Race Report - Turkey Trot 10K Race

(Early in the race.  I'm just over the left shoulder of #469)

20th Annual Turkey Trot 10K at Tyrell Park - 6.2 miles, 56:53, 09:10 minutes/mile pace

I had high hopes for setting a new 10K PR at this year's Turkey Trot.  My best existing official 10K time was 54:29 (8:47 pace), at this event in 2009.  In general, my running is stronger and quicker than last year.  Based on my October and November training runs, I really expected to be able to finish at around 52 minutes, or 8:20 pace.

No PR was to be had on this day.   Firstly, I do not run my best in warm weather.  The average temperature for all of my runs in November was about 53 degrees (F).  However, temperature for this race was unseasonably warm, in the mid-70s, very humid, and windy. When I ran well in this race in 2009, it was 39 degrees.  Huge difference. By mid way, I'd even pulled my shirt of to try to stay cooler.

I can't blame the results entirely on the weather, either.  I didn't run a smart race tactically.  As my longer runs have increased in length, 6.2 miles feels like a fairly short run.  I went into this race overconfident, and didn't respect the distance or the weather.  I didn't employ a pace strategy at all, went out WAY too fast for the weather, and burned out early.  My mile splits were: 7:44, 8:17, 9:15, 10:14, 10:07, 9:31, 1:43 (0.2).

This was still a great local event, with over 850 runners this year, a record turnout. I got to meet up with local dailymilers Jeremy F, William F, Tammy H, Evan A, Tara C, Daniel F. And still much to be grateful for on this day.