Troy Turkey Troy

The race was so-so.  I didn’t crash and burn and I beat my 10K PR by 14 seconds (chip time).  Not too bad considering my training has been so light (and thank goodness for flat courses).

The 10K was as 10:30 am (awkard start time!) right after the 5K which was at 9:30.  We actually had to wait a bit until the last of the runners were moved to the side of the course.  The 5K had abut 5500 runners and we had 663.

We watched the 5K runners start and then come back in.  One thing that really shocked me was how much everyone was bunching up in the finish coral.  The people crossing the line had about 5 feet of distance after the mats before they had to stop dead.  It looked like there was about 30 yards of people just standing waiting to move.  A couple things were holding it up: 1) Only two buckets for race chips and 2) a racing group with bright orange shirts were all congregating in the finish coral.  I wish I could remember the name on the shirts, but they sure didn’t understand that they were a roadblock.  Everyone had to squeeze around their group.

While we were inside waiting, a woman yells out on her megaphone “The 5K is gonna to start, so get out there and start running”.  I suppose there was a better way to say it, but she didn’t look like the kind of person that was interested in something like that.  A better way: “Attention 5K runners.  The 5K is about to start.  Please proceed to the starting line.  Good luck!”.

I was pretty chilly at the start of the race (35F) and by about mile 3 I was roasting my ass off.  I wore my running pants and running jacket, with a short sleeve shirt underneath.  I wish I had something in between the heavier pant and running lycra.  Still too bashful for lycra (where I know people at race), but it was too cold for shorts.

As usual, I started out too fast, slowed in the middle, and dragged myself to the end.  I really felt miserable.  Such a contrast to the last 10K.  It pays to train right I guess.

I missed most of the mile markers.  There were almost no people on the course (they were all cooking dinner I guess).  There was a bar near the end where tons of people were standing outside with their beer.  A few people sat on their steps and smoked as we ran by.  There were alot of empty buildings.  I wouldn’t want to do that race at night.

My running buddy beat her 10K PR and finished under an hour for the first time.  I was very proud of her!  She’s going to be very fast.  :)

After-race food?  I give it a 2 out of 10.  Boxes of bananas, whole oranges, and one box of the world’s driest generic granola bars (gone by the 1 hr mark in the 10K).  Little plastic cups of a strange orange drink (they looked like specimen cups).  A sign that said “please take only one item”.

And then the strangest thing: medals.  I never got a finisher’s medal for a 10K before.  It was kinda sad that the people with the medals stood at the end of the coral yelling “Medals!  Get your medals here!”  Somehow detracted from the sense of reward.

The race shirt was a long sleeve cotton shirt with the turkey cartoon on the front.

So, at least I PR’d (by a hair).  Would I do this race again?  Not likely.   Looking forward to the 5K in December.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 10:15 am and is filed under Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.