Mayor’s Turkey Day Run Race Report
The 10K isn’t a very common racing distance, is it? Definitely not as common as the 5K! I PR’d at the first 10K I ran, in 2009, and I’ve done eight* of them since then, but only one was (unsuccessfully) a PR attempt. I just don’t run (or especially, race for time) the 10K that much.
So I’ve had a very long standing (6.5 years!) 10K PR of 51:00, and wasn’t planning on doing anything about it this season. But during last week’s training, I had two 5 mile runs faster than my 10K PR pace so I decided to find a 10K to run on Thanksgiving. Why not give it a go? I thought for sure I could break 50:00 minutes, maybe even average 7:45s!
I’m happy I raced – my new 10K PR is five minutes and twenty-four seconds faster: 45:36 (average 7:22 pace)!
Bobbi had told me good things about the Mayor’s Turkey Day Run put on by the Kenosha Running Club a few times, so I chose to run it. The race is CHEAP ($15 pre-registered, $20 at packet pickup) and you can choose to run the 2-mile or 10K distance. I remembered Bobbi telling me how crowded it can be at the start, since the 2-milers and 10Kers run together for the first mile.
Bobbi kindly registered for me (thanks, Bobbi!) at packet pickup Wednesday night (there is packet pickup race morning, but no race day registration). I wasn’t expecting a shirt at all, since the race is $20, and we registered on the later side, but they had some of last year’s shirts left, so they handed them out. Hmm, do I wear a shirt for a race for the year I didn’t do it? I think not. Cute shirt though!
I met Bobbi, her son Jack, and Riyanti** near the Kenosha Museum on race morning. This course starts at the same spot as the Wisconsin Half Marathon and uses some of the same streets***, so I was familiar with it, despite not having run it before. However (Bobbi thought due to size) they changed the course from being a complete out-and-back along the road to Carthage College to a partial out-and-back along that road, then back to downtown Kenosha via a different road.
Riyanti, Bobbi, Jack and me
Bobbi told me I should run with Jack, as he’d just finished cross country season (a month earlier) and was around my pace. Jack and I lined up WAY at the front. I asked the bike guide what side the first turn was on (the right) so I could line up on that side, and try to run the tangents as closely as possible.
I was a bit concerned at the start when we were only a couple of rows in, and behind people dressed in pants and long sleeves, and with their dog… but it all worked out. It was only congested for us for the first few tenths to maybe half a mile, then we found our groove.
I really did NOT want to start out too fast and crap out. That would be too painful for a 10K. I was hoping my first mile would be in 7:45, then negative split from there. Nope. I saw paces in the high 6:00s! GAH! I told Jack I was trying to slow down, and was somewhat successful – first mile was 7:13.
In the first mile, we had a small south turn before heading north for most of the first half. I felt a nasty wind from the south and told Jack that was going to be horrible on the way back – queue ominous foreshadowing, ha!
Jack and I stuck together for the first three miles – he’d gain on the downhills and I’d gain on the uphills. Mile 2 was 7:13 and mile 3 was 7:19. I was happy I wasn’t slowing down much and thought maybe I’d have somewhat even splits?!
Then we turned south. Sigh.
Runner #1649 and I were pushing each other for the last few miles!
It wasn’t horrible at first. Unfortunately, Jack dropped back right before the turnaround (I yelled at him to speed up – “I need you!” – when I saw him, I also saw Bobbi and Riyanti, which was fun). I kept pumping along – my fourth mile was 7:21. A guy and I were tagging back and forth with who was in front, and I asked if he wanted to share wind blocking duties. And I tried, but man, at mile 4.5, we went up this tiny incline that completely gassed me, then it was a straight shot south, in to the 18 mph winds (25 mph gusts) until almost the end of the race. GRRR.
The guy and I kept encouraging each other. And the road flattened out right away, but gah, THAT WIND! I pumped my arms and tried to keep my previous pace, but I slowed down. I started to feel the turn in my stomach, too (no blood tasting cooper mouth, though!). Mile 5 was 7:37, and mile 8 was 7:38. So much for even splits!
I tried to bust my butt for the last .2 (7:19) pace, because I didn’t want to get passed by a woman**** and I thought maybe I had a chance at placing in my age group – nope! I was tenth woman overall (and 57th out of 531 participants), but the winner was in my age group, then there were three women in my age group ahead of me. You never know who will show up! I am excited I placed where I did, and really happy to have a new 10K PR!!!
We hung out for a bit after the race – I cheered Jack in, then we cheered Bobbi and Riyanti in. We chatted a bit after then took off for our separate Thanksgiving celebrations. What a treat to see friends on Thanksgiving morning (then go spend Thanksgiving with friends, as we usually do).
On the drive home, it started pouring rain, and it rained on and off all day. We were lucky that didn’t happen at the race, and that it was overcast and in the low 50s. I suppose I will take that wind over a sunny, hot, day!
And even better – that warm weather melted all 17″ of our snow. I can’t believe it’s gone! It’s almost like it was never here… except I have this photo of it:
I love snow, but… I want to finish marathon training on the trails, before I get stuck to running loops in my neighborhood because the trails have too much snow coverage!
*The three I ran last year were particularly disastrous – besides being out of shape, two were hilly and humid, and the one I was in shape had a wrong turn in it, so it ran long. Ha!
**What a nice surprise to see her!
***Lake Michigan looked beautiful during the race
****I passed a lady after the turnaround and didn’t see any women after that. The woman I passed came in 30 seconds behind me and immediately got on the ground! I encouraged her to get up and move/breathe and she excitedly told me she just ran her fasted 10K since college – cool!
Themocracy
What a great race – I’m so glad you found one! And that is a heck of a PR! Bummer on the wind – but amazing job!
Thanks! 🙂
How did your Thanksgiving race go?
I was there, too! Except I was running with my son (11years old) for his first 10K. 🙂 So proud of him – he finished in 1:05, even after learning the hard, valuable lesson that if you think you might need that portapotty, you should use it. 😉
Aww, that is fantastic! Good for him! Eeek! I hope it was a #1… I did see a porta pottie in the park – I always have an eye out for them. LOL!
Unfortunately, it was not. 😉 So the last couple of miles were filled with angst and fear and a few extra walking breaks while I crossed my fingers for him! (Thankfully, no catastrophes happened.)
Oh no!!! GOSH! I have been there so I am very glad he made it. That is such a horrible feeling!
oh my gosh, Riyanti and I spoke to you guys in the last mile! Glad he finished well – great job!!!
He was in a much better mood after finishing! 🙂
Yeah!!! Pump those arms Kim! Way to go on your PR! So proud you!!! Love and miss ya!
Thank you! I was using that mantra!!!! Love you and miss you too! Wish I was doing this races with you! :-*
Me too!! Though right now me and my bum foot would be watching you from the sidelines 😉
Ha, don’t play – I know you would have run with me to regret it later 😉
PR or ER 😋😋😋😋😋😋
OMG!!!!! You and Ed are SOMETHING ELSE!! 😛 :-*
Woah, congrats on the massive PR! Given the 18mph wind that were in your face for the last half, it’s understandable that you would run slightly positive splits. Better that you took some advantage of the tailwind while you could! It’s very cool that you and the “man” were sharing wind blocking duties and encouraging each other, that probably helped you when things got tough. Congrats again!
Thank you! Yeah, I didn’t even think about it until after the race (duh) but I am happy I went faster with the tailwind!
It’s so nice to share those duties with someone! I have actually asked people before, too! 🙂
Great job on the race!! I know that wind can be demoralizing for you so to tough it out at the end shows how strong you are 🙂
Thanks!
SO proud of you (and Jack! And US!) What a great way to spend Thanksgiving morning!
Way to go on the race Kim- woo hoo!! This looks like a great one- nice and close and cheap! I’ll definitely put it on my calendar if we are in town next year 🙂 And PS- I seemed to have missed that you guys are moving- whaaat?!
Thanks 🙂
Yeah – we’re moving out of our place this month 🙂
Freaking speed demon!
Congratulations on the speedy new PR! That’s amazing!
Also, I had NO idea that it had snowed that much!! I must be living under a rock. That’s a ton of snow for November, geez! (And now I have the answer to my question from before.)
When you wrote “woman****,” I didn’t get that it was a note at first. I thought you were blocking out some strange expletive that I’d never heard of and I was going to ask you if you had ended up passing her. Then I found the note. Oops.
Thanks! 🙂
Ha ha ha! I can totally see why you’d think that! I use those for notes I don’t want to put in parenthesis because they are long and not really important but still want to capture… I wonder if there is a better way to do that! (Try, write more succinctly, Kim, ha)
Congratulations on your PR! I love that picture above.