Turkey Trot 5K

It was a blustery cold November morning. A morning that most people would have preferred to stay under cover in their warm beds. Only the brave or crazy would subject themselves to these frigid temperatures to test their running speed and skills against others.

I had lowered my finishing time expectations for this race because of the cold temperatures. I have not done many cold air runs yet this year and if I am not acclimated in tends to really bother my lungs. I set my original goal at 22 minutes, then adjusted it to 22:30 after I had seen the weather report.

On the morning of race day I felt great. We were to start in front of the high school, luckily we could stay inside before the race to keep warm. 10 minutes before race start I stepped outside to warm up a bit and get the blood flowing. It was COLD! I was really hoping that my body would warm up as I ran. Anyway - let's just skip ahead  to the start.

Nobody seemed to want to toe the front line, I figured what the hell and got up there. When they started the race of course a huge group of young kids took off like they were running the 100 yard dash, and that's about as far as they led the race. I quickly found a good solid pace behind some young crazy kid in front that was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I was cold in my layers and gloves, I cannot imagine how cold he had to be! Running a 5K is such a beast because it is almost like running all out for 20 minutes. It hurts and you don't have a lot of room for error. I felt like I kept a solid pace right behind the race leader for most of the way. He was not pulling away and I had no desire to try to push the pace with him. At the first turnaround we both had a pretty decent lead on the pack behind us but there was a lot of race left at that point. At about the halfway point I started hearing some footsteps behind me and was passed by another guy but nobody else was even close. I kept the two leaders close but knew that I didn't have enough to take them. The distance actually seemed to go by quickly and we were soon on the last stretch. We all poured it on to the end and I finished 3rd overall finishing in 20:46. I was very pleased with my race performance. I didn't feel like I had gone out too fast and considering the weather conditions, I felt like I gave it what I had on this particular day. It was a pretty cool feeling for me to finish 7 seconds behind the winner, not bad for a 41 year old!

Here is a short video of the finish taken by professional videographer and wife Corrin. This will give you an idea of how close I was to finishing first. I will be back for revenge!

On a side note, this race was a great community event and I was also able to meet fellow Daily Mile runner Sara and her husband. Yes, it is true, I was not the first DM'er in Bethany Missouri. Daily Mile is everywhere!