2016 NCMC Turkey Trot 5k

I made a jump this year, my third year of running. I made some bold decisions and I pursued some large goals race-wise, putting the local 5ks on the back burner. Still, I decided two years ago that I would make the NCMC Turkey Trot a Thanksgiving tradition. It's great to have the consistency of a race on the same course at the same time every year with many of the same people.

With my focus on longer, steady-paced stuff over the year, including a trail half-marathon less than three weeks prior, I didn't focus much on 5k speed. I did try a little speed work in the fall, but I didn't make it a consistent practice. Then the week leading up to the race I felt a little fatigued. So there was no expectation at the starting line on race day.

I set my 5k PR in 2014 on July 4th, a course that runs along the local 4th of July Parade route, where the whole first and third miles are a steady downhill. Early in 2016 I had brushes with hitting that mark or besting it on a couple of routine training runs. That was before I started training with the goal of hitting the 50k mark in a 6 hour race. It's a vastly different strategy, to the point that I often hear ultramarathoners who can't stand the idea of a 5k race.

At the start line of the Turkey Trot I saw a guy I'm Twitter friends with. He won the Loveland Classic 10k as well as the 10k that accompanied the Longmont Trail Half Marathon that I ran in July. Knowing he's a swift and experienced runner, I got on his heels to get through the crowd as the race started into the first couple of corners. I figure since I was able to stay with him and eventually lose him in the crowd, that he wasn't out to win this race, but this strategy worked out in my favor.

I looked at my watch just once during the race, right as it vibrated for the first mile mark. It was sub 7:30, that's what I recall. That surprised me a lot. I hadn't pushed that pace in a long time, but I felt very strong and relaxed and in control. My stride was good and my breathing didn't feel the slightest bit labored. In previous years I was gasping for air at the halfway water stop, and I'd try to down a little solo cup of water while staying in motion, because my mouth was so dry from panting. This time I kept moving through it, and into a gentle downhill in mile two.

My trail running experience this year has given me a lot of confidence to make up time on downhills. We don't have anything very steep in my city, but it translates well enough. I caught up to several groups, letting my momentum build on the descent, sometimes running outside of the coned off bike lane to pass the congestion.

With less than a mile to go, the course of the accompanying 2k race meets up with the 5k which seemed to add a bit more congestion this year. It got a little tight trying to slalom around a lot of walkers and kids weaving around. I don't think I got slowed down too awful much, but I feel like it's just common courtesy to pick a side of the road and stick to it if your walking on a race course, but I digress.

I made a steady push up the last little hill and pushed the proverbial pedal down for the last two city blocks or so, and really gave all I had left into the crowded finish area. I saw the clock just past the 22 minute mark a few steps before I sprinted across the timing strip. I stopped my watch at 22:18. The official time was a tad bit faster at 22:13. It turned out to be a huge PR. I really didn't expect that when I lined up that morning. Maybe at best, I though I could know a few seconds off of it, not 1:18 faster than my previous best. It was quite a good feeling. All the work that I put in throughout the year translated to so many accomplishments at various distances and surfaces, and to have such a monster 5k at my last race of the year just felt like a perfect bow on 2016.

Aaaand two months later

Jeez, blogs always start off with the best of intentions. Well, this one is about my running, and to be fair, August and September were as quiet as this blog was on that front. I had a strong month of running in August, no races though, and at the end of the month picked up an IT band issue that led to a lot of rest in September. Anyone who's had an IT issue know that they seem to just linger, but with some regular stretching and a new focus on other exercise outside of running, it's gotten to be quite manageable, and I'm back to over 30 miles each of the past couple of weeks.

I've spent these weeks in between races focusing on my run club. It's the best part of what running has brought me. There is so much importance there. We humans are social animals. We can't ignore that. I keep meeting new, friendly people through running. As an adult, that can be a tough thing, making new friends. Run club is an invaluable part of my life.

I am signed up for a race, a trail half marathon on November 5 with a couple of the ladies from run club, I also will do the local Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving. I've incorporated some speed work into my routine a bit lately, I am gunning for besting my 5k PR there. It's been a while since I put my focus on that.

Other than running, I am planning on participating in Vegan Month Of Food or VeganMoFo here on this blog. That's a deal where bloggers are given a daily food topic to post about. VeganMoFo happened in October in 2011, which was the month I gave myself a vegan diet challenge 5 years ago that I have not and do not expect to go back on. I thought it would be a good thing for me participate in this year to give myself a challenge to blog every day, work on some of the creative energy I'm feeling right now, and to play with and share some of my remedial recipes. So look forward to that in November.

To go with October challenges, I'm working on consistent morning routines like is so the rage right now. Every morning so far this month has started early with at leat 15 minutes of meditation, then a quick exercise. It's mostly been some sit-ups, pushups and planks, with a little variation, (like the pushups were out of the question a few days in with some soreness from jumping into the routine a bit too much too quick,) but consistency grows on itself. That's what I'm going for, not just to be able to run as long and far as I want, but to be my best self.
So that's my little refresher. 

I hope everyone has a great October.

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Loveland Classic 10k | Race Report

I’m really building up training for a 6 hour race in June. There are benefits to mixing a couple races into the training, but a 10k is pretty short at this point in training. Nonetheless, my run club set up a team to run the Loveland Classic 10k and we needed three people to get the team discount, so I promised to go. Since I haven’t actually raced anything longer than a 5k and this is the closest race that is over 5k, I knew I could throw that into a Saturday and make up the training miles on Sunday.

Loveland is 20 some miles away from home, but the traffic situation can make it questionable as to how long it takes to get there. I’ve done it in 15 minutes up to 45. I gave myself an hour from leaving home to the time when registration opened, and I arrived in 20 minutes flat. Everything was being set up at that point and I was able to check in right away, so it wasn’t terrible, except it was cold. It was supposed to be a warm day, and it eventually was, but it started out pretty chilly. April has been so unpredictable for that around here. I was shivering in my running shorts and long sleeve shirt with gloves. So I went out on the path the race was to be on and started running to warm up. 

I think having nearly an hour-and-a-half, to warm up and fuel and hit the restroom was actually a good plan. I was able to really get loose and hydrate and greet my teammates as they arrived. As race time got about 15 minutes out, I ditched my long sleeve and gloves, (which I probably could have left on,) and went the quarter mile out from the race expo area to the 10k start line.

This is an area just off I-25 here in Northern Colorado where there’s a strip mall, an outlet mall, some office buildings, a hospital, and some apartments. There are two little lakes with this 3+ mile recreational path around them which is where the 5k and 10k took place. The 10k started a little way down the path and a few minutes ahead of the 5k and took nearly two loops of the course. The course is flat and about half is on concrete with a lot on gravel and dirt. I was worried about a bottleneck on such a narrow path to start, but there really wan’t a problem. 

When the race started I stayed a few feet behind one of my run club teammates who I know runs a strong pace, expecting that she would help me reserve some at the start, as I’m not good at pacing myself early. After about half a mile, I decided I was holding back a bit too much, so I passed her and took off to the sound of her cheering me on.

With my fancy Garmin watch, I kept an eye every couple of miles on my pace, and I really paid attention to my breathing (Something I’ve really been working on.) Going through the finish line area for the first lap I felt fast and my legs felt good and my pace was steady. I looked at the course ahead and had a little conversation with myself about facing another lap saying, “This is what we are here to do, we’ve got nothing else to do. Everything’s good. We’re having a great race. Just keep going,” because running the same thing twice can seem monotonous sometimes. On the second lap, about mile 4, I passed an older guy and put a mental target on the back of another runner who seemed to be going about my pace, thinking if I can stay with him or close in on him, I’ll have a strong finish. About mile 5, I was finally starting to feel some fatigue. I didn’t slow down too much, but I heard footsteps coming up on my shoulder, from out of nowhere I got passed by another guy about my age. I let him go to my left and I focused back on my breathe, instead of my legs, as we turned around a corner to where you can see the finish line. For the last half mile I found some final strength and paced the guy who had just passed me, got up on his heels a bit and we both passed the other guy who I had been reeling in for most of the second lap right as we crossed the finish. I gave that guy a high five and congratulated him for his run. Then I went to go find some fruit and to cool down for a minute before my first run club teammate would finish.

Some two and a half years ago my brother-in-law was killed in a car crash. We spent several days holding vigil in the aforementioned hospital near this race, and I spent some time walking this path around these lakes during those days. The area in the second lap where I got passed is a spot where a dirt access road meets the sidewalk that opens up to see the hospital across the street. This is one of the incidents in my life that has sparked my pursuits in endurance athletics over the past few years. Those memories weighed a bit in the back of my mind. I’m not too sentimental. I don’t believe my brother-in-law is out there looking down on us, but running this race on these paths (where I walked around, trying to get out of the waiting room, to get some fresh air while my family was facing such a horrible situation) now these few years later and how much my life has changed since then and not in a small way because of that tragedy in my family and trying to come to terms with what life should be for me, something felt a little symbolic to be running a race here. As I waited for my teammate I really let myself look back on that again for a minute. Then I got up with camera in hand to snap a pic of my fellow run club member crossing the finish line.

Karla, the run club teammate I started the race with, finished about 4 minutes after I did. We waited then for our third teammate, Sue, (who is awesome, having run her first marathon a couple months ago in her mid 60s.) Though she’s slower than us thirty-somethings, she’s the only one of us three who took home an age group award!

….

The previous Thursday at run club I set a PR on the 10k at just under 52 minutes. That was sort-of race day practice and I had a goal for 50 minutes for the race. The course at the Loveland Classic is flat and fast and the weather was cool and everything just went about as well as I could hope for, and I had a monster run. I kept a pretty steady pace for me, with my slowest mile at 7:45 and fastest 7:34. I turned in an official time of 47:49 to finish 23rd overall. It was just a great race all around. Green Events here in northern Colorado puts on a great event, and I’ll be happy to race one of their many runs again. 

The focus is still on the Dizzy Goat 6 Hour race coming up in June. I’ve got some heavy training weeks between now and then. My running is strong right now. I’m really confident. I can’t wait to see how much I can get out of this body of mine.

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All photos by Green Events, posted publicly on Facebook