Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot - RunOther


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Dallas, Texas
United States
42F / 6C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 26m 15s
Overall Rank = 3377/4152
Age Group = M 30-34
Age Group Rank = 306/340
Pre-race routine:

I woke up, ate my food, and put on approximately 12 layers of clothes(sue me, it was f*cking cold outside) before jetting off to the run.
Event warmup:

I ran into one of my buddies there and walked with him to his car. I'm counting this as my warm-up because the dude parked like a f*cking mile away from the event. Of course he didn't mention this when we went off on our scale model re-creation of the original Greek marathon, but by the point I knew where he parked it was too late to go back. Other than that, I did my best to stretch in the mass of 30,000 people. You don't exactly get a lot of personal space when you're on a 6 lane road with 30,000 people.
Run
  • 1h 26m 15s
  • 8.13 miles
  • 10m 37s  min/mile
Comments:

This was a race of learning lessons, each of which I'll point out along the way.

I should have known something was up when my HR was pushing over 120 just standing at the start line. (Technically I was about 3 minutes behind the start line. They don't seem to like having guys who run 10+ min/miles in front of the elite sprinters for some reason. Go figure.) Normally my HR is at or below 100 when I start jogging, but I just attributed this to nerves.

The horn went off....and we stood there. Such is the life of a BOPer, let the rabbits(hi Aaron!) go off on their rabid chase of the AG carrot while we stand in the back trying not to blow out our ACLs. I'm OK with this, it's who I am. We get going and my HR is already pushing up way too high for a 10-12 min/mile(more the latter since I was still stuck in the crowd). I realize pretty quickly that there's not going to be a lot of zone 1 or 2 running today unless I walk, and pride(OK, ego)'s not letting me walk this one. I spend the first 1.5 miles or so just trying to find a little space; there's so many effing people here. I'm dodging dogs, old people, whiny runners. OK people, seriously, stop complaining about runners bringing dogs to the Turkey Trot. The event actively encourages this, they even have race numbers for dogs. If you're coming to this run, you have to accept that there will be dogs on the course. It's like going to a Rangers game on 'Bring your dog Tuesday' and complaining that there's crap on the ground. (And why are you going to a Rangers game and surprised by crap anyway? Have you seen the team recently?) Either get over it or don't sign up.

Anyway, it's probably not until 2 miles in that I'm really hitting any sort of stride. By this point my HR is already pushing into zone 4 and I'm not going particularly fast. I pretty much write off any plans for HR zones and decide to just run by pace instead. The next few miles were pretty uneventful; pass by crappy bands, drink water, christen Reunion Arena again, etc. All the time I'm in zone 4. I know I'm not trying to keep it in a zone anymore, but you can't help but notice. I know this is probably going to end badly, but I might as well test myself and see how it goes.

We head out past Reunion Arena and onto the Spillway and I'm feeling solid. My average has been somewhere right around 11 min/mile which is decent, given where my HR is and the fact that I hadn't run in weather this cold all year. I get into mile 5 and we're in Oak Cliff; I instinctively reached for the door locks and remembered I wasn't in my car. Anyway I'm getting close to the turnaround when I'm passed by a short girl. A short girl in a wheelchair....a MOTORIZED WHEELCHAIR. That's right, I got passed by a chick without functioning limbs. I'm not sure what's more demoralizing, the fact that she passed me or the fact that she passed me last year in the EXACT SAME SPOT. I could barely believe it, I mean we couldn't have been more than 100 yards off from last year's spot. I was a mixture of embarrassed and angry. I mean, I know I'm not fast, but come on. A girl in a motorized wheelchair? I'm not prone to make jokes about a disabled person(yes I am, I'm a horrible, horrible person) but I was ready to slash some tires. Fortunately there was something else going on that was cracking me up so I didn't obsess about the wheelchair girl. There was a guy running with his 2 sons, both of whom were in the 9-11 age range. Well it wasn't so much running with them as him dragging them along. These kids were obviously gassed; one was doing a sprint/walk combo that was just enough to keep up, but the 2nd was the one that had me dying. I actually heard the 2nd kid before I saw him because let's face it, you don't hear a lot of crying on the run. He passed by me crying and begging "PLEASE CAN WE WALK". That kid was straight-up miserable. Dad wasn't having any of it, he just kept running and telling them to keep going. Eventually they mutinied and just started walking, so he was forced to stop and wait for them. It was about this point where we hit a hill and I finally got ahead of the wheelchair girl for good as well, so I was in high spirits...until the wind hit us on the spillway. Ugh, a slight uphill + 35 degrees + 15 mph headwind = SUCK. It was at this point I learned valuable lesson #1:
Fat people make good wind shields.
I caught a break sitting just behind a guy who outweighed me by a good 60 pounds. It must have knocked a good 10mph off that headwind, so I sat in his wake for a couple minutes. That was a nice respite, especially since I was starting to soak through the outer shirt at this point.

I worked through the next couple miles and I'm getting into zone 5. I really can't help it at this point unless I start to walk. Screw it, I'm not walking. In fact, I'm a mile out, I'm going to push the tempo up. If I blow myself out, so what? At least I'll know where my limit is. So I pick up the pace for the last mile and I'm passing a lot of people. I feel pretty good thanks to my nutrition intake(I've been eating a Gu every 3 miles or so) so I'm booking it at around a 9 min/mile. My HR is pushing into the 190s, but I'm in sight of the finish line and I'll be damned if I'm going to stop now. I hit the last hill and power up it, clocking somewhere in the low 7s and push through to the finish line...where I learned my last lesson:
Save the dry heaves for after the finish line.
I'm not sure if I got past the photographers or not, but when I crossed my body involuntarily put me into a dry heave. Thankfully nothing came of it, but that was a good sign I hit my max effort near the end. Part of me hopes a photographer caught the moment because I imagine it looked hilarious. I might even buy that photo and frame it. Oh and for the record, my HR was 200 when I hit the finish line. I think that's in zone 9. My HR recovered pretty quickly after the race and I didn't feel nearly as exhausted as I did last year, so those are the moral victories I'm taking out of the day.
What would you do differently?:

Disconnect Wheelchair Girl's battery, maybe dig a trench on the road around mile 5.
Post race
Warm down:

Aaron and I plotted ways to take out that wheelchair girl next year. Does that count?

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I'd have to go with "lack of genetics", Bob.

Event comments:

These guys put on a great race. I think they should seriously consider capping the number of entries though, it's *this* close to getting unruly out there.




Last updated: 2007-10-17 12:00 AM
Running
01:26:15 | 08.13 miles | 10m 37s  min/mile
Age Group: 306/340
Overall: 340/4152
Performance: Good
1 - Recovery: 118 - 152bpm - 20s 2 - Extensive Endurance: 153 - 162bpm - 02m 09s 3 - Intensive Endurance: 163 - 171bpm - 12m 44s 4 - Sub-Threshold: 172 - 178bpm - 30m 07s 5a - SuperThreshold: 179 - 183bpm - 11m 11s 5b - Anaerobic Endurance: 184 - 188bpm - 12m 17s 5c - Power: 190 - 200bpm - 07m 44s
Course: It was the same course as last year.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4