Katy YMCA Turkey Dash 2013

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Is there a better way to start of Thanksgiving than with a Turkey Trot?  Over the years I've run a few Turkey Races.  We used to drive down to the Galleria for the Turkey Trot.  Last year we ran part of one at Bonnet Creek on our trip to Disney World.  This year since we now live in the Katy area we decided to do the Katy YMCA Turkey Dash.  The girls were registered for the 1 mile kids run, I was registered for the 10k and James was registered for the 1 mile fun walk but he planned on doing his mile with Alice in the kids race.

It was a very chilly morning for this Houstonian.  I'm not used to temps in the low 30's anymore.  At least the sun came out and it wasn't rainy and windy anymore.  The kids 1 mile run started the festivities off at 7:10 am.  We wanted to make sure we could get a parking spot, so we got to the YMCA early (around 6:30) parked and went inside to use the facilities and try to stay warm for a little bit.  As we were waiting Mr. Turkey came by and Alice got a big hug.  I had a hard time getting a picture of the elusive Mr. Turkey however.

But I did manage to get a great picture of my girls.

We went out to get lined up around 6:50 or so.  I was thrilled that they decided to do a staggered start for the kids races (5-6 grade first, followed by 3-4 grade, 1-2 grade and last K and pre-K).  It would have been even better if they set up areas for each grade to line up as there was some confusion at the start.  I left Megan to run with the 1-2 graders and Alice with Daddy to run with the pre-K group (she's 3) and found a spot to go try to take some pictures.

There were a lot of kids lined up at the start of the race.  They did a gun start for each group.  

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of Megan at the start but I did get a picture of the elusive Mr. Turkey running with the 1st and 2nd graders

Then the little kids were off and running.  Alice had a little bit of a slow start but as soon as she got her picture taken she was off and running.

As soon as James and Alice passed by I went to the finish to try to get a good spot to watch Megan run by.

She finished with a time under 11:30.  I walked her out of the shoot and got back to the finish line just tin time to see Alice cross with Daddy.  Apparently she ran the entire thing stopping only to wait for James to catch up with her.  :)

And there is my cutie showing off her medal.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of both girls post race with their medals.  I was in a hurry to make it to the 10k start line on time however.

James took the girls to go play and explore all the booths while I went out to run.  I'm not sure how long they lasted as they were in the warm van when I finished but I hear they had fun eating ice cream, pop corn and playing on bounce houses.

I lined up for the 10k and thought I was going to have another phone fail as I couldn't get my headset to pair at first but a quick restart before the starting gun and I was good to go with about 1 minute to spare.  

I decided to do the 10k with 3 minute run and 1 minute walk intervals and for the first time I was good and stuck to my intervals from the beginning.  I still started out a little fast and finished the first mile in 10:12.

Between mile 1 and 2 my shoe started bothering me.  My toes felt so weird.  It could have something to do with them feeling frozen but it also felt like the toe box dropped off under my toes.  I know that makes no sense but it is the best way I can describe it.  I was certain I would be returning my shoes at that point.  

I finished the 2nd mile in 10:32 minutes and was actually starting to feel a little warm.  I debated removing a layer but decided to hold off.  We turned the corner and approached our first water stop.  They had the mile 3 sign right at the water stop and at the time I was convinced that couldn't possibly be right.  I think it was closer to 2-1/2 miles than 3 and the map confirmed that later.  Mile 3 was a fast mile at 10:19.

My toes started to thaw out on mile 4 but at least the weird toe box thing seemed to have gone away.  I slowed down a little in miles 4 & 5 and had my 2 slowest miles at 10:53 and 10:52/mile.  I know at one point my music stopped randomly for about 5 minutes and that effected me more than I would have thought.  

Once I finished mile 5 I knew I just had 1.2 miles to go so I was feeling really good about a good time.  I picked up the pace a little and finished the last 1.2 miles in (1.33 according to the GPS) in 14 minutes

 and 1 second for an average speed of 10:33.  

My official time was 1:06:26 - which is a new personal best.  I finished 684/882 overall and 330/447 females and 68/92 Females 35-39.  

I grabbed a banana and some water.  Stopped by the Galloway booth for a minute and then met James and the girls at the van so we could leave.  We went home, got cleaned up and went to see Frozen which was an awesome movie.  

All in all it was a low key kind of Thanksgiving but I was thrilled with my race.  

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  Next run is 5 miles on Saturday morning.