Yet another race. I love this race, and the idea of racing on Turkey Day. In fact, this is one of the first races I did way back in the day. It’s now about quadrupled in size, but still a really well run event.

Peaced out of the house at 5:30 with the pie I cooked last night, arrived, walk to the race, checked in, and we were off before I knew it. I didn’t go out with much of a goal again; just kinda running races right now to force me to get out there. Last year I ran 20:03… My hope was to do a bit better than that

My one complaint about the race is that it is now of the size that they need to make corrals. I had to do far too much dodging of morons in he first mile; lost an easy 5 seconds or so running back and forth across the street. At the first mile, my watch showed 6:13. Not quite as fast as I was hoping for, but I was feeling good…

Mile two, the toughest of this course (has a serious uphill) was uneventful and passed in 6:28.

Beginning mile three, I was feeling really good. It’s clear my marathon training has given me some pretty ridiculous strength. I was picking people off left and right, but simply couldn’t go much faster. It wasn’t an energy thing, but more of a speed thing. I haven’t done ANY speed work. I finished the final 1.1 miles in 6:29 (5:53 pace). Yeah, I had quite a bit left in the tank.

Overall time was 19:10, I was the 39th male, 8th in my age group, and :53 seconds faster than last year. I’m not ecstatic with the result as I ran a good 20 seconds faster earlier this season, but I’m pleased with it; cold day, not training… Good enough for me.

As I said earlier, great race. Very organized, has the usual raffle, and a decent field of runners. This will remain my turkey day event or years to come.