Festival Foods Turkey Trot - Race Report

It's been a few years since I last run in the Festival Foods Turkey Trot. The last year I ran in it in 2012. This year, my work schedule was about as good as it gets, especially for a holiday weekend. I didn't have to work on Thanksgiving and also had the two days before and after off....like I said, damn near perfect. I was quick to sign up for this years Turkey Trot, as it is one of my favorite events. Yea, yea, yea....I know I say that a lot about races, but the Turkey Trot is just a fun event. First, our family is always available on Thanksgiving morning, so everyone in my family gets to participate. Secondly, they offer a 2 mile walk/"dog jog" in addition to the more competitive 5 mile run. Thirdly, what better way to kick off a holiday synonymous with stuffing your mouths with food, than with a little bit of exercise? Oh yea....and the top 5 male and top 5 female finishers each get a free turkey and EVERYONE gets a FREE PUMPKIN PIE!

Training for This Race

Again, no specific training, but I have been staying pretty committed with increasing my running volume over the last couple months. I have been up in the 30+ miles per week, which isn't too bad for me, especially when I'm not following a marathon plan. I wanted to keep my running stress relatively low leading up to this race, since I had two races planned this week, one on Thursday and a second on Sunday. So, I ran 8 miles on Sunday, and 6 on Tuesday (not counting the Santa Scamper). I then swam on Monday and Wednesday.

Prerace

Again, much like the Freaky 5k, I found myself watching the weather as there was rain in the forecast, the entire week leading up to the race. We had planned on Sarah doing the 2 mile dog jog with the kids and our pups, so we had to be a little more considerate of the weather. The race started at 8am and parking in Downtown Appleton is a huge pain in the butt, so I really wanted to leave around 6:30am to get a decent parking spot around 6:45ish. I woke up around 6:00 and between Sarah and I, we were able to get the kids up and dressed and ready to go by 6:45. The weather forecast was still calling for rain, but just a light drizzle with temperatures in the low to mid 40's. All-in-all, not a bad morning, especially for Thanksgiving in Wisconsin. We ended finding a great parking spot and had some time to spare and just hang out in the car for a while before leaving to head to the start line. I left a little earlier than Sarah to get warmed up. I was able to get a decent warm up in and was feeling pretty good and was feeling confident to have a good race. On a complete side note....the race takes place right on College Av. in Appleton (Downtown). The race start is directly outside the Paper Valley Hotel, which happens to be the same hotel NFL teams stay at when they are in town to play to Packers. The Chicago Bears were spending the night there for their Thanksgiving day match up against the Packers. To kick off the race, the announcer prompted a "GO PACK GO" chant to upset the rival Bears. Evidently this worked as the Bears had called down to complain about the noise.

Nutrition Plan

To stay consistent with shorter races, I didn't eat anything before and also didn't plan to take anything during the race. All I took was 2 Hammer Nutrition Anti-Fatigue Caps one hour prior to the start of the race.

Equipment

Nike Zoom Streak LT2

PRO Compression Socks

Hammer Cycling Jacket

Garmin 910XT

Road ID Elite

5 Mile Run

Other than early in the year, all my running races this year had been 5k (3.1 miles). I have become pretty comfortable with running this distance. I really wasn't sure what my strategy was going to be with this race. Mentally, I had the plan to think of it as a 2 mile "warm up" followed by a 5k, that ended up becoming my race plan. It was simple and left room for flexibility. I also knew that there was a steep hill around mile 4 of the race, so I knew I would need to keep some energy in the bank to propel me up the hill without burning out during the final mile.



After the race started, I started conservatively and allowed all the foolish runners who like to sprint at the start pass me. After the first right hand turn, I was running comfortably and just kept reminding myself that this was not a 5k, that I had 5 miles ahead of me. The first 2 miles went by and I was feeling really good. My breathing was "in sync" with my pace and heart rate. By this point in the race, most of the guys who went out too fast have faded back to their proper place. I continued to just stay focused on the distance remaining relative to how I was feeling physically. I also just kept on trying to catch up to the running in front of me and passing them.

After passing mile 3, I knew I could start to kick up the pace a tad. Even if my pace did not increase, I know my perceived exertion increased. Right around mile 3.5, you head down a steep hill that runs along a river for about a quarter mile, before heading up the steep hill I mentioned before. Coming down the home stretch I was passed by another guy who had a strong kick, but ultimately, didn't loose a spot as I passed a different guy shortly there after.

The last time I ran this race, the 2 mile walk and the 5 mile run joined together during the last tenth of a mile and finished together under the same finish line. I don't know if they changed that this year, or one of the other two years which I wasn't able to participate, but this year they separated the two finish lines. The 5 mile runners were never on the same course except for the very beginning, but this was never an issue due to a staggered start. In the past the finish line was so cluttered with walkers that the runners had to dodge and run around groups of walkers. Honestly, it wasn't fair to either of the two groups. The runners wanted to finish fast and hard without interruption, while the walkers didn't want to get bumped and brushed by runners. So this change was a no brainer and a great change!

I ended up finishing in 30:39 averaging a 6:08/mile pace. I finished 20th overall and 1st in my age group. This was my 5th (of 8) Turkey Trots. It was also the 3rd race on this course. It was my second best time and my best time on this course. I am extremely happy with my race. I went into this race with a "high end" goal of finishing under 30 minutes. I had a more realistic goal of finishing around 31-32 minutes.

Post Race

After the race, I headed over to the finish line of the 2 mile untimed walk to try and track down Sarah, the girls, and my mom, who all walked together. On my way to their finish line, I grabbed my FREE pumpkin pie (another great reason to run this event), and stopped by the "Runner's Food" table, where I grabbed some doughnut holes and a bottled water. I ended up hanging around the finish line for about 10 minutes. I was started to get a little chilly and decided to walk the course in reverse to find them on the course. I walked all the way to the end of the walkers and didn't find them. I walked all the way back and ended up finding them near the food table. We packed up and headed home to get showered up and ready to make the rounds to all our families to stuff our gullets with Thanksgiving food!

What's on Tap

As I write this, I have already done the Noodleini 5k, but taking this one step at a time, I will write this as what was going through my mind after the Turkey Trot. So, the next race I had schedule was the Noodleini 5k on Sunday, just 3 days after the Turkey Trot. I went into this three day stretch with a specific personal goal of NO RUNNING. I wanted to try to avoid any excess stress that just wasn't necessary. On Friday, I felt good, and good enough to go for swim, which I did. Saturday, was a busy day and frankly just too busy to even workout if I wanted to. Lucky for me, because, I was the most sore on Saturday, so I was glad I was too busy to even consider working out.

Thanks for reading!
Cheers!

Festival Foods Turkey Trot - Race Report

The Festival Food's Turkey Trot is an event that has become a family tradition, not only for my immediate family, but also my parents, brother, and his girlfriend.  This year was the 6th year of the Turkey Trot and the 2nd year it has been run in Downtown Appleton, as opposed to Menasha the previous 4 years.  My mom and dad have done the event from the very first year, while I have now done it 4 of the past 5 years.  The only reason I missed the race in 2010 was I had just started working for Winnebago County Sheriff's Office and was training on 1st shift.  The event itself has become a rather large event, which is fantastic.  It offers families a great way not only to spend quality time together, but quality time together exercising prior to a traditionally glutenous holiday.  I've heard that average person consumes roughly 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving day!  So, when a community comes together to offer an event to promote health and fitness, I'm all for it.

Training Plan

I honestly, did not have a full blown "training plan" for the Turkey Trot, but did have a rough outline of days I would run and days I would not run.  Basically, my plan consisted of 3 runs per week.  I would do a fartlek run on Tuesdays, a moderate distance (6-8 mile) run on Thursday or Friday, and a long (8-10 mile) run on Sundays.  The days between I would either take off and rest, swim, or bike.  I was extremely flexible with my "plan" and would not go to great lengths to make sure a workout got in on any particular day.  Bare in mind, that I was technically still in my off season recovery mode from Ironman Wisconsin, back in September.  With that in mind, I definitely took it easy, and ate like absolute crap (not proud to admit it....but hey, it's the truth)!

Day/Night Before the Race

I finagled my work schedule to get the night before Thanksgiving off.  I had to pull a trade with a buddy of mine, which isn't always easy to pull off, considering it was the night before Thanksgiving.  I not only wanted to participate in the Turkey Trot (which I would have regardless of working the night before), but also to spend at least a portion of Thanksgiving together with my family and daughters.  The day before the race was spent with the family.  Maya, Delaney, and I made a pie for Thanksgiving and then had dinner.  I made stuffed acorn squash for dinner and for the first time ever, I had beer with dinner the night before a race.  Not just one beer, and I didn't stop at two, but had 3 beers with dinner that night.  I think that goes to show where my priorities have been at this off season.  Either way, I got to bed at a reasonable hour and had everything set for both the Turkey Trot in the morning and Thanksgiving.

Getting to the Start Line

I was tired and honestly wanted to stay in bed when my alarm started going off at 5am.  But, I got up, poured a cup of coffee and hopped onto Facebook.  I saw that someone had posted something to the effect of there being snow for the Turkey Trot.  I quickly jumped up and looked outside and sure enough, there was about 1-2 inches of snow.  The first true snow fall of the 2013 winter...on Thanksgiving...the morning of a race.  The kicker is, that last year it was 60* outside.  Now this year, it was snowy and 20*, quite the difference.  None-the-less, we woke up the girls and bundled them up and were on the road by 6:45 and on our way to downtown Appleton.  After finding a parking spot and putting off getting out of our warm car until the last possible moment, we met up with my parents near the start line to pick up our race bibs.  My dad and I then did a short run to start warming up and at 8:00, it was back to the start line for the start of the race.

5 Mile Run

Not that it was a major concern of mine at the start of the race, but in the back of my head I was wondering exactly how much of an impact the previous night's snowfall would have on the race.  It was only a light snow, but definitely enough to impact footing, especially on corners.  The first 200-400 yards of the race went straight West down College Av, which is the main drag of Downtown Appleton, so there was little to no snow in the streets.  But almost immediately after turning right off of College, we were on side streets which were not nearly as clear.  If you stayed in the area of travel for vehicles, the roads were clear of fresh snow and were either just wet with water or slush.  I started the race as I do with all races, slower than most.  I have never gone out like a bat out of hell like 98% of the participants do, I don't know why I don't, I just never have and don't ever plan on changing.  Naturally, I had a decent size group ahead of me, but I was fine with that, knowing that it wouldn't be long before they tired out.  By about mile 2 or so, I had passed majority of those who go out too fast.  By mile 3 I started to feel as though I had gone out too fast.  I began to focus on my breathing and just tried to get into a rhythm.  It seemed to have worked, maybe my pace didn't increase, but I felt comfortable as the race progressed.  The snow really wasn't as big of an issue as I had thought it might be.  It really only impact the race on the corners.  You could not take the corners at full speed, for risk of slipping and falling.  As you approached a corner you had one of two choices.  1. You could slow down and take the corner cautiously.  2. You could take the corner wide, where the earlier vehicle traffic had melted majority of the snow and you would be able to stay on concrete.  No matter which option you choose, you're adding seconds onto your time.  Not a lot of time, but they add up, there's no doubt.

By mile 4, I was taxed, but new the end was near.  Right after the 4th mile marker is the vaunted hill that not one person looks forward to.  Could the hill come at any worse part of the race?  Well, I suppose it could, it could always be at the finish line, but still a big hill right during the last mile....sheesh.  After I pushed up the hill I decided to crank up the my pace and push.  I passed a couple additional people on the last half mile or so.  As I was coming down the home stretch there was one more guy in front of me and made it my goal to pass him.  With about 2-3 blocks left, I had passed him, but

he had one spare match left over, where I, on the other hand, had burnt all my matches.  He sprinted past me on the final 50-100 yards to finish ahead of me.  Honestly, I wasn't too upset about it, probably because I knew I had nothing left and he was just better then I at that point.  I finished the race in 31:32 (6:19/mile).  My time last year was 30:56, so I did not set a new PR, which I was really hoping to do, but all things considered with the colder temperatures and snowy roads, I was pretty happy with my race.  Ultimately, I only added 36 seconds to my time, or an additional 7 seconds per mile.  I placed 29th out of 2,838 finishers and 3rd out of 29 finishers in my age group.  My dad finished in 35:20 and placed 117th overall and 1st of 24 in his age group.

Festival Foods Turkey Trot - Details

Post Race

One of the coolest things about the Festival Foods Turkey Trot is the free pumpkin pie!  A lot of participants choose to donate their pies to the local food pantry which is also very cool.  In past years, I have opted to donate my pie, but this year I picked up my pie with the intentions of bringing it to work that night to share with our department's "3rd Shift Thanksgiving," since I had to work that night.  The race does not put a lot of money and/or effort into the post race spread, which is quite alright.  It's simply not what the race/event is about.  The event is about promoting family and fitness on a day that has been overcome with sales, shopping, and pre-Christmas preparations.  They do still have water, bananas, and doughnut holes, but nothing in addition.  Since I had to work that night and we had plans of spending Thanksgiving with my family that day, we didn't hang around too long after the race.  So after Sarah, the girls, and my mom finished the 2 mile walk, we loaded up the car and headed home to get cleaned up for our family feast.

Other Notes

Part of me is satisfied with my race time while another part of me is thinking I really let myself down.  I wonder whether or not I could have gone harder/faster with the fitness that I had.  I honestly wasn't sore at all after this race, which is odd, especially after a 5 mile race.  I also feel as though I really have fallen off the wagon, so to speak.  I have eaten everything that I have avoided in the past and really just been a slob (relatively speaking).  I've been caught between me wanting to enjoy my down time after finishing the Ironman, but that has now been 3 months ago, and I am still just eating crap foods that do nothing for me other than taste good.  I have been feeling cruddy, my stomach has been in knots, and my sleep has been sub par.  I can only think of pinning the blame on my piss poor diet.  I keep telling myself that I'll make the change tomorrow, or next week, or after the holidays.  I never say, "I'll make the change today."  It's frustrating and I only have myself to blame.  I know I need the break, not only for my body to recover, but also for my sanity.  But, I should know that taking a break doesn't mean a green light to eat what ever I want when I want to.  I know that doesn't fit into a successful off season recovery period, it does just the opposite.

Lessons for Future Events

There were not any real lessons taken away from this event.  Simply put, this is also a late season race, which always comes 1-2 months after my season ending "A" race.  I rarely put any emphasis on this race, training wise and honestly, just take it for what it is, a great tradition to do what I love, with the ones I love.

What's Next

I have been spending the past month or so now compiling a 2014 race schedule.  I have for sure put the Green Bay Marathon on my list for an early season marathon.  I am taking a new approach to my training this year for a marathon and will be focusing all my efforts to run a sub 3 hour marathon.  I will post my training plan on here soon, but all I will say for now, is that it begins Monday, December 16th!  So stay tuned for a post on my training plan and specific workout detail on how I plan on running a sub 3 hour marathon.