First of
all, it was so great getting to get out of the cold for a few days and head
down to Arizona to be in the warmth! The drive down had me a little worried
because my calves kept tightening up in the car and I was worried sitting
in a car for 10 hours the day before the race was going to jeopardize things.
The Mesa Turkey Trot 10K is one of my favorite races because of how well
organized it is and how much professionalism is present in everything they
do. This was my third year doing the
race so I knew there would be some decent competition there as well. As I made
my way to the starting line, I bumped into Golden Harper and he and I chatted a
bit. We were both going for around the same time so I knew I had someone to
work with.
As the
gun went off, I made my way to the front of the pack with ease. There were two
guys in the lead pack about 10 meters in front of the next pack which consisted
of me, Golden and a younger kid from the Yuma Track Club. We were all in a
single file line the whole first mile. I didn’t know what to think because
usually at this race there are guys going out blazing fast and so in my mind I
guess that’s what I thought was happening but in all reality, our first mile
was rather conservative: 5:38. As soon as we hit the mile mark, there was about
a group of 4 or 5 that went right around us. They were going a little faster
than what I could get my legs going and so over the second mile they put about
15 meters on me. By mile three I could feel myself getting into a groove and I
wasn’t losing distance anymore. The lead pack and the chase pack then dissolved
into one group over the next half mile or so until the eventual winner made his
move. The pack then blew up and stretched back out and I was able to catch a
couple of the guys. By mile 4 I was
starting to feel tightness in my hamstrings and I was just trying to put one
foot in front of the other and when I hit the 5 mile mark, my pace had slipped
back to a 6:07 mile. Thankfully, two runners came up beside me pushing hard and
I just gave it all I had to stick with them and let them pull me into the
finish.
Overall,
it was a fun race. I was pleased with how I faired and how my time turned out.
It was a bonus beating two females who were recognized over the microphone by
their qualifying for the Olympic Trials in the marathon and were decked out
(and I am assuming sponsored) by Brooks. I hadn’t really done any true
speedwork up to this point besides a couple of 20-minute tempo runs and just
800s kind of sporadic so the fact I set a new PR off of mainly mileage was a
good indicator that things are going in the right direction!
Time:
35:15
Overall:
8th out of 2000
Division:
1st in the 20-24 division
5:38-5:43-5:40-5:55-6:07-5:47
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