Yesterday I ran in my very first Turkey Trot! It was a 5 mile race down the shore in Manasquan. What a great, great local race. One of my close friends asked myself and another longtime friend to run it and after yesterday, we have decided to make it an annual tradition!
The biggest highlight of the race (besides my surprising PR!), was the start time. A lovely 11am start in about 48 degree weather. Perfect for a race! It really was a breath of fresh air compared to the highly mass produced races I'm used to. There was no online race registration, no credit cards, no timing chips... just a spray painted start line and a rifle to kick it all off!
The three of us screamed in fright when the gun went off, laughed then got our legs moving! We decided to run our own paces. KHB wanted to see how fast she could run a stand alone 5 miler and KDR was be christened in her very first road race! I was so proud of her just to be there at the spray painted start line. I figured I would hold 9 minute miles since I've really only been running 6 mile jaunts on the weekends. The one pice of advice I gave to my newbie road race friend was to go easy the first mile. Don't let the excitement of the race get to you because it'll catch up to you in the later miles. Well, what do I do? I go out too fast in the first mile! 8:24 - whoops. But I didn't feel like my breathing was labored and my heart rate was high but I also had about 4 glasses of wine the night before.... whoops #2. The course was flat which was another plus compared to the hills in Central Park that I'm used to. Mile 2 was by the water so it got pretty windy I tried to tuck behind some of the bigger guy runners to shield myself but I did feel my pace slow a little bit. Mile 2 = 8:32. Mile 3 was along the residential section of Manasquan and there were small groups of people handing out cold beer! hah! I declined the beer but I did accept my 8:32 mile 3 split. Mile 4 was another tough one as we again ran by water and my 830 average pace was way, way faster than I thought I could ever do at this point in my 2010 season. Mile 4 = 8:34 so I only lost two seconds to wind and fatigue! I have to be honest, mile 5 was tough. I got hot, my glasses started to fog since I was warm, and I began to doubt my fast pace. I thought well, Jill, you are doing way better than you thought you would so there's no shame in slowing down. But then I said Get Real!! I love having my last mile of a race be the fastest so I pushed and pushed to get that one mile done. I sped up a bit but due to my lack of speed work I got passed by about 5 women in the last 100 yards. I just had no kick. But I crossed the finish line hard in 42:12!! Mile 5 = 8:11. So my average pace according to my garmin was 8:29! Holy smokes! I never thought I had that in me... but I did!
KHB was only 10 seconds away from breaking 40 minutes and had a huge PR! And KDR finished her first 5 mile race with a smile on her face! I was so proud of both of them!! Afterwards we went to a Jersey diner to eat burgers :) I had a great day with my friends and I can't wait to do it again next year!
p.s. I've been glued to ironman live watching Chrissie Wellington come back to racing and killing it! What an amazing woman and triathlete! Such an inspiration!
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