The Return of the Turkey Trott 8K--Marion, Iowa

The weather was almost perfect for a run. It was about 50 degrees and misting out. The misting made some areas of the run slippery like the bricks we ran over on one part of the route and part of the cemetery we ran through and if you hit the paint on the road just right with your shoe you might slip a little, but for the most part, it was awesome.

 I started out running with Jason and planned on keeping up with him the entire time. I can almost run his pace which is around an 8:55 to 9:10 mile pace usually. However around 1.5 miles in I got a HUGE stomach cramp and told him to just go and do his best. He wanted to wait for me and stopped for a second but I waved him on. I know had it not been for that dang stomach cramp I would have done super awesome and been able to stay with him. Oh well. I jogged at a 10 minute mile pace, did some deep breathing until my stomach settled down and I went on my way again. I could see Jason way ahead and tried hard to catch him, but then lost sight of him. Bummer.

 Jason ended up getting a HUGE PR (personal record) for himself by over 6 minutes. His time was 44:20 which is an 8:55 average mile pace.

I came within a minute of my 8K PR. In 2010 I did 46:58, in 2011 I did 50:20, in 2012 I didn't race due to an injury, then today I did 47:55. I know with the training I'm currently doing that I'm on track for a 43 to 44 in the near future, so I'll keep working hard and hopefully can pull that off next year!

 My friend Tyler Sullivan pulled off an amazing 27:05 which is an average mile pace of 5:27! He WON the turkey trott! Sweet. I am impressed.

 We saw Dean and Jill Schwickerath and their daughter and got to spend a tiny bit of time with them.
 Dean pulled off an impressive time of 32:22 which is a 6:31 average minute mile pace and he won 2nd in his age group! Go Dean! He took home a medal and pumpkin pie. It was a fun morning and I saw so many friends. Here are a few pictures:

Dean, Jill, their daughter, Me and Jason

Jason and I with the turkey.  

Outside getting ready to run, we had just put our
race numbers on.

Lisa and I.  I hadn't seen Lisa in months, it was so great to see her again.