Threepeat at the Spectrum Academy Turkey Trot 5k (1.5 warmup, 1.1 cooldown)! I wanted to run as easy as possible to win, and I apparently went harder than I needed to, but that's fine, as it didn't feel hard. The race was a lot bigger this year, partly thanks to the addition of a 10k, and there was a huge high school team there that I thought might push me, but it turns out that they were all slow. Before the race, I heard a couple of the high school kids making some crude comments about my admittedly short galaxy-print shorts, so I decided to try my best to just bury them right off the line. I took it out at about 5 flat pace for the first 20 seconds just to see if anyone would go with me, and was easily in the lead. The only guy that seemed likely to try to hold on was an older guy, so I ran just fast enough to stay in front of him at that point.
First mile was a 5:37, and it felt easy, which was surprising since I haven't done anything fast in months. Now that I think about it, this may have been my first sub-5:59 mile in 2 months, so I'm glad I wasn't straining at the pace. When we turned onto the Legacy Parkway trail, we hit a strong headwind, so I kept the effort the same to stay in front, but the pace slowed to the mid-high 5:40s. I figured that if he didn't make a move before the turnaround (a bit more than halfway, since the connection to the trail on the way out was shorter than the connection from the trail on the way back), I could easily win, as I wasn't really pushing and could power home the last mile if necessary.
Surprisingly, I hit the halfway, turned around, passed him 5 seconds later (comfortable 10 second lead, just like I wanted), and he gave me a high five. I was surprised to receive a high five from a competitor, so I looked back and saw him keep going, meaning that he was in the 10k and I hadn't needed to race him to win. Hah. At this point, nobody else was within 30 seconds, so I kept the pace the same in the remainder of mile 2, easier with a tailwind at this point, and then kept the same mid-high 5:40s on the 3rd mile (would've been a crosswind, but didn't feel it, as I the foot path runs next to a fence). The course measured 3.14, and I was told that they had moved the turnaround point for some reason, so it was a little long according to them and my GPS was spot on. My split for 5k on the garmin, which probably was accurate, was 17:39, and I never felt like I was hurting too much, so I think that's a good sign. By the end of the race, I won by about 75 seconds, and the fastest high school kid was 2 minutes back. Funny how it works out sometimes. Apparently, the 10k winner had thought he might be racing me in his distance, so he also backed off after I turned around, hitting the 5k in 18:10 and the 10k in 37:xx. I think we were both relieved to not have to actually race anyone hard after 1.6x miles.
After the race, another runner asked how old I was and guessed that I was 15. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty certain that, having reached the age of 27 and constantly sporting a light beard, I really don't look 15. Anyway, it gave me a laugh.
I guess I'll have to go back next year for round 4! This course is super flat, so I keep saying that I'm going to make sure I'm in shape one of these years and really go for a fast time, but the course is never quite accurate (2.85 the first year, not sure the second year, as I forgot my watch, but I handily beat some 17:xx guys with an 18:07 that felt harder than it should've, and then 3.14 this year), so if I'm just in moderate shape again next year and get another win, I'll be happy.
| 