Norwell Turkey Trot 5K RR

This is my first blog post in quite some time. I felt it was necessary after the events of today's race. Sean, Nikki, Knapp and I decided a few weeks ago that we needed to run a race, so when Knapp found the Turkey Trot in Norwell, MA and we all had the weekend off, it was a match made in running heaven. I have been jacked up for this race ever since. I spent all week at work thinking about it. Yesterday, the anticipation reached its peak after our warm up run and after watching Spirit of the Mararthon.

Today I followed my typical pre-race traditions. I set my alarm, leaving my self plenty of time to get ready to leave, only to snooze it up 3 times and just roll out of bed at the last minute. I threw on my race gear real quick (including the Lunar Racers, which I have fallen in love with) and grabbed my traditional granola bar and banana.

When we arrived at the race we had plenty of time for our other customary pre-race activity (I won't elaborate). The conditions for the race where pretty ideal. The temperature was right in the mid fifties and there was minimal wind. Most importantly, there were only about 150 people running, making it so there was basically no weaving through the crowd at all. I was feeling probably about as confident as I ever had before a race.

As the race began, I really only had to fight for position for 5 - 10 seconds, then it was clear sailing from that point on. The first mile seemed to fly by and when I glanced down at my watch I was surprised to see I was rocking a 6:34. I was in the zone. I felt like I wasn't even really pushing it that hard and I was close to the front of the pack, which was pumping me up even more so. I decided I wasn't going to look at the watch again until the 2-mile marker and when I reached that point I looked down to see that I had shaved a few seconds off my pace and I was right around 13 minutes. At this point I realized that if I could come close to maintaining this pace, the all time TCRC 5K title could be attainable.

It would be a tall task however, because immediately after the 2-mile marker, was a long and relatively steep hill. As I began my assent, I got my second dose of Arcade Fire's "Month of May". I was so locked in though, I didn't even bother skipping the song and continued to climb the hill. The hill turned out to be not as daunting as I had anticipated and I was on the home stretch. With about 0.3 miles remaining as I turned into the High School, I glanced down at my watch one last time and realized that Pat's record was very very attainable. I tried to turn it on as best as I could for the remainder of the race, but I really only had enough in the tank for a brief sprint for the last 75 meters or so. I just missed the record by about 7 seconds or so and Pat's title remains intact.

The best part of today's race though was not my PR, but the fact that everyone pretty much shattered their PR's. I got about 2 minutes to rest after I finished, before I had to get on my feet and cheer on Knapp and the rest of the clan as every one finished mighty strong. After we all finished the race with such great times, needless to say we were all a little skeptical of the course so, we used Knapp's Forerunner, which had finally acquired its satellites to map out the course, despite it being USATF certified. To our delight, the course checked out and is now not only USATF certified, but Bobby Jenks Certified (we waved their first year of fees).

Final time: 20:55

13th place overall

First in our age group