Race Report: Alexandria Turkey Trot, November 24, 2022

 I ran the Alexandria Turkey Trot on Thursday, finishing in 38:06.

Running the Alexandria Turkey Trot was a semi-last minute decision for me.  I was entered in a 5K turkey trot in DC.  However, I had entered that race assuming it would start no later than 9 am.   When I realized the day before Thanksgiving that the 5K was actually scheduled to start at "approximately" 9:40 am, I entered the Alexandria Turkey Trot - a earlier start was far better for my schedule.  

[the entry fee for the 5K that I skipped went to charity, so it wasn't wasted money; just an impromptu donation].

I showed up at Alexandria around 7:45, grabbed my bib, skipped the long lines for the indoor toilet in favor of the numerous portajohns outside (no lines there).  Then I started to warm up, noting the absolutely perfect racing weather (mid 40s, overcast, no wind).  

I was wearing my Nike Next%s, which I've been able to successfully run in recently.  However, my dystonia was acting up and my balance wasn't great, so I swapped to the Puma Deviate Nitro elites that I had also brought.  Those were a bit better, though not great, but whatever.  I finished my warm up and then lined up, seeding myself about 12 rows back in the race and far to the right, so that I could stay off to the side early in the race while I established my gait.

***

The race started, and I quickly realized that I had seeded myself way too far back - a wall of people running far slower than I wanted to be running was in front of me.  I tried passing to the far right, but the first half mile of the race had intermittent cars parked on the right side of the road, meaning that I would find room to pass and then have to duck back in behind the pack.

All of this was further complicated by the fact that a number of faster runners with baby carriages and dogs had started at the very back of the race, and they also wanted to use the side to pass the masses and get to the front.

I looked for gaps, but I'm not very agile right now and there weren't any gaps that I could navigate, and so I resolved to stay patient until space did open up.  I was hoping that would be a mile or so into the race; as it turns out, it wasn't until about 3.5 miles that things opened up and I could extend my stride and run a hard last mile.

The end result was I ran an extremely uneven race.  My splits were:

Mile 1: 8:11
Mile 2: 7:30
Mile 3: 7:41
Mile 4: 7:31
Mile 5: 6:52

[the splits are from Strava, since I missed most of the mile markers during the race.]

I was frustrated, but at the same time I had entered the race simply to race, and not to hit a specific time.  I accomplished that, and I managed to taste race discomfort in the last mile, so it wasn't a wasted effort.

Other notes:

• The weather was perfect - mid 40s.
• I noted later that the results were gun time, not chip time.  I need to make a note of this for the next time I race.
• Getting to the race at 7:45 resulted in me feeling slightly rushed, since I had to pick up my bib before warming up.  Next time, I'll try to show closer to 6:30.
• I wore thin tights, a tank top, and arm-warmers for the race, as I expected it to be slightly cooler than it was.  I don't think this held me back, through.
• This is a fast course, and a great race to run.  I did note that there were a few speed bumps on the race course that I don't recall from before.  Of course, that might just be that speed bumps are much harder for me to negotiate than they used to be.