Turkey Trot 2014

In Austin you never know what kind of weather you’ll get for the Turkey Trot. Over the last two weeks the overnight low dropped into the 20s and 30s, but by Thanksgiving morning it had warmed up into the high 40s, and the forecast for the 9:30 race was into the 50s. I struggled with my race wardrobe, but eventually decided to wear short sleeves with arm warmers.

We drove downtown and headed for our usual parking space. It’s close enough to most downtown races that we can walk, but far enough that a lot of people don’t want to park there. But we were in for a surprise:

Sign of the Apocalypse

 

I’ve lived here most of my life (M was born and raised here) and paid parking on a random side street outside of the main downtown area seals it for me: the last vestiges of old, cool Austin are completely gone. The good news? Holidays are exempt, so we didn’t actually have to pay. But I’ll bet by next year the whole street will be covered in condos and hipster joints, and even paid parking won’t be an option. Sigh.

A little disillusioned, we got out of the car and headed to the starting area. It was a beautiful morning!

They say the state bird of Texas is the construction crane.

 

This year is the 24th edition of the Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot, and more than 22,000 people were crowded onto the First Street Bridge for the start.

That’s a lot of people on the bridge.

 

By this time, it had warmed up nicely and I jettisoned the arm warmers. I shoved them in my belt, fired up my headphones, and stretched my calf and hip, both of which had been bothering me since Tuesday’s workout.

Start

In the past we’d run the untimed race, just something fun to do together as a family. But every year I get jammed up at the back and end up dodging walkers the first quarter-mile. So this year I signed up for the timed race so we could start a little closer to the front. Neither M or B had run much at all since the Chuy’s 5K back in May, and I wasn’t sure about my hip, so perhaps we were a bit ambitious with the timed race, but I still figured it was better than starting behind the walkers.

We took off to the sounds of ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” and headed up Lavaca Street. Downtown is mostly flat, but this section of Lavaca runs uphill to 8th Street, then uphill again to 15th. So for the first mile, we were running up an incline. At 15th, we turned left, only to hit … more incline. There’s a short, steep hill, a long downhill, and a long uphill section. I ran all of it, albeit slowly, but my hip did not like it.

Not all of Texas is flat.

 

The rest of the race was mostly downhill, which I think was harder on my hip than the uphills had been.

I spent a lot of the last two miles getting stuck behind people walking three or four abreast. Because we were middle-of-the-pack, it was semi-crowded most of the race. I could usually navigate around them, but one part of the course was very narrow–one car lane wide–and a couple of times these people would run ahead, then stop to walk, jamming up everyone behind them. Another time I was distracted briefly by a girl wearing headphones and singing–very badly–along to “Living on a Prayer.”

M and B ran ahead, then slowed for me to catch up, repeat. This started to annoy me. I mean, I’ve been training since September. Five miles is not a huge challenge for me, but I couldn’t consistently run with two people who were almost completely untrained? Frustrating.

Having said that, even though I was slower than last year, I felt good about finishing in the middle of the pack. In fact, the whole race we were passing people. I also recognize that I have better endurance than I did this time last year. My 8-12 mile training runs have been solid, with no walk breaks, even though my pace has been a little slower.

In the end, this is always a fun race, and this year was no exception. People dress up in turkey costumes and are just out to have a good time. And I burned a couple hundred calories before sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner.

Hope y’all had a Happy Thanksgiving!