Turkey Trot Fail

I knew Thanksgiving morning that it was going to be tough to beat my time last year. Last year, conditions were perfect. It was cold and dry then, and I had to wear a sweatshirt before the race started. This year, that wasn't the case. It wasn't exactly warm, but I was comfortable in shorts and T-shirt. Also, it was sticky. There was fog on the drive down to the start, and you could feel the moisture in the air. I knew that would slow me down. Also, I was still a little weak from Tuesday's awesome run.

I thought I was only a block or so from the start, but somehow I didn't end up crossing the start line until 14 minutes after the race started. I was waiting on a cross street so I didn't actually see what was going on at the start line. Maybe runners were merging in from somewhere else because the waiting runners I eventually joined weren't even inching closer to the start line for ten minutes or so. In any case, I needed to be a lot farther up because most of the people I started with were walkers. I did my best to dodge them, using the sidewalk down 6th street whenever I could, and maintained as fast a pace as I could, which came out to be an 8 minute mile pace. Not bad considering the traffic, but I imagine I expended a bit more energy than an 8 minute mile pace by myself. Keeping up this pace would've broke my time from last year, but after 2 miles I couldn't do it anymore.

I'm not disappointed that I couldn't break my record this year, but I am disappointed that I gave up so completely (significant walking after 2 miles, resulting in a time of 48:35). I may have ended up with a better time had I not set that goal, as I wouldn't have started out as fast and wouldn't have said "screw it" after realizing I couldn't keep it up. I felt great after my five miles on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to running at a faster pace outdoors this winter.