Turkey Trot Tune-Up Race! We had a pretty good crew come out this morning to race - James, Fritz, Sandy, Bryan, Chad Robinson, Jake, and myself. Cheering crew included sick Allie, Chad's wife, and Amy. Jake and I got there a little early to find leaves blown all over one of the turns, so we spend 15 minutes kicking the leaving off the first lane, wishing we had a broom. I'm just glad that it wasn't icy! The weather was actually pretty warm (~48 degrees) but a significant wind from the south at 15 mph. The rain never came :) After warming up and doing a few strides, Allie did the official start. I think everyone went out a little too fast this morning, hoping that the wind wouldn't make a big difference. Unfortunately, I think that wind cost us all about 20-30 seconds - definitely not a PR day! But still good to get in a hard effort. I came into the race going for sub-18. This is far from what I am capable of right now, but the fast pace seems to irritate my hamstring tendon and the posterior tibialis tendon has been acting up. Basically, I didn't want to do anything stupid and get myself hurt over a 5k. Well, the competitive edge took over me in the first mile and I went out in 5:31. I was feeling really good up to that point and thought maybe I should just go for a PR. Not my brightest idea! My hamstring started to act up right after that mile, so I slowed it down to not make it worse. Second mile was 6:02. I still wanted to hit that sub-18 as long as I wasn't causing additional damage. I picked it up the last mile a little to get just under 18 minutes. Final time was 17:58. In hindsight, I should've stuck to my original plan of going out slow and picking it up if I felt fine but oh well. At least I was smart enough to slow down after the mile and don't think there should be residual effects. Overall, it was a fun event and nice to be able to call people on the blog "friends" instead of just "internet friends"! Pics of the crew here.
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