RT Turkey Run 5 Miler
Saturday, November 24, 2007
2007 RT Turkey Run results
The short version:
Not one but two PRs today!
1st, a PR for my mile split - 8:42, the fastest I've ever run a mile in almost 11 years of running(granted, much of this particular mile was downhill, but I take these victories wherever I can find them!)
2nd, a PR for this race - 48:38, almost 6 minutes faster than my time last year (OK, last year I was recovering from my mid-August bike crash... but see my comment above.) Not to mention an average pace of 9:44 per mile... a pretty darn good pace for me at this distance!
The not-so-short version:
Last year the Saturday after Thanksgiving was warm and sunny - so much so that I ended up wishing I'd worn a short-sleeved T-shirt for this race! This year was a bit of a contrast to that - grey, windy, and COLD, with a thin layer of snow on the ground! I got to the beach parking lot at Mendon and at check-in had the unpleasant surprise that they either hadn't received or hadn't recorded my pre-registration... BUT to their credit, not once did the fellow behind the table question whether or not I'd really registered. Instead, he got a race number and a T-shirt for me and apologized profusely for their mistake. Now that's class! After visiting the Porta-Potties, I wandered around for a bit taking pictures and supposedly "warming up" (not an easy thing to do when a damp cold wind is blowing and it's about 30 degrees out...!) Then I made the tough choice of what to wear - went with tights, shorts, a long-sleeved shirt, fleece vest, gloves, and earband. After gearing up I sat in the car for a bit, until a few minutes before it was time to start. We all hiked up to the road and stood around shivering while the last stragglers made their way to the start. Thankfully the RD's comments were very brief and then we were running!
The first two miles were along the road through the park, and we had a pretty stiff headwind pretty much all the way. I was cold enough for much of those two miles that I began to wonder if I'd made a major mis-step and should have worn a fleece top. I pushed the first mile a lot harder than I usually would, mainly because I was trying to warm up! Fortunately, much of it was downhill, and as I said at the start of this post I was very surprised to hit the first mile marker in 8 min 42 sec. That added an extra level of stress - I knew I couldn't run the entire 5 miles at that pace, and I wondered if I'd burned up so much energy at the start that I'd end up crashing somewhere around mile 4. So I eased back a bit, and hit the mile 2 marker about 9 1/2 minutes later - a much more reasonable pace!
Just after the 2 mile mark the course left the road and followed a wide, flat trail along the shore of Deep Pond. It felt good to be running on dirt instead of pavement, and it was especially nice to have fairly solid footing after the incredibly muddy race I did at Mendon 6 months ago. Just before we reached the causeway between the two ponds, we took a sharp left to climb the extremely steep Cardiac Hill... that was tough going! Once at the top of the esker, we followed a rolling trail with the Devil's Bathtub pond far below us on one side and trails leading back down to the Hundred Acre Pond on the other. I actually found the trail section a bit challenging - between the leaves and snow covering the trail, footing wasn't nearly as visible as I would have liked. So I pushed myself, but I know my pace dropped off a bit. I was also a bit uncomfortable because I'd apparently overhydrated that morning, and there really wasn't anywhere I was comfortble dodging off into the leafless bushes!
We finally came out on another road, right near the edge of the park, and began the slightly less than 2 mile haul to the finish. I started pushing harder to try and pass some of the folks in front of me, and after we turned onto Canfield Road and I knew that (1) the finish was a little over half a mile away, and (2) there were a couple of gradual hills up ahead, I picked up the pace as much as I could and managed to pass four other runners who'd passed me earlier in the race (I like passing people on uphills because they don't typically try to give chase!) The last quarter mile was tough - my legs were toast and I could barely breath - but I managed to hold off the folks behind me and crossed the finish in a little over 48 minutes, for a very respectable 9:44 pace - not the fastest pace I've run this fall, but my best since 1998 for this kind of distance.
I was slightly disappointed to learn that they were only giving gloves out to the top 10% in each age group this year, but only slightly - I've got lots of gloves. Hobbled over to the food table and snagged a couple of bagels, then hobbled back to the car, with a serious cramp in my left shin and my legs generally hollering at me for what I'd put them through. Given the cold weather and my cranky limbs, I decided to forego stopping at some other points in the park to snap pictures and headed straight home, where a warm shower and a hot lunch awaited me.
So that makes 6 races at Mendon Ponds this year... definitely a great spot to run and ride, and one I'm sure I'll be racing in repeatedly in 2008.
Next up: Gail's Trail Run, a 10k run on the Leatherman's Loop course at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Westchester... I love the course but hate the crowds at the April race, which is why I'm glad I found out about this fundraising run (the proceeds are donated to a group that does pancreatic cancer research) which has a much smaller turnout... even if the two stream crossings are a bit cold in early December...
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 292.9 mi, 67 hr 58 min
Cycling 72.2 mi, 5 hr 15 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT
