Turkey Trot Race Report - 5mi

Love me some Turkey Trottin'

This is the third consecutive year Annie and I have made the 15-minute drive over to the Woodlands, TX on Thanksgiving morning. We both really enjoy this race.  Usually it is a rather laid back event that has a 5mi run, 1mi kid's run, and a 5k walk/run.

This year was also the first time we had some decent running weather with the temperature around 45 degrees at the 8:15am start. Last year we suffered through unseasonable heat and humidity and the year before was bitter cold. This was the Goldilocks year.

We met up with our friends Bobby, Jen, and Dave and started to stroll over to the starting area. For some reason everyone but Bobby and me was walking like they were on a casual Sunday afternoon stroll through the mall! And with a few thousand people around we ended up getting separated.

Bobby and I decided to line up at the front of the pack as this race is notorious for having large groups of walkers near the front. We got to the front and I looked around and noticed that there were a lot of skinny, fast looking people today.  All the local Colleges and High School teams were there and we even had a Kenyan in full Spiro gear at the very front! Going be a barn burner!

Okay, I had not really given this race much thought in terms of pacing. This was my third race in 19 days and the legs were a little flat feeling so I just decided to go out hard and back off if it started to hurt.

The gun went off and the opening pace was ridiculous!! About a quarter mile in I looked down at my Garmin and it had a 4:42 in the pace/mi box? Holy shit, this is not sustainable, was my first thought. I backed off and got passed by a couple groups. The legs were not responding very well so I told myself to find a pace that wasn't too painful and just cruise for the middle three miles and then hammer it for mile 5.

The middle three miles were pretty uneventful. I was holding around a 6:35-6:40 pace and was passing a lot of the people that barreled by in the opening mile. Quite a few of the HS kids were now walking at this point as they all learned a valuable lesson about going out to hard!

Mile 4 approached and I decided to step it up and really picked up the pace. I passed a TON of people in the last mile and finished feeling pretty good with a new PR for the 5mi distance. Probably could have went a little harder but that would have put me on the couch for the next couple of days and I had a big weekend of running planned.

Jeff Irvin

GE Run Thru the Woods

The Woodlands, TX - 11/24/2011

Finish Time - 32:20

Overall Rank - 94/2300

Age Group Rank - 10/155

Old PR - 35:45; New PR by 3m25s

Overall I was pleased with my time but sort of disappointed in my AG ranking. In every other AG my time would have been in the top 3. Last year I finished 8th in my AG but was over 3 minutes slower? This means next year the goal is going to have to be a sub-30! It is good to have goals, right?

Annie got herself a new PR as well and had her first race that she averaged under the 8min/mi pace! She is becoming quite speedy!

Mile Splits per Garmin 310xt:

#1 - 6:08

#2 - 6:34

#3 - 6:40

#4 - 6:31

#5 - 6:04

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Turkey Trot Time

Tomorrow at 8:15am Annie and I will be running in the GE Run Thru the Woods 5mi Turkey Trot!

This will be the third consecutive year we have done this race so I guess it has become kind of a tradition.

Here are my results from the last two years: 

2009 - Total Time - 36:27

               Average Pace - 7:16/Mi 

               Age Group Rank - 25/143

               Overall Rank - 293/2300

2010 -  Total Time - 35:45

              Average Pace - 7:09/Mi

              Age Group Rank - 8/140

              Overall Rank - 128/2266

In 2009 the weather was a perfect 45* at the start but last year it was around 75* with 95% humidity, it was awful. This explains why my overall and age group rankings were considerably stronger in 2010 but I was only 42 seconds faster. Heat and Humidity kills!

The good news is that tomorrow we are expecting extremely pleasant temperatures!

According to Accuweather the temperature in the Woodlands at 8am is supposed to be 52* and sunny with humidity at an uncomfortable 86% BUT the Dew Point is at 48* so it should feel rather crisp.

Love this day and love this race!

Also, I am quite excited to watch the Packers vs the Lions tomorrow. It has been quite some time that meaningful football has been played during the early Turky Day game in Detroit and the much improved Lions are going against the undefeated Packers.  I really do not care who wins but I have Aaron Rodgers, Jordy Nelson, and Jermichael Finley on my fantasy rosters so hoping for lots of points from the Pack!

Is anyone else doing a Turkey Trot tomorrow? Rooting for the Pack or the Lions?

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Random Shit ...

• Last year I was a member of Team Trakkers/Rev3 and really enjoyed my time being part of this wonderful group and great company. It is with regret that for 2012 I will no longer be a part of the team. My work schedule is such that I will be unable to attend any Rev3 races this coming season so I decided to step aside and allow my team slot to go to someone who can give Rev3 and the Team the type of support it deserves. If you have been considering doing a Rev3 Race stop everything and go sign-up right now. You will not e disappointed! I will always be a proud supporter of Rev3 and would like to thank them (especially Carole Sharpless) for letting me be a part of last year's team!

• Getting misty up in here ...

• Last night I chose to start Tim Tebow over Carson Palmer on my fantasy team. Palmer has a much better match-up but I really wanted a reason to watch last night's game AND I am a True Believer of the Tebow. If you saw the game you know that he disappointed for the first 59 minutes of the game but them pulled out a "W" for Denver with a 20-yrd TD run in the last minute.  Also gave me 17-fantasy points! All Hail The Tebow!

• This has been a difficult week on the training front. After a 50K and a Half Marathon 6 days later at all-out paces my body has decided to revolt a little. On Tuesday I got in a slow 5mi run that helped to shake out some of the soreness in my quads. I wanted to run on Wednesday but woke up with some very unpleasant pain in the lower back so decided to take an extra rest day. Last night I got in 8.25mi at a slow 9:15/mi pace and by the end of it the legs felt good but the back started to get sore again. Going to try to go a little harder today(7mi) and tomorrow(5mi) and then am hopeful I will be back to myself for the scheduled 15 miler on Sunday.

• I am absolutely loving The Walking Dead on AMC. If you are not watching this show go set the DVR right now (Sunday's @ 9pm) as it is the best show on TV (I know that is not saying much)!

• In case you have concerns about the possibility of a Zombie Apocalypse fear no more! Fellow bloggers Kevin, Jon, and MattyO along with myself have a plan for when the Zombie Apocalypse occurs (and it will). Since we are all Triathletes with extremely high levels of cardio training we have stepped up and decided we would defend you all as the perfect Zombie Kill Squad! The perfect 4-man zombie wrecking crew. For more details on our plans you should really follow all of us on Twitter - it might just save your life!

• If you have been enjoying all of my recent race reports then you are in for a treat as I have quite the packed race schedule! On Thanksgiving we will be doing our normal 5mi Turkey Trot in the Woodlands. On December 4th I will be running in another Half Marathon over the Fred Hartman Bridge - this is the famous Sausage on a Stick race! I am considering running this race with a Flip Video Camera so you can see everyone suffering as they run over one of Houston's largest bridges and then back again! Then on New Years Day I will be doing another 1/2 marathon in my backyard at the Texas Marathon race in Kingwood!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

San Antonio RnR Half Marathon Race Report

Click image for larger view

At one point the day before the race I considered not running as my legs were still not feeling good from last weeks 50K Trail Run.  Based on the results this would have been a mistake as this was a big time PR and also accomplished a small goal I had set of running a sub-1:30 Half Marathon. This was by far the largest race (over 30k) I have ever ran.

Race Morning:

Annie and I were staying at the "Haunted" Menger Hotel which was two short blocks from the start line. The hotel was awesome and I will post some pics from it later. No ghost sightings ...sigh.

The race started at 7:30am as opposed to the normal 7am starts we have become accustomed. The reason for the later start was that the organizers had put together a charity ride on the marathon course. Makes sense since the roads are already shut down. I saw many a cyclist who was pumped about being able to ride through the city sans traffic.

There were over 30,000 people running the full and the half so toss in all the spectators and the Alamo Plaza/Convention Center area of San Antonio was packed jammed. We run with the LifeTime Fitness Run Club from the Lake Houston LTF and we had around 20 or so run club members doing the race so we spent the time before the race looking for everyone.  Once everyone was located it was time to get ready.

Race:


The way these large Rock n' Roll series races work is that they have corrals based on your expected finish time. Annie had heard they had over 30 corrals this year and to look down the street this would have seemed right as runners were lined up as far as you could see.

My friend Bobby and I were in the first corral as we both put down an expected finish time of 1:30 for the half. Our corral had all the pros and a bunch of intimidating-looking (aka-skinny, not tough) elite runners. Bobby had run the 50k last weekend as well and we both decided to take it easy as our legs were still a little out of sorts.  The plan was to just start off and stay with the heard and then back off a little when things spread out and we could find some real estate to claim as our own. This plan was a massive fail.

The gun went off and we starting moving at around 7min pace. Surprisingly, my legs had some spring in them and felt remarkably good. Bobby was with me for about the first mile and I looked back and told him I was going to see what I could do.

The first four miles felt pretty good, lots of turns on the course and a few hills made it difficult to find a real rhythm but it was so early in the race that it did not really bother you too much. At the mile 3 point there was a band and a bunch of people handing out drinks. One guys was yelling "Root Beer" and I grabbed it thinking a shot of soda would give me a boost. Well, it was Jager. Half of it went down the other half went out my nose. If it wasn't so damn funny I would have turned around and punched the guy in his head.

By mile 5 the lactic acid was starting to creep up in my quads and my new goal was to see if I could hold a 7min/mi pace. The lactic acid burn became manageable and for the next 4 miles and I was just cruising along enjoying the day. Somewhere around mile 9 the sun started to come out and you could really start to feel the humidity. I noticed my breathing was becoming labored and an uncomfortable lung burn was beginning to rear it's unsightly head! I told myself to hold the pace until mile 10 and then just back off and cruise on in over the final 5k. For the second time today a plan was a massive fail.

A few weeks back I had done a 10mi Race (10 for Texas) and despite some muscle issues I ended up with a strong finish time of 1:11:08. So when I passed a race clock at the 10mi point and saw the time of 1:08:45 blaring at me it was time to make a decision. I looked down at the Garmin and did some quick math and figured I needed a time of 20:30 over the final 5K to get in under 90 minutes.

Actually said to myself out loud, "This is gonna hurt!"

And the race was on.

I passed a ton of people in the final 5k and just kept tuning out the pain as the Alamodome kept getting closer and closer. The final 1/2 mile of the race is up a big hill. Last year I was a spectator standing on this hill and I was remembering all the people I saw walking into the finish. That would not be me this year as I hit the hill with authority and busted ass up that sucker.

I crossed the finish line with 28 seconds to spare - 89minutes, 32 seconds.

Jeff Irvin

11/13/11 - RnR Half Marathon

Time: 1:29:32

Overall Place: 149/19365

Gender Place: 125/7337

Age Group Place: 10/1192

Here are the Garmin Splits:

1 - 6:59
2 - 6:46
3 - 6:42
4 - 6:50
5 - 7:00
6 - 6:58
7 - 6:52
8 - 6:46
9 - 6:39
10 - 6:45
11 - 6:41
12 - 6:51
13 - 6:31
.1  - 5:50


Overall this was a fantastic race.  Spectator support was amazing and running through San Antonio was pretty cool. The weather ended up being warm and humid but we all made the best of it as us Texans are used to the pea soup. We enjoy San Antonio and this race so much that we will be doing it again in 2012! Whose in?

A big congrats to my wife Annie who set a PR @ 1:53:01. Congrats to my friends Bobby and Beth who also set PR's of 1:42 and 1:47 and to all the other wonderful runners from the LTF Run Club!

And another huge shout out to my cousin Bonnie who did her first 26.2 yesterday! She is super competitive and did not let the mid-80 degree temps slow her down. Congrats Bon!

**** Edit **** I just re-read this race report and it was not very fun and much more serious than most of my Race Reports.  I apologize for this and leave you with a picture of me kicking Predator ass:

"You Are One Ugly M*******"

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Ghosts and a Half Marathon ...

Annie and I are getting ready to head out to San Antonio for the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon tomorrow. We will both be running the half distance this year.

Annie is going to try and run under a 1:55.  This is the time that qualifies you for early entry into the Houston Marathon and if she misses this time then you must rely on the luck of the draw in the lotto.  The weather is supposed to be a little on the mild to warm side, which sort of sucks!

I really have no time goals as my legs are only about 75% recovered from last weekend's 50K Trail Run. I've done a couple of short runs and feel okay but the "zip" is definitely missing from my step so I am just going to run and see how it turns out!

I am more excited about staying at the Historic Menger Hotel directly across the street from the Alamo. I dig old buildings and the history that surrounds them. The Menger's known to be one of the most Haunted Hotels in America!  Booooooo....

This looks bogus to me but maybe I will be proven wrong tonight:



Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff