2009 Ashburn Farm Turkey Trot 10K

I've been called by some "the most passive peer pressure person I know" and in some ways I'm proud of that. My sister had been nagging me to run this Turkey Trot Thanksgiving Day run with her for some time and I was hesitant because I didn't know if I'd be interested in running 12 days after my marathon. Upon arriving home I stated doing research about the run and found out registration for the race my sister suggested had closed. I was determined to run after watching a few evening specials on Thanksgiving binge eating and found a local 5k and 10k. I immediately put my "passive peer pressure" into effect by mass-texting most of my high school friends who were home for break to see if they would be interested in running. The response was lousy but I managed to convince a few friends to do the race with me, and even convinced my sister and her boyfriend as well.

I signed up online (bummed I missed the performance shirt deadline, cotton will have to do this time) and was excited to learn that the run was organized by Crossroads Church went to a school they were funding in Uganda.

I went out for packet pickup for the night before and got put through the ringer picking up 4 different peoples stuff.

The morning of the race everyone met at my house and we headed out around 7:15. The temperature outside was pretty cold and with a damp mist/ fog in the air it was perfect weather for running. We lucked out and got a parking spot right in front of the church and I set out to find the start line. Everyone huddled indoors trying to stay warm before the race, I was excited and had set a personal goal of 50 minutes, which I felt was reasonable and achievable with 8:00 minute miles.

The race went fairly well going out somewhat slow on the first mile and increasing the pace throughout the race as I warmed up. This was the first time I had run since the marathon and around the halfway mark I began running out of gas. I knew that I would have no problem running the distance, whether I would be able to make my goal time was another question. The course setup was motivating in that you had 3 out and back loops where you ran down a road and turned around running back past the other people behind you, or in my case running and seeing lots of people ahead of me including seeing the race leader at one point, who finished about 15 minutes ahead of me.

I did it, my goal time of 50 minutes (I really wanted 48:00) was achieved and I felt as if the binge eating I would partake in later that day was somewhat justified. Tim my friend who ran with me and claimed to have not run in over a month finished much faster with a time in the 42's, pretty quick!

The race day stats mile splits, etc.