Turkey Trot 5K

Picking out clothes for a running race is a lot more fun than for a tri. I have one triathlon outfit and for 1 of the 3 segments it is hidden under a wet suit!  But I always have trouble in colder weather knowing what to wear.  I did fine today with a short sleeve under a cozy Columbia hoodie with thumb holes and capris.

I'm kind of out of doing races on the regular basis I usually do and I left a bit late and ended up speeding driving the speed limit of course to the race.  I got there with about 15 minutes to spare but I knew they were bussing us to the start and I wanted time to pick up my bib, use the bathroom and drop stuff off at my car.  I got all those things accomplished (had to use the men's room which had no line compared to a huge one for the women's)  and got back to my car to see that Emily had called. I returned her call to find out her race news. We both ran 5Ks today but the similarities stopped there.
She won, I came in fifty second.  She won 100 dollars, I walked away with nothing in spite of many many fantastic random prizes. Oh well.

So we were bussed out to the start and it wasn't too cold waiting.  I talked to a woman near me who was just my age and I think I convinced her to try a tri next season.  She was very interested.

I was in a group of people the whole time which was good as people would pass me and I would pass them back.  That is always motivating. There was a girl in a turkey costume ahead of me that I tried to maintain the distance between us and not fall behind. She was a good person to do this with as others near by seemed to be slowing down. My first mile was 9:14 but my second was 9:32 (loooong hill).  My last mile was my fastest and I was feeling like: "Oh yeah, this is what racing feels like."  It was 8:51 with my overall pace being 9:12.  My goal was to be in the low 9s and this counts for me.  I wanted to have fun. I definitely did!  I do like/love racing and I had kind of forgotten it. Of course today was a GORGEOUS day which made loving it a little easier than the wet cold one I ran on in October.

I was 52/107 which is always a goal for me to be in the top half.  I was 2/12 in my age group.I was amazed at how many were in my age group.  That is not typical for that size race.   Okay the results are posted now. They did odd age groups. Mine was 50 and above. If I look at the more typical 50 - 59 age group I was 2/8. My race time was 28:48 which is definitely one of my slowest 5K times and I am not bummed at all. I have been running short distances with no speed and not a lot of days a week.  I was just glad to be out there racing and talking races with similar minded people. Okay I have now looked at other races for this year. All have been in the 28s with one in the 29s and the last one being the EXACT time I got today.  Bringing home a prize - so many many good ones  - would have been sweet but I did bring home a turkey from this race one year so it wasn't my turn.

Are you disappointed if you don't get  a prize when it seems like everyone else there gets one?  I regretted more my loss of more than an hour waiting for everyone to finish and the time it took for the prize give away than the actual prize loss.