I survived the Iron-Turkey.
In many towns across the country in the weeks before Thanksgiving people are lined up, often in freezing temperatures to run 5k, or 10k, and they give it the quaint name of a "Turkey Trot".
Today was my day to trot like a Turkey, but the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot apparently was not happy with the norm and thought, "what if we make them do both a 5k and a 10k?" Of course never being one to understand my limits I thought, "Oh, that sounds fun!" As many of you know,I am in Michigan and so far its not that cold: 32, 34 something like that. I was happy to awake to clearing skies of puffy white clouds. Sadly by they time I arrived at the event the clouds were back. I don't think we ever got back above 32 since we were actually sprinkled with a light snow. Well, what the heck, that's what my silly looking running gear; jacket, gloves, hat, and two layers of shirts were there for.
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| After watching the ladies return from their 5k race, I decided to start warming up. I ran a mile or so, slow, and marveled as my Nike+ system recorded it as over 2, (Nike There is a problem with the COLD, PLEASE look into it). After some dancing around I got in line for the 10k, which was first.
I was wearing my crazy tight, Nike+ shirt, under my jacket, and second shirt, so when the race started I was unable to tell if, in fact, I had started the race on my iPod, but I could not wait around to figure it out,so I just took off. It turns out this was an OK thing, because I could not hear my iPod and I had no idea what my pace was, so I think I over-compensated. I know I came out the first mile or so at around 7:00, but after that I have no idea. I was shot by the end and only managed to kick in a bit for the last .2 of a mile, when I realized I was going to beat my goal. I finished at 47:11, with a average pace of 7:36. This landed me in 7th in my age group.
This gave me 43 minutes before the 5k, to stand around and freeze. I did not mention above, but at the half way point in the 10k I dropped off my jacket, hat, and gloves. There was a gentlemen there who said he would take them to the finish line. Well when I got back I could not find them. I gave up looking after about 20 minutes, and just let myself freeze. As I began the 5k, I realized that my car keys were in my jacket. Not a nice feeling to have, and I was begging to wonder if the guy at the halfway point was just stealing stupid peoples jackets. The nice thing is at this point I was too busy running to care.
The 5k was hellish, but only because I was freezing and I had just run my best 10k ever 40 minutes before. For the first mile I was was joined by a young boy, about 8, who on occasion would pass me up. Considering he had about half the leg length of mine I was quite impressed. When he gets a few feet of growth he will be cleaning the floor with the likes of old little old me. The rest of the 5 went without much to note, except for a bit of snow. About halfway I realized I was getting my second wind and I kicked it up a bit, but in the end when I tried to finish strong I was pretty much empty. I finished a healthy 23:32 with a average of 7:34. Putting me at 8th in my age group. (35-39)
Much to my delight I finally found my jacket and gloves; they had been taken to the one sponsors tent that I never asked. Once warmed back up, and having downed a quart or so of Gatoraid, I realized it was over. I had done the Detroit Half marathon two weeks earlier, yet this had seemed much harder.
It was not until I got home and was able to check the results online for my final time for the Iron Turkey: 1:10:47. They did not divide the Iron Turkey into age groups, but if they had I would have been 3rd, in the 35-39 group. To date that's the closest to a medal I've come. Oh well, there is always next year!
Oh yeah, just to put things in context, the men's winner of the Iron Turkey finished at 47:05 (That's 6 seconds faster then I did the 10k alone) and the women's winners finished at 1:05:36. |