Hello and happy Thanksgiving!
Who else hit up a Turkey Trot this morning? Matt, my brother Steve, and I all ran the Alexandria 5 Mile Turkey Trot – an old favorite of mine!
I first ran this race way back in 2006; at the time, I was just starting to get into running and I remember 5 miles being a REALLY big deal. I think this race was actually the first time I ran 5 miles ever! Thanks to the internet, I know that I ran the 2006 race in 42:57 at an 8:35 min/mile pace. That was FLYING for me back then – I remember it being really really hard! I ran the race again in 2007 and finished in 44:56 for an 8:59 pace.
This year, I was ready to blow those times out of the water! Sometimes I don’t really notice how much faster I’ve gotten because it happened pretty gradually – and then I look back at old race times or re-run an old race and realize how far I’ve really come. Even just the fact that 5 miles is a normal/comfortable distance for me now is awesome.
This morning, I decided to set a goal of sub-40 minutes – that would mean less than 8 minute miles. I figured I just did a 10k race in 8 minute miles, and my half marathon PR is about 8:20 min/miles, so that seemed reasonable and like a good challenge!
And we’re off! It was a gorgeous morning for racing. Sunny and cool.
My legs felt a little tight but overall I felt great this morning! Matt and I stuck together the whole time and I just focused on continuing to push it and stay under 8 minute miles. It was hard but it’s amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it! After each mile, I just kept thinking: “You’re perfectly on pace, just hold on for another mile!”
And guess what? It worked. 🙂 We ended up destroying 40 minutes! A new PR (personal record) – woohoo! According to the official results, we came in at 38:34 with an average pace of 7:43 min/miles! Almost a whole minute/mile faster than my old PR on this course back in 2006. Crazy! In my new age group (F 30-39), I came in 25th out of 672 people. Not too shabby!
Splits:
- Mile 1: 7:38
- Mile 2: 7:34
- Mile 3: 7:42
- Mile 4: 7:46
- Mile 5: 7:35
Yay! I’m so proud of us. As it always is with any race, the second to last mile was the hardest. I just had to keep reminding myself that I was almost there!
You know what’s even more impressive? My brother finished in 32:34, for an average pace of 6:31 min/miles. INSANE, right?! Props to him!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
