It’s been a quiet and low key thanksgiving – with half the family away. So I did, what any normal person would do, I decided to sign up for the Granville Island turkey trot.
The turkey trot was one of the first real “races” I did about 8 years ago and I really enjoyed running it. I was searching for at least one run before NYC – and with no half marathon I wanted to race, I decided I would run the 10km (perhaps not the brightest idea) on the heels of a long training run (i.e. the day after). I read an article somewhere that the idea was to simulate the fatigue of the last 10km of a marathon. So I decided to test out the theory.
To be honest, I was just a bit worried about racing a 10km the day after a long training run. I told myself I would just run it as a training run. I should’ve known better.
Race morning was miserable, cold and wet. Huddling under a tarp/tent, I found a bench to sit on and parked myself there, eyeing the crowds of runners, searching for friends who were also planning to run.
With 8 minutes left before the start time, we were herded to the start line. We waited: we were in no hurry to freeze outside, and buried ourselves in the crowd. It took me less than a minute to cross the start line. And then we were off – the first km was a zoo, walkers, with walking poles????? on pavement. So I spent the first km weaving in and out of crowds of runners. Not surprisingly, it was a slow first km.
My legs were okay after yesterday’s training run, so after the first km, I began to drop the pace. The funnest part of the race was passing people. The hardest part was figuring when to kick it. And with 3km to go, I thought what the heck, I would just go for it. When course volunteers told yelled out that only 100 meters remained, I somehow found another gear. It was a lot fun, and always good to get in a race, before a big race.
Overall time was 44:40, which was overall a 3 minute pb for me. I was pretty happy, and it’s always gratifying to have training pay off.
