Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap-Up

First of all, thanks everyone for all the Philly race report compliments! I apologize for long delay in getting it done. It’s funny how I always end up having too much to say about my races and not enough time to write it all down. I sometimes wonder whether my photographic race memory and novel-ish writing style are blessings or really curses in disguise! Haha! I am only kidding of course because I doubt I’d have it any other way.
Speaking of blessings, I hope everyone had a wonderful time giving thanks and spending quality time with family and friends during the holiday weekend. I myself had a great time hanging out with the family, getting my butt handed to me in ping pong and Guitar Hero, and eating way too much food for way too many days. I also managed to run a tougher-than-expected 20 miler over the weekend on a hilly trail that left me hanging on for dear life at the end of it. My pace was relatively slow (7:30-ish), it was windy and cold, and I was cramping in places that hadn’t been heard from since before NYCM. Ugh! I wonder if it’s a sign of lost fitness or the extra serving or two (or three) of turkey, chocolate cheesecake and sweet potato pie I helped myself to over the preceding three days. Hmmm…
But the highlight of my long weekend was definitely the Garden City Turkey Trot 5 miler I did on Thanksgiving morning. It was a great race not only because I ran well, finishing in 30:17 with a 6:03 avg pace, which is a course PR for me and a 29 second improvement from last year, but it was also the first race ever for my little bro! Before the race, I was so nervous for him (the only 5-miler he’s ever done before was on a treadmill a week before this race!) that I offered to run him in for the last 1.5 miles after I finished if he needed it. It turned out he didn’t need my help at all as he ran pretty conservatively for the first four miles and surged ahead of a lot of people in the last mile! I credit myself for prepping him well. Haha! He finished in the vicinity of 46 minutes and had so much fun that he’s now asking me to enter him in a few more races in the next several months. Will do, little bro, will do!
I’m not going to write a whole long report on my race because it wasn’t a big deal race for me (and I don’t want to overwhelm you all!) but I will share five bullet points from my race experience that I found somewhat interesting:
  1. Mile-by-mile splits: M1-5:57, M2-5:55, M3-6:12, M4-6:18, M5-5:51. Wow, look how I died in miles 3 & 4 and yet recovered to run my fastest in M5!
  2. If you took the time to add up the splits, you’ll get 30:14, not the 30:17 I was credited with. That’s because this turned out to be a gun-time and not a chip-time race. According to my Garmin time, I came in just one second over my overall 5-mile PR time. So I’ve been wondering, if I happened to have run 2 seconds faster and squeaked in a PR by a second according to my Garmin time (but not gun time), does that still count as a PR for me?
  3. Last year, I finished in 30:46 and was 9th out of 268 males in the 30-39 age group. This year, I finished in 30:17 and was 5th out of 334 males in the 30-39 age group. It’s too bad that age group awards go to the top 3, and the 3rd place guy ran 27:47. In other words, I have no shot!
  4. I ran this race 4 days after a fast Philly half marathon and did considerably better than I expected. If it was a week later and I had a chance to rest, could I have run an even better time or would I have slowed because of some lost fitness and/or speed? I never felt terribly tired or fatigued during the race so I wonder if it would have even made a difference.
  5. Turkey trots should be mandatory as an appetizer to the Thanksgiving feast! 'Nuff said.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with turkey trots as a great appetizer. So much fun! Glad you had a terrific Thanksgiving.

Jamie said...

I only wish they had a turkey trot where I was this past week. No such luck :( Awesome job on the new 5 miler PR! And congrats to your brother!

Jen Feeny said...

I loved this post and I was cracking up at your commentary about the lil bro! Congrats to you both for a great race! I wanted to do a Turkey Trot so bad but the Fam was not having it! At least the allowed me my long run! I'm glad you enjoyed your holiday!

NY Wolve said...

Great run -- under 6 minute pace is a great way to start Turkey Day.

J said...

Great job Lam especially so close after the HM! I find it very interesting how the body can recover in those middle miles of shorter races and pull out a great final mile time!

Anonymous said...

wow that is one fast turkey trot! and congrats to your bro on the race. sounds like it was one great thanksgiving weekend :)

Katie said...

Nice job on the turkey trot! I love turkey trots. They're so much fun and I never expect too much (seeing that it comes at the end of a running season).

Pretty neat that you got your little bro to run. I convinced my parents to run my race, and they had fun too. ;)

B.o.B. said...

Great job speedy! I missed a turkey trot this year, b/c I was still recovering from Rangar. Next year though, I'll be out with the rest of you.

Feeling much better today, thanks for the get well vibes, they seem to be working. ;)

Running and living said...

Oh, so nice to be able to watch your little bro becoming a runner! Few things come closer to the heart than that. Glad you had a good Tg. I would not worry about the extra servings of turkey and mashed potatoes, look at them as carbo loading for Honolulu:)

Malecia said...

Yay for your lil bro! Your 5-mile turkey trot went better than mine. (I did the Manchester Road Race in CT for the first time.) I chalk it up to a lesson learned for next year. :o)

Irish Cream said...

First of all, yay for little bro getting into running! And congrats to you both on your great races!

Second of all, I am seriously jealous that you got to do a Turkey Trot in the first place! My fam was SO not interested . . . and there was even a 5K Turkey Trot being held IN the tiny town where my parents live! What are the odds?! Oh well, at least I DID get to run some 400m intervals on my Pops' treadmill on Thanksgiving. So I guess that's better than nothing!

Glad you had such a great holiday weekend! :)

sRod said...

No Turkey races around where I was for T-day. But nothing is a greater appetizer than a good run! Congrats!

 
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