Race Report - Turkey Trot 5K

This morning, Sophie and I hit the road early to pick up Jim, and then trade Mac for Sophie in North Branch. Mac's wife agreed (in a moment of weakness, I'm sure), to watch Sophie along with her little MacKenna, so we were set. We headed to Como Park with plenty of time to spare. Of course, even though this is the fifth year I've ran this race, I still couldn't remember which roads to turn on to get to the elementary school, so we wasted a good 10 minutes with me swearing about the twisty turny roads. But still hade plenty of time to register and picked up my t-shirt (gotta get my Thanksgiving wardrobe set).

My goal was to break 25:00 minutes today, but as we got ready to start, I just wasn't feeling it. I've had a little stomach bug all weekend and just felt off. So I decided I would just do the best I could and save my sub-25:00 goal for Saturday's Jingle Bell 5K. When the race started, I took off at what felt like an easy pace. The first mile felt pretty slow, and I was shocked to look at my watch (yes, I actually remembered to wear it) at the mile marker and see 7:52. It occurred to me that sub-25:00 might not be out of reach. I decided to just try to maintain that pace and see how things worked out.

Mile 2: 15:52. I still felt strong, and the pace felt good. About a 1/2 mile from the finish, I could feel my shoelace loosening up. This has been a recurrent problem with my current shoes. It wasn't long and the damn thing was completely untied. I knew I was on track to meet my goal, so I refused to stop to tie it. Of course, knowing that it was untied held me back a little, especially at the end. By that time, my shoe was kind of flopping around on my foot and I was convinced that it was going to fall off. I really did not want to fall on my face today. When I finally came down the final stretch and could see the clock, I saw that it was 24:30. I knew I could make it . . . and finished in 24:52. Third PR in a row!

And after the race? Chipotle. Yum.