Monday, November 17, 2014

Turkey Trot 5K Recap

Turkey Trot 5K/10K
Fergus Falls 11/15/14

In late August, I signed up for the 5K Turkey Trot with my sister.  She had won the 6 race series in her area, and the award was going to be presented after the Fergus Falls Turkey Trot in November.  My sis is pretty awesome, and naturally she is my hero.

I was in rough shape.  In the two weeks after Surf the Murph, I had tried three runs, and I had not been able to get to two miles on any of them.  I took the week before the race completely off.  

It snowed the week before the race.  The streets/sidewalks had a lot of hard pack snow and some ice on them.  It was going to be a slow cautious race for a couple reasons.

My nephew also wanted to run, so we all also signed up for the one mile run before the 5K race.

My knee didn't feel too bad on the one mile run. Maybe taking it easy for a couple weeks was going to do the trick.  We ran together for the first half mile. After that, my nephew took off in a quest for the podium.  He passed third place with about 4 blocks to go, and he held on to take the bronze position.  I ran about a nine minute mile; I felt pretty good and optimistic.

My nephew wasn't going to run the 5K.  He found a warm spot to wait it out in the school, and my sis and I went to line up for the 5K.  It was in the teens but there was nearly no wind.  It was reasonable weather for a run, but the footing made it a pretty silly idea.

At the go signal, my first step tweaked my knee.  I started off slow and tried to loosen it up.  It didn't help; it was the same pain on the side of my knee, and it felt like I had a bruise behind my kneecap. A mile into the run, I knew this was going to be the last run of the year.

I stuck it out with a time of 29:00.  My knee felt a little better in the third mile, but I was doing more harm than good.  Around the last corner, I decided to catch the lady in front of me.  She was about a block ahead of me, so I sprinted as best I could (idiot) and caught up.  It seemed like a dick move to pass right at the line, so I pulled up and finished one second behind her.

So that's it; I'm probably done running for the year.  I'm definitely out for the half marathon in a couple weeks.  It's been a good year.  I did a few 5K races, one 10K, two sprint triathlons and one long trail run.

Below are my totals since I signed up for the Lake Marion Sprint Triathlon in February.

Running
Total:                   340 miles
Average length:  3.3 miles
Average Pace:     9:39

Biking
Total Road:          182 miles
Average Length:  11.3 miles
Average Speed:    16 mph    
Total Stationary:  13:27 hours
Avg. Stationary:   33 minutes

Swimming
Total:         14.6 miles
Average:    0.54 miles

Workouts
Total:        11:15 hours
Average:   29 minutes


Me with my sis and nephew
before the 1 mile run.