annual Longmont Turkey Trot 10k Race Report - Longmont, Colorado


38:04, 12th Place, 2nd AG

It's hard not to do this race. Partly, because I have absolutely no excuse as it's only a 10min jog from the house.  With no need to drive, being able to do my warm up on the way over and knowing the course like the back of my hand makes it a must do.  Plus, there is a chance of winning a pie if you place in your AG and running for pie is almost as motivating as running for a PB these days.

Last year I ran 37:54 in a stacked field and was really happy with the time even though the placing was way down the field.  It was my fastest 10k at altitude and during a really good block of training for CIM before the wheels came off a couple of weeks later with an injury.  With training going well, I was hoping for something similar this year if the conditions were good.



I'd been fighting the beginnings of a cold all week but didn't feel it was really holding me back as training was still going ok even though the legs had felt tired since the weekend track session.  One thing I've noticed through the years is that if you are feeling slightly 'off' the way you can tell is by really erratic pacing while racing.  Last year, I went through the first 3 miles at almost exactly 6min flat for each.  This year we started with a 6:20, then a 5:50 then a 6:07 and a 5:58.  Up down, up down.  The conditions were fairly similar and while my effort felt even the mental games it was playing on me were no fun at all.

At least I was running through the field until Charles caught me at mile 5 right as I was having my worst patch.  Two other runners went by and as we turned for the last half mile there was a group of 5 or so within 50m of each other.  Fortunately, my finishing speed has been good and I was motivated by Felix and Wendy waiting at the finish, I was able to claw back all the passers and managed to join up with Charles for a joint finish in the last 10 yards.  Not quite as good as Mike Cassidy and Meb Keflezghi at the New York marathon but a close second :-) I could have seen us sprinting it out, but I don't think either of us had the energy for it and it is a Turkey Trot after all!



Was hoping to go under 38 mins but happy enough with the time all things considered.  Will be interesting to see how the next few weeks of training go and if this is exactly where my fitness is.  Looking at the McMillan Calculator based on the last 5k it is pretty much spot on and that's usually a great gauge of what I can look for in the shorter races.

The pie result turned out to be a cheesecake result!  What a fantastic one it was too and great job to the awesome folks at Button Rock Bakery for supplying the goods.  Here's a picture of the aftermath.


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