I believe a new tradition has started. As I've posted before, I've only been running since Spring of 2010. But in the previous two years, never participated in the annual Turkey Trot, held in cities and towns all across the country on Thanksgiving day.
My wife and I ran the CenturyLink Turkey Trot in Carlisle PA, a city known to many for its Army War College, Car Shows, or simply a stop along the PA Turnpike or I-81.
10K, 5K and 5K walker divisions were offered, winding through the sleepy residential streets southwest of the city center. Around 2000 participants joined us on the chilly (around 40F), but beautifully sunny morning to get their pre-turkey workout in.
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| Warming up on the alleys of Carlisle |
I had actually never run a 10K before, so I knew this would be a "PR" and I just wanted to average around a 7:00 per mile by breaking the race into 3, 2 mile stretches each progressively quicker. My pacing didn't turn out that way, but in the end I did manage to average exactly a 7:00 mile based on my RunKeeper activity. I was happy to cross the finish line after the seriously flat course and get to stuffing my face with Thanksgiving food yumminess.
But the chip timing on the course was a different story, clocking me in at 42:01 earning 33rd place and 5th in my age division. As I punch the numbers into the handy dandy Cool Running Pace Calculator, I actually averaged a 6:45 pace....what? I don't know exactly why there was such a big difference in measured distances, but I'd like to attribute it to my constant attention to my chosen line during the race, in a effort to run the shortest distance possible (tips from a recent read of an old DC Rainmaker post must have been bouncing around in my head).
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| Coming down the homestretch |
Along with the flat course and fun holiday atmosphere, the race was an amazing value: providing a long sleeve tech shirt and chip timing for only 23 bucks! My wife also PR'd it, knocking 5 minutes off her time from the Hershey 10K back in April.
Our next race is our already established tradition of the Jingle Bell Run 5K, and I'm hoping to clock in sub 20 minutes in this year's edition. Hopefully I won't gain too much weight over this holiday weekend; I've got a time to hit in 2 weeks!
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| Race over...let's eat! |
Awesome socks
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