Turkey Trot 5k ( & 15k for crazy people)

In what is likely the last race of 2010 for the Tang family together, the Plano Pacers Turkey Trot proved to be a bit chillier than the 80 degree weather from earlier in the week. Awoken from Thanksgiving food comas around 6 am, the Tangs were greeted by the familiar eerie pond with cold-induced fog.

After warming up a bit before the 8:05 start, the weather warmed up to a balmy 32 degrees. The usual guest runners chatted it up over the instructional speech.

The countdown began, 5...4...3...2...1...(look down at watch and start it)...GO!

For the first half mile, I tried to pace with Heather (since she told me my usual positive splitting is plain dumb) as the usual clumping of runners stringed out and settled in to their collective paces. Closing in on the first mile marker, I was clumped with a little kid and an older guy that I stuck with and passed. Since it was and out and back course, I conserved some energy near the turnaround point since the 16 minute 5k'ers were flying at me, meaning for once I didn't pass the runners ahead of me too early. At the halfway point, I felt like someone was riding my pace and was going to pass me but I think he went too quick and slowed at the turnaround. I got to see everyone on the way back and gave em' the point and nod.

Around mile 2, I sat on two teenagers' pace then passed them around the pond. I heard footsteps minutes later, thinking it was the teenagers, but it was two little kids that came out of nowhere and blew right past me. When I run faster I tend to use my forefoot so it was at about

this point my metatarsalgia flared its ugly head. Mile 2-3, I was pretty much running alone so I thought I might as well conserve for the final push.

The nice thing about pacing and not going all out? Finally had a decent finishing kick uphill.

The bad thing about pacing and not going all out? Coming up short for first by 10 seconds in my new age group debut.

Pat's good influence circled me back to the finish line to cheer on Heather, Dad, and Mom.

Of note, when we all cheered on Mom for the finishing kick, out of nowhere, she let out a primitive warrior's yell and sprinted home.

Did it help?

1st in the debut age group race, new PR, and is now 4th on the 5k all-time list.

Finishing times:

Aaron Tang 23:32.44

Heather Tang 25:06.28

John Tang 25:57.04

Lisa Tang 27:18.32 *PR

Thoughts:

• Guy in the Foakleys at the race, talking loudly with your bro while the rest of us tried to listen to the directions for the race that everyone was about to run? You're just amazing and cool. I wish I could be you.

• Nice to see a ton of DRC half marathon shirts were on display today.

• Bagels and water after the race, excellent.

The warm yellow drink being passed out? I really hope that was not what it tasted like.

• After each finish, I realize now that I walk a bit wobbly for the first couple of steps as if I had vertigo.

• Heather (running, not racing as one of her friends put it) and Dad (who had a hurt right foot for the first part of the race) were short from medalling by probably 10 seconds, I from 1st in about the same time. Dad's age group is the most competitive and the high school xc team came out for Heather's age group. But I think we can all agree, new PR > medals. Unless your name is Mom, then new PR/1st place medal/ moving two spots up the 5k list > all.

• New 5k PR. My goal for 2011.

Thanksgiving Week

Due to sickness, I have been out of commission for a week so I apologize for the lack of writing.

A couple of points:

With Thanksgiving festivities this week, I along with many of you will be moving up a weight class (or two). If you race, remember extra lbs mean extra seconds so instead of PRing, try not yakking turkey and enjoy it.

Which should make those 5k Turkey Trots fun. Anyone running one? Anyways, I read that people who signed up for the one in Dallas are dropping because it'll be chilly. How cold will it be? Between 40-60 or the perfect running weather.

The winner? Local Plano phenom Scott MacPherson, who won the San Antonio Half and this Turkey Trot three times in a row. And qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials? :bows:

TV time:

Dexter Morgan (of Dexter) held his own on that treadmill for an hour this week. I am sure all of you are wondering as I am if I could beat Dexter in a race.

Without a doubt, running against Ruxin or Andre (from The League) in a race would be no contest. I wonder what Andre's time in the marathon was?

Thoughts from the Week

I. And the award for sappiest coach goes to...

II. ESPN's THE DECISION part deux

III. Chi-Town

IV. Aaron Tang the Sheep

1.

I was thinking I would go all hokey and award runners who had stellar years but somehow I managed to go even hokier and I realized that I really can not point to just one runner but a whole team that has improved vastly (*cue female audience "awwwwwww" reaction).

It really is scary the change that has happened in a year. We have a formidable top 5 group that can go sub 24 in the 5k. If only we all worked at the same corporation, we could smoke other sponsored teams.

2.

I will announce an hour long press conference to declare where I will train for next year.

Will I choose my hometown team that has had a recent string of sports failures? Or will I head further east to join the top 4 5k male runners? Will I make a juvenile Nike commercial with Don Johnson? We will find out come December.

3.

This is less than a year away, but organizing a trip to Chicago is bouncing around in my head. Not necessarily marathon/ running specific but for a Texas and Rhode Island meet and Chicago is in between more or less. If it just happens that Chicago has a marathon then, that would be a coincidence.

4.

While in a previous post I have gone against the grain and mentioned my reluctance to try a marathon, I think that I may have to give in and get an iPod shuffle. Anyone who knows me probably would be shocked to know I have been running sans music since leaving Providence.

Great Success at the Turkey Trot 5k: RR

You know its a good day when a Quad-PR occurs.

Thats right!

All of us got our PR this morning at the Turkey Trot 5k in the lovely suburban town of Norwell, Mass.

It was all a little too hard to believe - that all of us PR'd, shaving off at least 1.5 minutes from our previous times, so we thought that perhaps this 5k was a little shorter than usual. So, when Knapp's forerunner watch finally got a signal, we all decided to RE-WALK the course to get some peace of mind to see if we actually did the whole 3.1 and got an actual PR. Turned out to be 3.1 mi. exactly, so our times were valid. YES!

It was actually nice, re-tracing our steps and checking out the kick-ass houses in Norwell. I'd def. get a house there if I had the dinero!

I'm sure I'm going to repeat a lot of things that Kevin and Knapp said in their RR's, so I'll make this short.

The course was decent, not very scenic...just the burbs, but nice none-the-less. There was one semi-big downhill and uphill (but not that steep). Went 1.5 mi one way and then we looped back, which I always like doing because I get to see the guys and get awesome high-fives.

My official time was 28:56, but I remember passing the clock at 28:55, and I'm shaving an extra 2 seconds off that because I started about 2 seconds behind the starting line :). So, according to me, I ran a 28:53. Definitely happy about my time, but there's always room for improvement!

I'm very happy that everyone PR'd and Kevin actually got 1st place in his age group! GO KEV!

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

Norwell 5k RR

After finding out I had to work for the Dec. 5 Jingle Bell race I decided to search the local scene for another race. I happened upon the Norwell 5k in Norwell, Mass. It seemed to be a perfect race for a PR....small, only 150 people, or so, last year. We got there about 40 minutes early, enough time to show off our shoes and get our bibs. The photographer was so impressed with our kicks, Sean and I both got close up snap-shots.

After the inevitable pre-race poop, we lined up at the starting line. I had really high expectations for myself, considering recent training runs I had had. For some reason my brand new GPS watch would not lock on to the damn satelitte, so I was stuck with an incredibly over-sized regular watch. After the gun went off, it was nice not having to bob and weave through all the slower runners in front of me. From the first turn I set off to run nothing but the sharpest tangents I could, something I have been working on for every previous race.

I started out strong, feeling really well. The course was not scenic at all like it was described to be, but it was perfect for running. At the first mile marker I was exactly at 7:40...whoa, what the hell was I doing. I really didn't feel bad though so I decided to keep going at the same pace. Midway through the second mile there was a sharp downhill section laster a few hundred feet (bonus). I took full advantage of it and tried to go as fast as I could. Once we came close to the turnaround, I saw Kevin..then Sean....then Nikki. Once I saw the second mile marker, I glanced at my watch and saw 15:10...a 7:30 mile. With only 1.1 to go I knew I could keep that pace up, but that downhill now became a daunting uphill behemoth that lied ahead of me.

For some reason, maybe I was just feeling it, the hill did not faze me at all. I think I passed 6 or 7 people on it. Once I hit the top I knew I was going to utterly destroy the rest of it. I finished strong at nearly the same pace as the rest of the race, save for a nice sprint at the end. Finishing time: 23:42.. about a 7:38 mile. The thing that impressed me most was the completely even splits, almost exact considering the hill.

Once I heard Kevin's time, and saw Sean and Nikki finish and saw their times, I was highly skeptical about the actually distance of the course. For some reason as soon as I turned on my watch the GPS worked right away.. lame. So we decided to do probably the most ridiculous thing we could do and walk the entire 5k again to see if it was accurate. The Garmin said it was exactly 3.1 miles, so these times are 100% Bobby Jenks certified.

The best things about doing these races for me, is the huge inspiration I get to train for the few weeks after. I mostly cannot wait to run again. Next on my plan: a 10k in December in Newport. Not only is it an auto PR... I think it will be a perfect running distance. After that, actually the next day, my marathon training starts. Bring it Boston.

Thoughts from the Week

Karma, Trophies, The "off-season"

I.

To rectify leaving my sister at mile 3 and the subsequent pacing roller coaster I was on, I decided to pick up her award for taking 3rd in her age group. Turns out the only award left was a 2nd place award which is actually pretty sweet looking:

II.

I peeked at the 5k awards and they look the same. Now, if I was a trophy hunter, my best bet would be to enter in to the DRC 5k. I think all 5 of us could've placed. If I was a trophy hunter.

III.

Again, I am proud of everyone for their half marathon finishes. At the half way point, I thought to myself, Why in the heck am I running 13.1 miles? It took a lot of hard work for everyone to reach the finish line.

After 12 weeks preparing for the 13.1 miler, a lot of thoughts are swimming through my mind on what is next for everyone and myself.

I think there's a 5k at the end of November that should be do-able and then from there, I think I am going to go against the popular decision (Tang do something unorthodox? Go on) and run another 13.1 in the spring/ early summer time. Arbitrarily, I do not feel confident mentally in tackling a 26.2 until I meet my personal 5k and 13.1 goals.

Where's everyone going from here?

Happy Birthday Coach!

(This is what came up when I googled happy birthday running haha)

DRC Half Marathon Pictures

Those photographers are catching on that I just screen shot their pics so they have thrown on more text.

I like how the girl who took off her jacket had to put it on herself for picture ID'ing.

Confusing beginning Muslce Milk arch that was NOT the finish

The actual finish line with the Wood part of the Wood Tang Clan. What scares me is the fact that I do not remember seeing cars at the finish line or anything for that matter.

Heather sporting the half-Hilliard.

The full-Hilliard.

The Nixon finish

Half-Hilliard (look what you did to all the photos, Nikki)

Awesome

Pretty awesome aerial shot of the NYC marathon, I'm totally putting my name in for next year.

http://gizmodo.com/5685354/watch-40000-marathon-runners-invade-new-york-city