On Thursday morning, I ran my first Turkey Trot. Yup, that is right, I said my first one ever. I have always been in school and could never actually make time for a Turkey Trot - I know it is a sin. But this year, all of that finally changed and I was able to take part in a Turkey Trot.
I had not put too much weight into this trot. But Wednesday night I began feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing. Maybe it was because I had dismissed it so easily or maybe because it was supposed to be freezing out, but I started to get pretty nervous. But in a 4 mile race not too much time for nerves and before I knew it, it was Thursday morning and Aaron and our favorite pink loving cousin and her boyfriend, Kyle, were off to Cambridge. I am not sure Aaron and Kyle were too thrilled about the whole thing, but they were good sports and we found a Starbucks to hang out before the race. Hot chocolate made the boys happy, real, warm bathrooms made my bladder happy win-win. I give a major plus to any race that allows me to use a real bathroom and stay warm before the race. Also we got an awesome parking spot at the street right at the start and we were not blocked in at the end and could leave right away because conveniently our car was also right at the end of the race too.
Around 8:45, we headed outside. I gave Brenna a little pep talk here. She is a run/walker and such a chilled out runner. It is amazing. I am so impressed, I wish I could relax sometimes while running but then I go super competitive and you know. Anyway, here I am trying to bring Brenna to the dark side telling her to just run as long as she could without walking and her telling me it would mess up her place list. Valid point. Afterwards, she told me she tried, but then she saw hills and was like no. Valid.
Team Sparkle smart ass at her best ;)
Here we are stretching but more important look at Brenna's awesome pink tights!
Brenna and I lined up about 10 rows deep. There were about 2000 runners, pretty big for a local race I thought, and we did not want to get stuck in the back among the turkeys and pilgrims...I am serious people were decked out in all sorts of awesome for this race. Next year, Brenna and I are going in style.
The start of the race went like this. We are all standing around and then I hear Brenna say are we starting? And then all these people just start running out of nowhere and I get pushed and almost fall to the ground. Seriously?!!? This is a TURKEY TROT PEOPLE! Is this really necessary?!?
After that, I was pretty pissed, overwhelmed, and amazed for the first mile. This was the first race I feel like that I have been in where there are just so many people all around me gunning it. Maybe it was because it was a short race or maybe because I wasin the front of the pack but it was the first time I felt like people were not just trying to beat their PRs but also win the thing. I absolutely got caught up in this craziness and saw some 6:51s flashing on my Garmin (give me a break we were going downhill and I was cold, no gloves!).
With my legs still recovering from the marathon, I did not know what they were going to do for this race. I was trying to strategize with Robin beforehand on how to go and she told me not to sell myself short. I remembered this the whole 4 miles along with Dorothy's Dream Big. They both helped a ton because there were some serious hills in this race, actually the whole time we were either going up or down a hill, great (Vegas flatness here I come). Sometimes, I think it is just me. That I think everything is a hill. I feel so much better when other people agree, so yesterday when I talked to a friend that works at my local running store who will be running Boston for his 6th year this year and he also agreed it was hilly, I felt much better (how awful is that - if it is a hill to me, it is a hill darnit!)
So how did this race go overall? Well I successfully rocked the positive splits (oopps) and went out too fast. I am not disappointed though. I pushed myself. It was hard. And I will continue to push myself and get faster! I am not really sure how the timing ended up, I passed the two mile marker at 13:52 and my Garmin ended the race at 30:09 (official time 30:14 - ugh), but my Garmin splits don't represent that....who knows?!?
By the end of the race, I was totally done. No side cramps though!!! Only the regular, I am going so fast I want to vomit, which I just see as an indication that I am working hard...such a great metric system, I know...The end of this race was so disappointing, I pushed as hard I could but I had hardly anything left. I watch the clock tick 29:58 and knew there was no way I could there in under 30:00 because I was still several seconds away. It was defeating but it also pushed me to get through and keep go to get the best time I could.
Look, I am running so hard, I am flying. Are my feet eve touching the ground here?!?
Still flying..nope I don't touch the ground..
Finish line you could not be close enough!
Dear Aaron, how do you even rock these awesome shots!
When I finished, I keeled over to catch my breath and then I ran into a Dunkin Donuts. I decided not to wear gloves for this race and the results were not pretty. I have really bad circulation to my fingers and little gloves do nothing, which means ski gloves are my only answer. Even Hand Warmers do nothing for me. I did not want to have use the big bulky gloves and it was not that bad out so I sucked it up. During the race, I was fine. But as soon as I finished, my hands hurt so much I wanted to faint. So I snuck into a Dunkin Donuts and watched as people starred at me as I tried to warm up. Seriously! People were starring. I think they were thinking that crazy girl, why did she just do this. WHY NOT?!?! Come on people, don't you want to get up early on your day off and run in the freezing cold, I know I do....
And that is that. 1st Turkey Trot ever is over and pretty successful if you ask me. How did all your Turkey Trots go? Do people ever stare at you after races like you are crazy? Gloves or no gloves?
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