2014 Face to Face Germantwon Turkey Trot - 5 Miler

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. And, I have a lot for which to be thankful. One particular item to be thankful for is the fact that I have been going about seven months without a significant running injury. There have been nagging little things, like my ankle/heel, but I have been able to get through them given the low-ish weekly mileage of 40 or so. This was my first ever Turkey Trot in which I have participated. I have done Trot-Off-Your-Turkey races before, but never one on the day itself. We chose to run the Face to Face Germantown 5 Mile Turkey Trot, which was basically an out-and-back race on the Forbidden Drive in the Wissahickon. It was written up in Runner's World this past year as a must-run Turkey Trot: Article.

The Forbidden Drive Trail had just received quite a bit of rain the day before... no snow, though. So it was a muddy track, but relatively benign given the road nature of the "trail." The course was slightly downhill on the way out, and, of course, slightly uphill on the way back. My first mile was 5:42, driven by the "steepest" downhill and a bit of start-line adrenaline. Second mile was 5:57, at which point I had latched onto a "buddy" for the rest of the race. He and I seemed to have a similar cadence and pacing, and we also seemed to intuit which way the other was going when passing and maneuvering around puddles. The next three miles were at 6:06, 6:09, and 6:10. The last mile was tough for me. I tried to kick with 0.5 miles left, but I was fighting a bit of a cramp, and the fact that I got about 3 hours of sleep the night before. I got a bit of a boost when someone came up behind, and I was able to hold him off to the line. My "buddy" got me by a second. Overall 9th place, and a good start to the day.

The best thing for the race, was that my girlfriend won her age group. We didn't even think it was a possibility and left early from the race to beat traffic out of the parking lot. Turns out this morning, M won her group. Awesome job for her. She ran her quickest 5-miler ever, I believe. So happy for her.

Special thanks to Nolan Painting who handed out gloves to runners and, most importantly, gave me a bag to put my jacket in while I stashed it under their table.