It has been 2 years since my "annual" Turkey Trot, and I'm glad to be back at it! I hope this is the beginning of a lifelong tradition for my daughter, most importantly.
I'm not gonna lie: I was nervous about this race. I was sick the week before and my last 2 runs were really pretty terrible. I also hadn't trained as much as I'd have liked, and I hadn't trained much with the stroller (okay - I trained with the stroller once (for a mile)). So I really wasn't sure how this thing was going to go down.
To back-up a bit: we left for Austin on Wednesday night after work. We drove to Brenham and stopped for dinner, then drove the rest of the way in. We stayed at the Hyatt right next to the start/finish. (Brilliant move, btw.) Arrived late for Z's bedtime, she finally went down around 10, I crashed immediately after.
Allowed the baby to wake us up around 6, breakfast was delivered at 6:20, and wandered over to pick up my packet at 7:30 when packet pick-up opened. The race itself wasn't starting til 9:30, and it was pretty chilly out, so I went back to the hotel to relax til about 9 when we headed over to the start.
I made a crucial mistake: as I said, it was chilly. I chose to run in long sleeves and capris even though the hourly forecast had it warming up to near 60 by the time the race started. I had a jacket on over that that I removed as I was standing in the starting corral (at the very back of the timed starters, as requested of stroller runners) and stashed in the stroller according to the grand plan. That's one thing that is really cool about running with a stroller: you've got plenty of places to put stuff, and in the face of pushing 40 pounds around, what's another few ounces? I ran with the jacket, a bottle of water, my phone, a baby, and diaper gear in the stroller. Anyways, after I took off that jacket, I knew I had screwed up by not wearing short sleeves because I was comfortably warm while I was standing still. This was doubly idiotic since I had the stroller and could have simply put a short sleeve on under the long and removed the long at any point. Annyways.... I'll know better next time! I also stressed over what to put the Z in, finally settling on her fleece sleeper so that I didn't have to worry about blankets or coats or anything else getting tossed out of the stroller. I do think that this was the right move.
So the race started off immediately with a mother-hill. I mean, this was a serious freaking hill. I live in Houston, people. The only hill I ever see is an overpass. And I'm sure as hell not training with a stroller on an overpass! (Not that I trained with the stroller anyways.) So I started running up this steep San Francisco style hill, and I knew I was going to get my ass kicked. But I wasn't walking in the first 5 minutes of the race. Even if that meant I burnt myself to a crisp and ended up walking the entire rest of the race! So I set my eyes on this little gazelle-woman hauling ass up this steep mother-hill with a DOUBLE STROLLER and I just tried to keep her in my sights. This hill was double evil because when I got to what appeared to be the crest, it was actually a false flat and then another steep rise to the actual crest. The only two things that kept me going were energizer-gazelle and her (probable) at least 60 pound load pulling away from me, and the knowledge that the start and finish lines were in the same place, so at some point all this climbing meant that I was going to get to come back down. People running by kept laughing and commenting on how cute Z is in the stroller because she leans forwards and grips the bar like she's on a roller-coaster ride! Even though the ride must be moving backwards since everyone is passing us...
I finally got to the top of that hill, and if I remember correctly, it flatted for a bit, then we got to experience the joy of running downhill with the stroller. Let me just say, hold onto your hat and clear a path, because I felt like I was getting dragged down that hill by an out of control - I dunno - something really freaking heavy that rolls - an out of control STROLLER. Ha. I was running (braking) on my toes with straight legs and leaning back, pulling on that stroller with all my might. And a few times I thought I was going to lose it, sheesh! And this happened on several hills throughout the race.
My initial plan was to run, but walk the water stops. Once I remembered I was running in AUSTIN, I decided I'd be walking up hills, and running the rest. This strategy worked well for me.
The Z fell asleep around mile 2, and woke up again around mile 4. I could tell because she let go of the bar to sleep, and grabbed right back onto it when she woke up, (I hope I can find some pics of us, she was really cute.)
I called Preston at mile 4 and told him to come meet us at the finish line. And then I ran it in.
Final time: 58:26 for 11:41/mi pace. 19th of 24 in the female all-ages baby jogger division.
Slow as a turtle? Yes. But I was secretly hoping for at least a sub-hour finish, so I'm really pleased with this! Even more pleasing is the fact that I never felt like I was pushing myself to an extreme, once I got past that first hill. I felt good for the rest of the day, and only had minimal soreness in the following 2 days. I dare say that I could have gone faster, but I'm actually glad that I didn't, because I enjoyed myself, I enjoyed the race experience, and I still felt good enough afterwards to enjoy my holiday. And I "raced" it with my Zoë in her first Turkey Trot and we had fun!
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