Turkey Trot

The Turkey Trot is a 10 mile race that I've wanted to do since moving to Wichita, but it falls so close to Willow's birthday, usually on her birthday weekend, that I've never actually done it.   This year though, we are doing her birthday party on her actual birthday during the week, so I decided to run the race!  I was especially excited since I missed the Prairie Fire Half last month.  I had plans to do that one, but when we got back from Washington, it was still so hot and humid here, it literally took me about 5 weeks before I could run 5 miles without feeling like I was dying.  I don't remember it taking me that long to acclimate before...I must be getting old.... So, I didn't have enough time to get my mileage bumped up before the actual race.  And 13.1 miles is a long enough race when you actually have trained and feel ready for it!

I gave myself about a month to train for the Turkey Trot.  I'd been running up to 5 miles pretty consistently and felt good about that distance again, and I ran with my running group once when they met early and ran 6.5 miles.  But the rest of the time I trained by myself, and did a couple long runs of 7 and 9 miles.  And so mentally going into this race, I was ready to run it by myself, and I really didn't feel the need to push myself or beat any time.  I was just planning on taking it as a nice 10 mile jog. (does a nice 10 mile jog exist????)  Thankfully Royal bought me a new iPod Nano for our anniversary after I accidentally sent my old one through the washing machine, and I got some new music recommendations from Jordan so I felt like I was ready to go bust it out.

I knew a couple people, mostly from Mommy Movement Fitness, who were going to run today too, and met up with them at the beginning of the race.

 The person on the far left, is Jayne, and she is actually Willow's swim teacher!  Then on the other side of me is Kristen, and Stacy, and Tonya. 

The race actually felt pretty good.  I'd heard warnings that the beginning was super crowded and to be prepared to be frustrated for a good couple miles until it spaced out.  But it wasn't so bad.  There was some jostling around, but they had shut down the roads so we weren't all crammed up on the sidewalks and running paths.  Jayne took off like a rocket at the beginning of the race, so we lost her real early.  Then we lost Kristen and Stacy when we ran past Tonya's car and she jetted off to throw her phone in it.  I also ran into a couple of my neighbors in the middle of the race.  I almost felt like my dad, waving and saying hi to all these people, he would of been so proud.  :)  Tonya and I ended up running the whole thing together, and if you've ever run with Tonya, or worked out with her for that matter (worked out with her, not when she's teaching!), all she does is talk!  It was really nice to have someone to talk to and pull you along when your legs start trying to slow down.  Well, we ran together until like mile 9, when she started trying to keep up with a bunch of teenagers and well I just couldn't maintain an 8 minute mile after logging 9, so I put my earbuds in to try and help me pick up the pace for the last mile.  And this always seems to happen, a certain song comes on at just the right part of the race and I'm like, "Yes! That is how I am feeling right now!"  And even though I am so sick of listening to the song, I never take it out of my running playlist for the very purpose.  The song that started blaring in my ears right as I put my earbuds in around mile 9.25.....Misery by Maroon 5.  "I'm in misery, and there ain't nobody who can comfort me"  Oh yeah.  In case you were wondering, that is pretty much what mile 9 feels like.

But I finished with a time of 1:35, which is about a 9:20 minute mile, which is about average for me for this distance.  I didn't try and push myself too hard and when I got done I still felt really good.  Other than my legs were a wee bit more tired than when I started.   So, it pretty much was a nice easy 10 mile jog!