Category Archives: turkey trot

Race Recap: Davis Turkey Trot Half

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The day started with the usual race morning routine. Davis isn’t too far of a drive for me, so we didn’t have to get up too incredibly early.

Rain was in the forecast, but it wasn’t going to be super cold, so I decided to wear shorts, a long sleeve shirt, and a fun t-shirt over it. I also made sure to remember a hat to keep the rain out of my eyes.

When we left the house, it wasn’t raining much. We ended up getting to the race pretty early, and as soon as we got there we noticed how windy it was! Luckily, since we were early, we were able to stake out a good spot to block ourselves from the wind and most of the rain showers.

My friend Raechel ran the 10k event, which started before the half marathon by about 20 minutes. As soon as she started, it really started raining hard! Thankfully it didn’t last too long. The race starts were running about 5 minutes late, but we didn’t run into any major issues otherwise.

Since it was windy and rainy, we waited until the last minute to do sweat check and get up to the race start. Only down side of that is I didn’t really do much of a warmup. Since it was a little cool, the first two miles my toes on one foot were a little numb, but it was fine by mile 2 when I settled in and got in the groove.

My major goals for this race were to start slow, and to negative split. I decided I would start with the 2:05 pacer to help me avoid heading out too fast. After half a mile though, the pacer was going about a 9:15/mile pace! I decided to slow way down and just run my race.

Because of that, mile 1 ended up being a little faster than I wanted, but I got back on track pretty quickly. Here’s the stats/details:

Mile 1: 9:21 Yikes too quick — slow down!
Miles 2-4: 9:39 average. Slowed it down, and settled in. Feeling good and comfortable.
Mile 5: 9: 31. starting to pick it up slightly. But noticed, I am a little off on the mile markers. Ahead by 0.2 miles?!?
Miles 6-8: 9:22 average. Noticing the wind gusts. Let it push me along to move a little faster. Feeling good about the negative splits.
Miles 9-10.5: 10:05 average. CRAZY headwind!!! Thinking walking would feel faster. Will I blow away? Trying to push the pace, but this is as fast
Mile 10.5: THANK GOODNESS that is over!!!
Mile 10.5-11: 9:20 average. Pick the pace back up as much as possible. Try to get back to the low 9:20s. Feels much harder on the legs after that wind.
Mile 12: 9:32. Oops. Thought I was going faster than that. Legs obviously feeling it.
Mile 12.9: 8:45. Able to come back and push the pace to the finish! Course a little short.

OVERALL: 2:02:44. Average pace (garmin): 9:29.

That wind really beat up my time and negative splits, but I am still proud of myself. It seemed like the wind really made a lot of people struggle. I looked up afterward, and winds were strong at 20mph and gusting up to 41mph, and we were running straight into it with nothing to block us!

I’m very happy with how I did on this run. It was a well organized race. It is a little disappointing that the course was short.

Finally, I’d like to thank the amazing volunteers out there today. The weather conditions did not make it a great day to be standing out on a race course handing out water and gatorade, but they made it fun and full of energy! Everyone still seemed so happy and excited to be part of race day.

Davis Turkey Trot Half Race Goals

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Tomorrow is the Davis Turkey Trot. I will be completing the half marathon distance race. As I start my taper, I need to be sure to get in a few more quality workouts. So for this race, want to have some good goals to achieve and keep me focused.

Turkey Trot Half Marathon Goals:
1) Start slow! I mentioned in my post about last week’s race that I started a little too fast. I would like to make myself practice starting slow at the race, and not let the race day excitement make me run to fast and cause a burnout.

2) Negative split, or maintain consistent pacing the whole race. Although I didn’t do too poorly at this my last race, I didn’t really do well either.  I really don’t want to burn out at the marathon. Practice makes perfect, so I’m going to practice this too!

3) Try to enjoy running in the rain. We haven’t had much rain for the past few months, so I haven’t really trained at all in the rain. I don’t mind the rain, but I’m just not used to it. So even though it will be cold and wet, I want to again be sure to have a good time. Weather is predicted to be 100% chance of rain at the race start!
 

For running in the rain, I just saw some tips by Aron from Runner’s Rambles. Some of the best tips, I think are:
– Wear a hat. It really helps keep the rain off our face and out of your eyes
– Don’t wear cotton. Sticking with wicking fabrics can really help a rainy run be comfortable. Cotton gets too heavy and you will really feel wet. Similarly, you might also want to avoid cotton socks. Wool socks are much better at keeping blisters away.
-Be careful not to overdress. It doesn’t always get cold when it rains, so keep an eye on the temperature before you go out. Wearing layers can help with this too.

I already did packet pickup (actually a friend got my stuff for me yesterday!), so I really just need to get to Davis and be at the start on time. By the way, the women’s tech t’s are pink! I’ve never seen a race with pink shirts, so that’s kind of fun. Or if you don’t like pink, the men’s tech shirts are an awesome maroon-ish red! Very fall colored. I kind of like that they are different colors.

Even though this is another training run for me, I always love the race environment. I’m looking forward to another fun race weekend!