Turkey Trot

Today I ran in the Zingerman's Ann Arbor Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot, which I thought was a 5K, but instead turned out to be an even 3 miles. Eh, well, what's a tenth of a mile, really? My last "5K", the Detroit St. John's Health 5K Fun Run turned out to be 3.6 miles, a full half-mile longer than it was supposed to be, according to the adjusted final results. One of these days, I'm going to run a REAL 5K!:-)

This morning's race started at 8:00 am sharp; it was a calm, beautiful, sunny morning, and a brisk 22 degrees. Definitely the coldest weather in which I've ever run! But I didn't notice, after I got moving. My new running jacket, which I bought earlier in the week was warm. Almost too warm; if it had been a longer race I would have taken off the nylon outer layer. I didn't wear my fleece earwarmer thing that I also bought this week, and never needed it. I took my gloves off partway through as well. I also wore my iPod this time out, my first time listening to it during a race, though I do train with it. I put on my cardio playlist at a fairly low volume, which gave me the perfect background music to keep my motivated without drowning out the atmosphere. I can only remember two of the songs I heard, Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode, and Dragula by Rob Zombie. Interesting dichotomy there.

We started at Elbel Field, the U of M band's practice field; we ran past Michigan Stadium, and a shrine to the late Bo Schembechler where fans had left flowers and messages at the stadium's front gates, and wound around until we finished back at Elbel Field. As I approached the gate into the field, about 100 yards from the finish, a volunteer was cheering "great job, you're under 30, great job!" to us as we ran by. I thought "under 30 minutes, no way!"

Way! I did, indeed, finish in under 30 minutes. A new PR, yay!:-) My results:

Chip time: 28:48
Pace: 9:36
Overall Place: 264th
Age Group: 17th out of 24

My pace for the Detroit race was 11:16, so I cut 1:40 off my pace. AND, at the pace I ran today, had the race been a full 5K (3.1 miles), I would have still finished in under 30 minutes!:-)

And the crazy thing? I want to go for a run RIGHT NOW! Thought about running again during much of my 4-hour drive up to my parents' place this afternoon. I may go for a run tomorrow, and definitely will by Saturday at the latest. To quote ...

I WANT MORE!

(X-posted to my livejournal.)