That Turkey Trot Though!

I am running out of creative titles for Turkey Trot race recaps. (I am waiting for a warm year so I can use "Too Hot To Trot" - which would be a decent consolation prize for unfavorable weather.) Onto the race report.

This was my 15th Virginia Run Turkey Trot! I started running this course back in 2006, and have run it every year since except for 2019-2022 when they stopped holding the race due to lack of volunteers. My backup race, Ashburn Farm, is actually a faster course and holds my 5K PR of 19:41. But I'm more interested in tradition than PRs (shocking, I know) so I still opt for Virginia Run now that it's back in business!

As I just posted a few days ago, I have been training for a marathon and my build has been quite intense. Because I had to fit a lot of work into just seven weeks, I sacrificed VO2 max work in exchange for lactate threshold work and long runs. I figured I could probably run around 20:00-20:10. 

Before the Race
The forecast called for steady rain so I planned my outfit accordingly the night before: short sleeves, long fitted shorts, arm warmers and a hat. But when I woke up, the rain seemed to have stopped and the hourly forecast was showing light rain. My outfit was already laid out, but I decided to abandon it in favor of short shorts, a fitted crop top and no arm sleeves. 

I got dressed and we left the house at 7:05, arriving ten minutes later. I love how close this race is to my house! Greg is unfortunately still dealing with the injury he's had for over two years, so he did not race. Instead, he played the role of Instagram videographer, cheerleader, and gear holder. 

The rain had picked up on our drive so we sat in the car until it was time to warm up. I had picked up my bib the day before so I didn't have to worry about waiting in line in the cold rain. We got out of the car and I immediately started running. I had a light rain jacket over my outfit and was very thankful for that! I warmed up two miles during which I took a Maurten caffeinated gel. My energy was high and I felt mentally ready to put out a hard effort. 

About 5 minutes before the race started I handed my jacket to Greg along with my hat. The rain had mostly subsided and was now light enough for me to be hatless. It was 46 degrees, no wind and fully overcast. I give this a 9 out of 10 on my weather scale. Very favorable racing conditions with the rain being very light. The only downside was wet pavement which meant I needed to be more cautious with my footing. 

Mile 1: 6:34
The race started and I went out confidently. I was hoping to run around 6:30 for the first mile and then have miles 2 and 3 be faster based on the elevation profile. Two women bolted out ahead of me so I was in third place. I stayed relaxed, didn't look at my Garmin and told myself to run really hard. About halfway through the first mile I was able to pass one of the women who was ahead of me. I was now in second place. 

Mile 2: 6:40
During the first mile I thought it might be possible to catch the first woman, but she solidified a strong lead during the second mile. Even though mile 2 has a significant hill, it has less of a net gain overall so it's objectively faster than mile 1. I typically run this mile faster or at the same pace as the first mile. When I looked down and saw that I had run 6:40, I was discouraged, but vowed to keep the effort hard.

Mile 3: 6:30
This is the fastest mile of the race and I usually crush this mile! Knowing that it was a fast mile perked me up and gave me the energy to really fight for it. But now my legs were not cooperating. Even though I felt like I had more energy and my lungs could do more for me, my legs were heavy and I couldn't get them going as fast as I wanted to. I was still in second place, and I didn't want anyone passing me during this fast mile. 

My final 0.14 miles was a pace of 5:50 according to my Garmin, so I had a little something left in my legs, but it felt like I didn't have the power that I normally have. 

After the Race
My Garmin clocked me in at 20:32, which was a far cry from the 20:00-20:10 I was hoping for. And shortly after I crossed, another woman crossed! She told me she had been trying to catch me so I am glad I didn't ease up during that last mile.

I heard the announcer say something about me running a time of 19:51, and I knew that was wrong. They did not have a finish line clock, which I assume was because it was raining. Even still, I knew my time was not 19:51.

The rain was starting to pick up again, so I decided I would run my cool down to the car and leave. Normally I like to linger post race and talk to other runners, but I wanted to get out of that rain as soon as possible.

Results issues
When I checked the results online, my time was 19:51. So I waited until later in the day, figuring they would be corrected. I was also listed in the results as the 3rd place female, with the woman who crossed after me coming in second. While she may have had a faster chip time (unknown due to result inaccuracies) the top three finishers are determined by gun time according to USATF standards. This rule is in place because runners should be able to see who they are racing against. If someone starts a minute behind you and you don't know they are there, you can't possibly "race" against that person. Age group awards, on the other hand, are often done by chip time. 

The race results list gun time and chip time - but both of these are the exact same for all runners. So it looks like true gun time was not listed for anyone, just chip, in which case they should remove "gun time" because it's not gun time. What baffles me is that they clearly they recorded gun time-- so why not publish it? 

Ultimately, my time was corrected to 20:25 which still feels too fast compared to my Garmin, but that's the official result.

Having a clock at the finish line and using gun time for the top overall three finishers is the best practice and eliminates this kind of confusion.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I have to admit I was a little disappointed in my time. I do think I ran the fastest race I had in me, but I thought 20:00 was totally realistic for me going into the race. The more I think about it, I guess it makes sense. 

My natural strength is endurance, not speed, and if I don't train that system regularly, I struggle at anything faster than 10K effort. Over the summer, I trained specifically for the Firecracker 5K and ran a time of 20:28 on a hilly course on a hot day. I was doing 400m intervals regularly as well as 1:00 Fartleks. That type of training has been mostly absent during the past seven weeks. 

Further, my legs have been feeling flat/stale for the past few weeks due to the high mileage. I packed a ton of mileage into a short timeframe and I realize this is not the ideal setup for a 5K. I suspect if I had a few more days of rest and easy running leading up to the Turkey Trot my legs would have had more power. 

I ran a time of 19:58 on this course 9 days before running a 3:15 marathon back in 2018. And now I am hoping to run a 3:12 marathon! But this is not apples to apples because that previous training cycle included more VO2 max work. My marathon pace runs back then were not nearly as fast as they are now. 

Overall it was a fun race and good mental toughness practice. The results are wonky, but mine are correct because I did finish 2nd and my time was 20:30. 

This was my third fastest time on this course out of 15 so I can't really complain at the age of 46!

Now it's time to seriously taper (rest day today) so my legs bounce back for December 7.

Update at 3:30 on Friday:
The results have been updated and now include both gun and chip time. The overall three women are ranked in order of gun time. However, I am credited with a chip time of 20:25, which seems too fast given my Garmin time of 20:32 and starting at the front.

I'm Running A Marathon Soon

On Saturday, December 7, I will run my 35th marathon: the Tidewater Striders Marathon in Chesapeake, VA.

Why I chose this race
I came down with Covid at the end of July and I took the entire month of August off, except for three very short/easy runs in which I thought I was recovered. Those three very short and easy runs likely caused me to sink further into post viral fatigue, so I wasn't able to resume running again until the middle of September. At that point, I came back with run-walks to be 100% certain that I was well enough to run again. In total, I took seven weeks off of running. This post has all the details!

Having been through post-viral fatigue before, I knew that once I was out of the woods, I could train at full intensity. I ran 36 miles the week of September 23rd and 44 miles the week of September 30. I was back! Based on experience, I know that I don't need a really long training cycle to run a strong marathon. I just need an intense training cycle - jam-packing a lot of quality into 6-8 key weeks. As a coach myself, I don't recommend this approach to other athletes, but it's worked for me in the past. 

An ideal time to run a marathon would have been right around Christmas/New Year's - but there are no marathons within driving distance at that time of year. So my options were to go a bit earlier or a bit later. I quickly ruled out January because I didn't want to get on an airplane, so early December it was. My options within driving distance were Rehoboth Beach and the Tidewater Striders Marathon. Rehoboth is my PR and I didn't think I could replicate the magic of that day, so Tidewater it was! 

The Tidewater Striders marathon is a small race which currently has just under 100 registrants. However, there is also a 50K and 100K occurring at the same time, so it will feel slightly larger. I am familiar with the course because I set my 10-mile PR on that course back in 2021. The course is pancake flat! The downside is that it's two out-and-backs with little crowd support. And that's not much of a downside considering I will see Greg multiple times!

Training
How ready am I? Here is a graph of my training:

Thankfully everything went smoothly and we were blessed with ideal running weather throughout most of October. I did encounter quite a bit of wind on my 3 longest runs, but I still powered through it. And it could be windy on race day! As long as it's not hot, then I'm good to go.

My longest run was 21.5 miles, and I also ran a 20.4 miler and an 18.5 miler. (For some reason, I liked to be between the whole numbers this cycle). My goal marathon pace of 7:20 has felt very manageable and almost too soft, while I have struggled to hit paces below 6:40 for some of the faster workouts. I'm chalking it up to tired legs.

Shoes
When I ran Boston, I wore the ASICS Metaspeed Sky shoes. They were fun and fast, but not as responsive as I would like. I've decided to go back to adidas- my go to brand of womens running shoes. I typically race in the adidas Adios Pro 2. The "3" came out a few years ago but I stocked up on version 2 because of the higher heel drop. I was really hoping the 4th version would come out before this marathon but it's scheduled come out later in December. 

Just as I had decided on wearing a pair of the adidas Adios Pro 2, I had the opportunity to purchase a pair of the adidas Pro Evo 1. These shoes were released in very limited quantity, and they are almost impossible to find. Plus, with a price point of $500, I had determined that they were too expensive. But then I realized that I hadn't spent any money on running shoes this year because I received so many promotional pairs. When you look at it that way - why not splurge on them? The driver of the high price is the materials and the fact that they weigh less than 5 ounces yet have a full stack height.

I haven't tried them yet (they should be arriving in a few days) but I will do 1-2 short runs in them to make sure they work before race day. That's more than I did when I ran Boston in a brand new pair of ASICS! Let's just hope they fit because they were not available in the next size up.

Goals
My main goal is execution: to stay mentally strong and nail my fueling and hydration. Timewise, I am shooting for a PR (sub 3:15) but ideally closer to 3:12, maybe 3:10 if the shoes are truly that magical! (Although I don't want to give all the credit to my footwear.) Now I need to focus on resting, recovering, not getting sick, and picking out my race outfit. 

If I can pull this off, it will be the world's shortest training cycle ever! But I am relying on the endurance that I have built up over the years, not just in the past six weeks.

Ode To My Running Routes

We're moving. And perhaps the biggest change with moving won't be the house itself, the mortgage payment or the commute. But the running options.

When searching for our new home, we found plenty of houses that we loved but that were, as I called them, "land locked." My definition of "land locked" means the only way out of your neighborhood is a narrow two-lane road that is not safe to run on. These houses were automatic deal breakers. Our new home will be run-able, but as I stated above, the running options will be entirely new and different. 

But in this post I don't want to talk about our future neighborhood. I want to wish a proper farewell to our home of 15 years, the home that got me outside every day instead of on a gym treadmill Monday through Friday. 

Here are the top 10 things that I LOVE about my running routes today, that have been part of my daily routine for 15 years. 

10. Variety. From my house I can run in multiple directions and through multiple neighborhoods. Even though I do tend to get bored of my same routes, there are places I can go if I really want a change.

9. Fresh Pavement. Within the past year, they paved my neighborhood with smooth asphalt and they did the same to almost all the roads I run on. There is nothing like fresh, smooth asphalt!

8. Safety. I run mostly on neighborhood roads and I have never once feared for my safety. I often encounter other runners and walkers. The roads are generally well lit. I typically don't run on thru-streets so the only cars on the road are those people leaving their homes in the morning.

7. Flat, Hilly, or Mixed. I can make my runs as hilly or as flat as I want them. There are some routes that are mostly flat, and some routes that are quite hilly. I usually choose the flat routes for easy runs. Those routes are not entirely flat, but the hills aren't very long or steep.

6. Wide Roads.
If you've ever watched one of my Instagram videos, you know that I run mostly on neighborhood roads. And there aren't many cars. This is thanks to the roads being wide. There is enough room for cars to be parked on both sides of the street AND for two cars to be driving on the street passing each other, AND for me. So imagine a scenario where you have cars parked on both sides of the road, and there are cars coming from both directions. Well, there's still plenty of room for me to run. The roads are that wide.

5. Perfectly Placed Hills. One of these wide roads is a hill that's about a quarter of a mile long. It's perfect for hill repeats. My hill repeats usually last 60-90 seconds and this hill is the perfect grade and distance. It's not too steep but it's definitely a hill. This hill is located about a mile and a half from my house so it's perfect to run the warm up and cool down there and back. There is another hill that's about twice the distance that I use for my 2-minute hill repeats. It's similar to heartbreak hill. It's not incredibly steep but it is long. Finally, there is an area that's almost completely flat but has one hill in it. A common workout of mine is tempo/hills/tempo so I can run the tempo on the flat portion and have the hill for the hill repeats in the middle.

4. Plowing in the Winter. They are very good about plowing my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods. If it snows overnight or in the morning, I know that road will be plowed by the middle of the day. Last winter we had a few periods of heavy snow and I only had to use the treadmill a few times. There was one winter when Greg and I needed to do a long run before leaving on vacation. Our neighborhood was not plowed but we found one about a mile away that was plowed and it was a big loop we ran 14 times around.

3. A Track. I can run to my local track in 2.3 miles. Sometimes I drive there and sometimes I drive halfway there, depending on how long I want my warmup and cool down to be. But it's nice to have a track that's open to the public that is within running distance. I also have a group of friends who runs on this track most Tuesdays, which is nice. 

2. Ending at Coffee. I live less than a mile away from a plaza with a coffee shop, a smoothie place, and a grocery store. I like to finish my runs there and walk home with my coffee or my smoothie. Or even pick up some groceries afterwards!

1. The Perfect Tempo Neighborhood. About 2.5 miles away from me is a neighborhood that's mostly flat (just a few inclines and declines) and it goes on, and on, and on, forever. It's perfect for tempo runs and marathon pace runs. Sometimes I run to it, and other times I drive there so I can use my car as a water station. The roads are wide, there is no through traffic on most of them, and it's well shaded. I think this is what I will miss most of all. 

Many of these things will also apply to my new neighborhood, but in a different way. I think the biggest difference will be narrow roads and a generally hillier topography. Narrow, hilly roads instead of wide, flat roads. I am sure I will get used to it! There will also be things about the new area that will be better than my current area. 

We still have a bit more time left to enjoy our current house which we will miss dearly! Every time I run I take a moment to appreciate how "lucky" I got with this particular area in terms of running route options.

If you are looking to move to a different area and you are an avid runner, it's worth thinking about these things and really sizing up the running landscape before choosing a new home.