Thanksgiving 2022: the first time that the McDonald family has gathered for Thanksgiving since 2018, and the first time that I've been to Houston since the beginning of the pandemic that wasn't for one of my mother's surgeries or for a family funeral. To celebrate this happy time, I decided to run the Turkey Trot which starts a couple of miles from my mother's home, in Clear Lake City on the southeast side of Houston, near Galveston Bay, hence the "Bay Area" moniker.
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| Did I follow Coach Carl's recommendation? Read on .... |
The 24-hour advance weather forecast was for rain on Thanksgiving Day, however we awoke to heavy fog, but the rain had a chance of holding off until 9 or 10 am, after which I would have finished the race. I was under the impression that the race would begin at 8:00 am, so I left our hotel a few minutes before 7 am. It was only a short 10-minute drive to the shopping center where the store "On The Run" was hosting bib pickup. To my surprise, the parking lot was nearly full, but I found a parking spot and made my way to bib pickup. A series of children's races was already underway. I asked "Does the race begin at 8 am?" and was momentarily alarmed when one volunteer said "It's starting now!" then was corrected by another volunteer "The 10K begins at 7:30." Whew, it was 7:15, so I had just enough time to attach the bib, put the race shirt in the car, and jog around the parking lot a couple of times to get in 2/3 mile. I was sufficiently warmed up, circled around to the starting area, took a selfie, and - time to run! I put away the phone in my Spibelt and zipped up the pocket just as I reached the starting mat.
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| Good thing I was keeping this light and fun |
I started at a really easy pace, planning on no faster than 9:30 min / mile for the first mile. But as we ran behind the shopping center and then turned onto Space Center Boulevard, I found myself going a little faster. On flat terrain, I felt fine, was passed by a couple of women who were gossiping, and decided to use them as pacers. Admittedly I was fascinated to eavesdrop on their conversation. In the very unlikely event that their "friend" ever sees this blog post, and looks up race results and wonders if they were talking about them, I won't share the details here. But .... fellow runners, keep in mind that you never know who might be listening in on your private conversation. To give them credit, they were perfect pacers, running a steady 9:19 min / mile pace for the 2-1/2 miles that I followed them. We did cross a couple of drainage canals, where I recalled on previous runs seeing signs warning of alligators, but couldn't see the warning signs today. I took a short walk break as we turned into a residential neighborhood right before reaching the 2-mile marker. The two women kept going and were probably about 50 feet ahead of me, but then I closed the gap and caught back up with my eavesdropping.
About 2-2/3 miles into the race, we crossed a little bridge over a canal, probably the only thing that qualified as the tiniest of hills. One of the women slowed down just a bit, and I decided that it would be really creepy if this old guy wearing Atlanta Track Club gear kept running directly on their hills, and so passed them and ended up staying in front of them for the rest of the race. Passing the mile 3 marker, I literally recorded 9:18.9. 9:19.1, and 9:18.7 minute miles. I don't actually think that my Garmin watch is that accurate, but I kept seeing 9:19 at every mile alert. I noticed that I was running slightly above my aerobic threshold at 150 bpm, so not sure if that still qualified as light, but I felt fine, so just kept going. I did go a little bit into race mode, catching up with another runner, matching his stride for a moment, but he was breathing really heavily so I moved ahead of him. Probably he wasn't accustomed to running more than the 5K distance. I was in that situation not that many months earlier this year. The alert sounded, 9:02 for mile 4, 37 minutes elapsed. So I wasn't really pushing it that hard, that was a decent half-marathon race pace for me. I saw a father and son running together ahead of me. They seemed to be doing well, but very very gradually I was closing in on them, then moved a few steps ahead as we neared the exit to the neighborhood. I slowed down to a walk as I accepted a cup of water from a volunteer, just as the boy tried to pass by on the run while also drinking water. I let them go past and called our a little encouragement "Go for it!"
But upon turning left onto Space Center Boulevard, I ended up passing them again, not meaning to blow past them, but instead, they were slowing down. The father was asking his son "Are you doing OK?" and I just kept on with my steady pace. I felt good, was smiling at volunteers and police and thanking them and/or greeting with "Happy Thanksgiving!" That actually caused me to speed up ever so slightly each time I spoke. Something to remember when I'm really racing for time in the future! For a minute or two, there was a little drizzle on the race course, but that didn't last for long. The alert sounded, 9:13 for mile 5. Around this time, I heard footsteps from behind, and then a runner wearing a bright jersey passed to my left. I think it was probably a triathlon jersey although I wasn't certain. I wasn't feeling that competitive, but thought that I would try to keep up with him and see how that worked out for me. And it turns out, as I pulled even, he slowed way down and I never saw him again. I'll never know what he was thinking, had he been stalking me trying to catch up to me for awhile, or was it just coincidence?
I had sent Coach Carl a long update on marathon training on Wednesday morning - in short, it's going great, I'm nailing the training now and feeling good. I had promised that I would take it easy today, except for maybe the last 2 kilometers if I felt good. I had run a mixed zone 10K total workout on a track the day before this race, and had assumed that my legs wouldn't feel like running fast. But I guess I'm building up some serious endurance now, and didn't have trouble picking up the pace a bit. Up ahead I saw the 5K group, mostly walkers, emerging from another neighborhood, and passed large clusters of people to their right. Fortunately I had enough room to stay within the cone-protected lane of the street. I was definitely moving faster and working harder, as I didn't want to get passed by anyone that I had passed in the last couple of miles. But I was tiring quickly, now I was definitely running above my lactate threshold, with heart rate in the mid-160 bpm the last time that I looked at my watch.
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| Definitely not keeping it light in the last mile, but I was still having fun! |
Making a left turn onto Falcon Pass Lane, "Don't slow down, don't slow down!" I kept thinking to myself. I had expected a short jaunt behind the shopping area, but it certainly felt longer when I was running faster late in the race, whereas it didn't feel very long at all early in the race when I was running more slowly. I passed the mile 6 marker but the watch alert didn't sound. Nonetheless I just kept pushing "Don't slow down!!" Right turn onto Moonrock Drive, then the alert sounded, 8:36 for mile 6, 54:48 elapsed, racing past a slower runner, then turning into the parking lot, landing in a large puddle on accident, but kept moving forward. "Don't slow down! Just one --- more --- minute!!" I thought I saw a gate up ahead of me, but it was an optical illusion, just a crossing zone painted on the road. "Don't slow down!" fearing that someone was about to pass me. And then I was across the finish line, 56:28 on my watch, 56:22 chip time.
The finish area was crowded with a mix of 5K and 10K finishers. The 5K runners had started only 5 minutes after the 10K start. I made my way through the crowd to get some Gatorade and accepted a couple of orange slices from a volunteer. Out of the corner of my eye, I realized that someone was trying to take my photo, and decided that I had better smile for the race photographer. Then I turned - and it was my Mom! She knew that I was planning to run, I had invited her to come watch, but hadn't really expected to see her! I really appreciated seeing her. She is proud that I'm exercising and enjoying running, but has expressed concern that I push too much, so I was so happy that she put aside her concern to watch me finish today's race.
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| Candid shot of me, before I realized that it was my Mom behind the camera! |
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