Highlands Ranch Turkey Trot Race Report

Adam and I decided a while ago that we were going to run the local Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. The start line was less than a mile from our house and the last mile of the course ran on the bike trail that cuts through the open space behind our back yard. How could we not do it?

The weather here has been pretty nice with just a few days in the 30's and 40's and a lot of days in the 50's, 60's and 70's. We checked out the hour by hour forecast for race morning and saw 9 degrees...ouch. We were both pretty sure we had never raced in weather that cold. I've run in much much colder many times, but raced, no. Once I thought about it, I realized I ran a Turkey Trot in Buffalo back in 2003 that was pretty darn cold. I wasn't sure how to dress. Adam was contemplating wearing shorts and a singlet with gloves and a hat, but I talked him into wearing a bit more. It was pretty cold when we went over to register and ran back to the house to stretch, but then warmed up a bit by the race start, maybe 15 or 20 degrees with sunshine. I ended up wearing running tights, a short sleeve drifit shirt, a long sleeve drifit shirt, gloves, and a hat over my headband (my ears get cold). I ended up only slightly warm in the last half mile but other than that, it was almost the perfect amount of layering.

Anyway, to the race. I think in all there were 869 finishers. Thankfully there was chip timing. I lined up in the 2nd-3rd row, behind Adam and next to several high school xc runners who I assumed to be (and was right) some of the fastest female runners in the race. I wasn't really sure how good I would feel in the cold dry air and without much speed in my legs and I quickly got the answer.

In typical turkey trot fashion, people sprinted out from the start like they were running a 100m dash. I started conservatively, and then had to dodge people and kids that had to slow down and even a couple people that stopped and turned around and started running the opposite direction on the course. Ok...

By the first turn, I wasn't passing as many people but the uphill had begun. I knew the course was basically uphill the first half and downhill the second half with a little hills along the way, but I didn't realize how much uphill it was. We turned so many times, I'm not sure I could rerun the race course, and we run through this neighborhood pretty often and live near here!

My legs felt ok, I couldn't move them a lot faster, but they didn't feel tired. I just couldn't breathe. I'm sure the cold dry air didn't help, but my asthma has been much worse lately and I haven't been treating it at all. I was starting to think maybe this is not the best idea.

I passed the mile in 6:52. Not good, but considering how much uphill and turning and the cold, I was okay with it. At that point I was ready to get back to the finish and not too concerned with my place or time. Even more uphills and turns and then a sign for the "2 mile mark". My watch said 12:03 which was definitely not right. I would like it to be right, but the 2 mile mark was just not placed correctly. Then the downhill. I got to pickup some speed here but we were on the sidewalk of a busyish road, so I had to hop on the grass to dodge around and pass some people. Then onto the bike path for a little more downhill before a short little uphill that I run several times a week at the beginning of my runs.

I glanced at my watch there and saw that I was at 19 mins something and could see the finish line but it was pretty far away. It was definitely not going to be a fast day, even with the downhill towards the end. But I tried to give a kick in at the finish and at least feel like I got a good workout out of it. I ended up 10th overall and 3rd in 30-39 with a 21:44. One of my slowest (if not the slowest) 5k times on the road ever. I used to be able to not train much and still be able to run mid to low 20's when I'm somewhat out of shape, so running 21:44 was a little discouraging.

We got our goody bags, walked through the expo area and got some "free stuff" and did a cooldown, running with the guy who ended up winning the race. He had run a 16:19, which after hearing some of his results was pretty slow for him. And then seeing the times for the winning girl (she was 17) and seeing that it was much slower than her most of her cross country 5k times, I didn't feel as bad about my slow 5k. It was just a slow course. I'm looking forward to running when I am moving a little faster though.

It was a fun way to start off the morning. I think it definitely sent Adam back into running retirement though...