This morning I got up and ran the Turkey Trot in Dana Point, CA. We were down here for Thanksgiving. This race is a pretty big deal. The course is USATF certified, and it has over 4,000 runners. There were more than 10,000 runners total if you include the 5K. It runs around the Dana Point Harbor, so you run about as close as you can get to sea level. It had some minor hills (going over a small bridge). The weather was absolutely beautiful. So was the scenery. I went in with the goal to break 40:00. I had hoped to do that earlier this year but didn't even come close. But I felt really confident this time. I lined up about 200-300 people back because I hate to crowd people. But that was a mistake because I had to run around a lot of people in the first mile. But no big deal. I was trying to stay as close as I could to 6:00 pace for the first 3 miles and take it from there. Well, it worked out pretty well. My average pace was 6:15. That's great because 6:00 pace used to seem really scary and impossible. Now I feel like I can handle it better. One of the cool things about this race was that I competed against some other runners along the way. We kept trying to pass each other, and that kept us going. In the end, I had a small mental victory by holding them off at the end. Except a little kid that looked like he was 10 (was really 13). Sort of embarrassing, but my chip time was faster than his. :) This race showed me that I can go under 40. It also was encouraging because even though I gave it my best effort, I know I can keep going faster. I also admit that I liked the fact that I placed 64th out of 4000 runners. That means I beat about 1 out of every 62 runners. Not that I care that much about competing with them. Just that maybe I have some talent for this after all. Anyway, I'd love to do some more races like this. Oh, my Garmin showed it was 6.33 miles. I must not have hit the tangents well. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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