Nov 30, 2015

Turkey Day 10k Recap & Thanksgiving too

I signed up for the Turkey Day 10k again this year. And after Wine & Dine being half a race, I was happy to get an actual full race in.

Now, it hadn't been cooling off at ALL in Miami this "fall," so I was checking the weather like crazy praying for a little coolness to come through. Well, it was gonna be about 70ish, which is much better than 80, so I took it. I got my turkey shirt from Raw Threads and was ready to get my run on.


I woke up and got my outfit on and was ready to head to Tropical Park. I like this race, cause Tropical Park is down the street from my house (about 1 1/2 miles) and it's usually where I go for my long runs, so it's familiar turf. It was still dark, and when I stepped outside I noticed it... the rain.

Another race, another set of weather conditions to deal with. I got to the park, you have to enter through the other side for the race, and they were directing us to the parking. I got to park way out in the grass, and it was still raining. I sat in my car, slightly freaking out, thinking if I should call my mom to bring my poncho out to the park or not. I decided that she wouldn't even be able to get to me to be able to give me the poncho, so I decided to tough it out. I waited in the car as long as possible, then at about 7 I headed out to trek through the rain and huge puddles to the start line.


Eventually, I made it to the start line, where a bunch of other drenched runners were waiting. There were a lot of umbrellas and ponchos, but also a lot of people just getting wet. A bunch of us were waiting under a tree, which kind of lessened the rain a bit. Then it let up slightly, so I headed towards the start line. And then it started again. This time it was "big ol' fat rain" as Forrest Gump would say. Yeah, I think there was a collective groan at that point.


I am so thankful that I was wearing my visor, cause it kept the rain out of my face. It's the little things... That, and I'm thankful I was wearing black, so you couldn't actually see how wet I was.


Then about 10 minutes late (this race always seems to start a little late, I guess it runs on Miami time?), we were off.


At this point it was still raining, a little less than half a mile in we had to run around this enormous puddle that had formed right in the race path. I just kept telling myself that at the split for the 5k and the 10k, I'd just go and finish the 5k. At least I'd have gotten in some exercise and worked off my pie later. By the time we got to the front of Santa's Enchanted forest (right before the start of mile 2) it had stopped raining a bit, and I thought maybe I could do the 10k. But then the rain started again, and my feet were soaked from the puddles, and I was like forget that idea.

Soon enough the 5k/10k split was right in front of me. The majority of the people were heading to the 5k finish, and I saw a fewer amount of people heading to the 10k. My shoes were soaked, but I said screw it, I paid for a 10k, I'm getting my full 10k. I went right for the 10k and ran around another ginormous puddle and through a patch of nasty mud. Now I had squishy muddy shoes, but it was all good.

By this point the rain had stopped. Finally! The 10k ends up going to the end of the park that I usually enter on, so it was familiar territory for me. Last year after mile 4, it was really hard for me to keep going, so I was dreading that again. But after mile 4, I felt great still and mile 5 was great too. I blame all of this on the other workouts I'm doing for this (I'm in the middle of T25 <--my coach link right now). Different workouts totally build up that endurance.

Before I knew it I was headed back towards the track and the finish line. Now as I saw the clock right before the finish line, I saw it read about 01:19:something. I was kinda confused, cause I knew that this would make it a PR for me. WHAT?! How could that happen with rain and running around all those puddles?


I was totally shocked by the numbers on the clock, but didn't buy it. I went through and took my post race pic (and can I say YAY for free race pics!), and went to grab some water and food.


After waiting in the long line, I was glad to see there was plenty of food. I grabbed some harvest snaps (I love those things) and a banana and walked around a bit before heading to my car. Once I got there, I scanned the code on my bib to get my official finish time, and it was right there in front of me, a PR by about 3 minutes, 01:17:26!


I went home and after getting out of those wet clothes, I grabbed some breakfast, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and grabbed a little nap. And before I knew it, it was time for a delicious thanksgiving dinner.

It was a great day that started with a PR and ended with pie. I had a new PR and a very full belly full of Mom's yummy cooking. That's definitely something to be thankful for.

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