16th Annual HELPline Thanksgiving Day
Huntsville, AL
November 26, 2009
Official Results
Not too much to comment here since this was just a test of my legs and fitness following the great time I had just 5 days earlier at Dizzy Fifties 50km. I have come to realize that it is extremely difficult to be very competitive at both ultra (or endurance) running and short distance races. I admire elite athletes like Dathan Ritzenhein who is awesome at both ends of the spectrum (2:10 marathon and an American Record of 12:56.27 at 5000m). It more than just the star high school quarterback who also is the starting pitcher on the baseball team; the specificity of training for the marathon is much different than that of the short distance track races. Although I am not anywhere near the class of Dathan, I pride myself as being able to compete at any distance.
As far as the race goes, I told Rob Youngren at the start that this was either going to be a phenomenal day or it was going to be a horrendous disaster. I was going to go out hard and see how long I could hold on.
The competition was decent, although not as good as some of the recent road races I have entered. Josh Whitehead, a peaking Steven Baker, a few guys from the Fleet Feet Racing Team and the unknown runners that run Turkey Trots - visiting family, home from college, etc. Overall there were 1100 registered runners, making it good sized field.
The weather was cold but perfect for short distance running. The wind however, blowing steady from the north would be a factor after the half way point when the course would run back on itself to the finish.
The course for the Turkey Trot is the same as HTC Twilight 5k held in July. I had run this course at 17:15 back in the summer, but it was 50 degrees warmer and it was the second 5km of the day (double with Da Doo Run Run 5km that same morning).
We did take off fast, as planned. I wanted to get as much in the bank early, before hitting the wind. I tried to cover the distance as the lead pack pushed out hard. I split the first mile in 5:15.
On the way to the cone turn around, I was running with Steven Baker. I had the lead until about a quarter of a mile before the cone, when I strategically let him take the lead. He is a tall runner, and if he could hold the pace on the return, I would be able to draft off of him and then make my move on the hill.
So at the turn, I stayed just a single stride behind him as we ran back against the grain, seeing other runners. I was working very hard to maintain, but not as hard if I was doing it alone. I was careful to pay attention to my watch to make sure that we were not going too slow, where I could run faster into the wind alone. This was a great game plan, although I probably should have made my move much sooner. The second mile split was 5:24.
I finally made the decisive move on the inside as we hit the bottom of the hill. I focused on my form and made sure my arm swing was pulling up my knees. I put a few meters on Steve, but the race was far from over. I now had to hold him and his sprinting abilities off as we hit the home stretch. I split this mile in 5:42, which was by far the slowest mile. I know that it was into the wind and uphill, but I should have been able to run a little faster.
This course does have one of the fastest finishes around as it makes a final turn and progresses downhill to the finish. I had gone past the 3 mile mark with enough time to come in under 17 minutes, but the fatigue in my legs from the fast miles early on and presumably from Dizzy 50km jumped on my back and I just missed my goal as I ran 17:01. I was just 3 seconds in front of Steven. I think that by running together we ran faster than we would have run had we gone it alone. He would later tell me that after the cone turn around, that his legs were dead too.
My time was fast enough to place me 4th overall out of 993 finishers and 1st in my age group (M30-34). I can't say that I am disappointed in this time; I had not really done any speed work in over a month and had run a 50 mile and a 50km race since that last track workout. Actually, I am fairly pleased that I had enough muscle memory to hit this time and come down from my specialty distance of ultra running and be competitive with the short distance runners at their game.
Overall a nice belated birthday present.
Turkey Trot 5k Results Top 10
1 Josh Whitehead, 31 - 16:01 pace 5:10
2 Jeremy Winter, 18 16:41 pace 5:22
3 Dan Miner, 24 16:46 pace 5:24
4 Eric Charette, 33 - 17:01 pace 5:29
5 Stephen Baker, 28 - 17:04 pace 5:30
6 Donald Bowman, 42 - 17:11 pace 5:32
7 Avery Ainsworth, 29 - 17:14 pace 5:33
8 Tucker Oliver, 17 M - 17:23 pace 5:36
9 Robert Youngren, 35 - 17:24 pace 5:36
10 Aaron Saylor, 18 - 18:07 pace 5:50