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Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot - RunOther


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Dallas, Texas
United States
40F / 4C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 24m
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Woke up and made my usual vegetarian breakfast sandwich. Ate that and drank a diet DP on the way to the race.
Event warmup:

Waited in line.
Run
  • 1h 24m
  • 8 miles
  • 10m 30s  min/mile
Comments:

So I started by the 8:30-9:30 minute mile marker in line. Which was essentially useless, because no one was paying any attention to those signs.

We start and I cross the line. Walking. Walking. Walking. No one was running.

Finally the crowd thinned out some and SOME people started running. It was near impossible to run though, due to all the WALKERS.

Here is my rant- and the reason why I should not do this race again... There are signs everywhere that tell WALKERS and people with STROLLERS and DOGS to get the the BACK OF THE LINE. Do they? Nope. They sure don't. So the first 2 miles is miserable.

I couldn't get any kind of rythme running and I had to dodge people right and left. Running on the sidewalk... curb... gutter... over grass and rocks... trying to dodge all the people who couldn't read the freaking signs that told them to get to the BACK OF THE LINE!

So by mile 1 my breathing was completely off and the side cramp had kicked in. Pacing was non existent.

Mile 2 I had a miserable side cramp. Great.

Then turn off came for the 5Ker's... yes! I knew it would be a little better with the strollers, dogs and kids gone.

I considered running the 5K and ditching the 8 miler. But sometimes I start to feel better at 3-5 miles so I didn't want to ditch my goal of 8 miles. I kept on with the 8 mile route.

By this point I had a side cramp and felt like @ss. Kept trying to get my head back in the run. I was hoping to pull it back together to get back on my goal pace time.

Wasn't going to happen. I felt tired. My whole body felt... tired. My legs felt like two blocks of lead. Just physically exhausted.

My side cramp stopped on the right side and moved to the left side. Great. At least it wasn't on both sides- right?

My left arch was hurting really bad. It's been an ongoing "injury" and it basically hurt the moment I put my shoes on before the run.

I walked up some hills, and tried to run down them as my side cramp would allow me. I ran with my fingers jabbed in my side to get the side cramp out.

I would have walked more, but I didn't want the miserable torture to last any longer that it had to. So I ran as much as I could muster.

Around mile 6 I almost started crying. I was just miserable. My body felt horrible from head to toe, my nose was running, blah-blah-blah.

All I thought in my head was that I was running on shear will-power... because my legs felt so tired and dead... I was just willing them to keep running.

I walked some...ran some and gutted it out till the end. The finish is at the top of a long incline. I sprinted some up the hill and then felt so tired from it, I couldn't even hold my arms up by my side anymore.

I was really glad when this hellish run was over.
What would you do differently?:

I will not do this race again with any hope of goal times. I was annoyed from the start because I couldn't run my pace. Then I felt so bad I couldn't run the pace. I just think this run wasn't going to happen for me today.
Post race
Event comments:

Overall this is a good race- IF you are OK with 1,000's of walkers, kids and dogs being in your way when you try to run.

Parking was relatively easy and so was leaving. It was cool to run through streets in downtown Dallas I usually drive, but the crowds aren't worth the hassle for me.

Post race activities were nice, but the water was no where near the food. It was near impossible for me to find WATER before and after the race. Weird. Although there was tons of yogurt with no spoons to be found!

I found it especially rude to see people carrying around boxes of yogurt, fruit, and water. How nice that one person could take home so much- while runners are still on the course. *Smirk*

I even saw a homeless dude with a Gatorade, but I couldn't find one. I know it's Thanksgiving but I really wanted a Gatorade and couldn't get one myself.

Overall it's a good race if you want to get out early on Thanksgiving morning with 40,000 other people. Can't say it's my thing. I would have been happier running the neighborhood by myself.







Last updated: 2009-11-12 12:00 AM
Running
01:24:00 | 08 miles | 10m 30s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Bad
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2009-11-27 12:13 PM

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Champion
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Dallas, TX
Subject: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot


2009-11-27 2:10 PM
in reply to: #2533155

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Veteran
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Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
Glad you survived without killing anyone. It is a trot and not a race, hence the tons of illiterate people and the hordes.Next year try the Frisco Triathlon Club event which we started this year. 5 mile run followed by a 11 or 22 mile bike. Not a ton of people, 6 on the run and around 10 for the bike. Was a nice morning just hanging out. Beats running by yourself in the neighborhood. Although apparently you have cookie and candy stops on your neighborhood route.
2009-11-27 4:02 PM
in reply to: #2533155

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Extreme Veteran
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Houston, Texas
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
"I found it especially rude to see people carrying around boxes of yogurt, fruit, and water."  That's funny.  In JBrashear's RR he talks about walking around with yogurt and fruit looking for you.  Maybe he ate it all before he found you. Wink

It sounds like the race was for turkeys.  So your run sucked, the RR was a good read.
2009-11-27 4:33 PM
in reply to: #2533155

Veteran
158
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Grapevine, Texas
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot

Your race experience sounded almost exactly like mine!  I didn't have the side cramps, but like you I lined up in that same area for the start and then too had to dodge the huge groups of walkers.  I too had no gatorade either, but found it amusing (snark) that there were people just watching who had gatorades and I too passed a homeless bum with a gatorade too!!!!  I was pissed that I couldn't get one, let alone that they had nothing but water on the course.  It was slightly disappointing.  Sorry you had a bum experience.  I guess the turkey trot is just that a trot and a fun run for a lot of people who don't normally do any kind of running or walking event.

2009-11-27 4:53 PM
in reply to: #2533336

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Champion
10471
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Dallas, TX
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
trigirl74 - 2009-11-27 4:33 PM

Your race experience sounded almost exactly like mine!  I didn't have the side cramps, but like you I lined up in that same area for the start and then too had to dodge the huge groups of walkers.  I too had no gatorade either, but found it amusing (snark) that there were people just watching who had gatorades and I too passed a homeless bum with a gatorade too!!!!  I was pissed that I couldn't get one, let alone that they had nothing but water on the course.  It was slightly disappointing.  Sorry you had a bum experience.  I guess the turkey trot is just that a trot and a fun run for a lot of people who don't normally do any kind of running or walking event.



Yeah they really need to enforce... WALKERS AT THE BACK over the speakers. That or at the very least have two separate timed starts for the 8 miler and 5K. That would probably help some too.

The spectators had plenty of food and water I noticed. Which is pretty rude of people NOT racing to take food and water. It took me 20 mins after I stopped running to find water, no where near the finish line. *Sigh*

I think in the future I'll stick to more serious events for runners and walkers (who know to line up at the back- and I say that because I have been walker and I get at the back!).

2009-11-27 5:45 PM
in reply to: #2533155

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Extreme Veteran
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Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
We lined up with the 6:30/milers b/c that's the first group of people not wearing jeans and flip flops! I think it would work a lot better if they had two corrals for the 3 milers and the 8 milers. It's a tough run, also--more hills this year than last. I like the tradition of the run, and seeing friends, but it certainly isn't a PR course. I hope your next run goes better. It has to--there won't be 40,000 runners all over the place!


2009-11-28 7:36 AM
in reply to: #2533155

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Expert
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Waller County, TX
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
What a morning; hyper-competitive runners (you & JB) looking for PRs mixed in with casual turkey trotters, sounds like fun for the whole family.

You learn something at every race and I learned awhile back to go for the 2nd or 3rd row and let the fast guys have the first row. Also learned that when it comes to self-seeding, most people either lie or don't have a clue.

Then at the other end of the race, you have the classless folks STEALING food and disregarding the BOP'ers. Seems there's a lot of people out there who only care about themselves.

You did well dealing with all the race and body issues.

(You must not have gotten the email; this was a BYOS (bring your own spoon) race. In a tough economy, RDs are cutting corners everywhere.)
2009-11-28 9:33 AM
in reply to: #2533155

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Champion
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MA
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
Crazy race..stealing food, blocking the runners, and sounds like a lot of chaos.

Way to gut it out and do your best given the situation.
2009-11-30 2:18 PM
in reply to: #2533155

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Veteran
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Austin TX
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot

Sounds like the YMCA Turkey Trot Maurice and I did in Davenport, IA last week.  Ours had less people, but a lot of walkers from the start.  We dodged them, elbowed some, and went on our way.

This should make you feel better...we registered the day before and they had run out of timing chips and t-shirts.  So, $50 later, all we had to show was a cup of hot chocolate and 2 bottles of water.  Was fun to get out and burn some calories before being a slug the rest of the day!

2009-11-30 2:52 PM
in reply to: #2536209

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Champion
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the colony texas
Subject: RE: Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot
they will never enforce the walkers, it's not happening, the people just don't listen.   Even more frustrating is when you realize about a mile and a half into the race that those are the 5k people walking even though their race starts 15-20 min after the 8miler.   So glad I skipped this years.

Oh BTW... nice race
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