Happy Thanksgiving! 2009 Dana Point Turkey Trot

We began our Thanksgiving celebration the day prior with a BBQ at the beach. I brought my scooter along, with a “maybe” that I’d join my boys. Well, a mom can’t bring her scooter and not scoot along. So on a day that I promised myself physical relaxation I rode my scooter for a couple hours with my three boys along the ocean side. That’s worth giving thanks.

To bed early, I slept restlessly, finally waking at 5:45 for a race that I openly loathe – The Dana Point Turkey Trot. Why do I loathe this race? For one, it bores me practically to death, for two, it is way too crowded, and three, it is so poorly organized, which I won’t go into detail, because it is after all Thanksgiving, and to complain isn’t very thankful.

So why did I run this race that I so desperately loathe? Easy. I can’t not run a 10k race in my own backyard. I just can’t, can’t, can’t.

So, I ran to the race for a warm-up, and squeezed into the crowd. As I crossed the start line, I hit the timer on my wristwatch, aiming to break an hour. The crowd was thick, difficult to plow through, as walkers generally did not line up toward the back. I figured I’d just make up time in the last half.

It was a beautiful day, blue skies, crisp, cool temperature – perfect running weather. There were runners dressed as elves and Santas. We were all knocking into each other that first couple miles, nothing too bad – but the road just thins too much through Doheny Beach, especially since it’s cut in half for the return trip. I reached the 5k mark in 30:29, which is not my best 5k time. Still, there was a chance, I thought to myself, I could break an hour, if I picked it up some. By the time I crossed over onto the island, I was just happy to be more than half way finished, and really didn’t care much anymore about breaking an hour.

At the five mile marker, I looked at my watch and thought to myself, “all I have to do is a ten minute mile to make it.” I didn’t push it too much, and I also didn’t account for the .22 of a mile remaining after mile six – which equals running faster than a ten minute mile!

All’s well that ends well, so they say – and it is true. I didn’t break an hour, coming in at 1 hour, 58 seconds (but I can say that I made it within an hour : ). Also! Today's time is my best 10k time to date – and I surely can’t complain about that.

Will I run this race next year?

Probably so.

My 2009 Turkey Trot Standings:
Results: 1:00:58 (2008 Turkey Trot 1:03:13)
Placed 2,122 out of 3,798 overall
Placed 857 out of 1,998 women
Placed 111 out of 257 women age 40-44 (yeah, next year I enter a new bracket!)