Cold Turkey 6K - 2015 edition

Thanksgiving Day! Time for the annual turkey trot. Ours starts at the State Capitol and goes up City Creek Canyon before turning around and descending through Memory Grove. It's a net downhill, but a tough course. I figured if I could do 6:00/km that'd be good, in my current shape. The race is billed as a 6K, but every year my Garmin says 6.22 or 6.23, and the course isn't certified, so I figure it's long and usually go with my Garmin for distance (I know Garmin is not as accurate as a certified course, but I know the race director and he measured it with GPS once, so...yeah...).

Calvin came with me and was hoping to get 1st in his age group like last year (though I repeatedly told him it's all about who shows up!) or at least a PR. The latter seemed entirely feasible, as he's in good shape from soccer and enjoys a good hard run.

We did a short warm-up because we were a bit late (dog puked on carpet...sigh....good thing I have a carpet cleaner!). The weather was much warmer than expected; not that it was warm, but it was predicted to be 18F (-8C) and was actually 30F (-1C). With the sun out at the race start, I removed the sleeves from my jacket and pocketed them, wearing just a long-sleeve with the now short-sleeved jacket. I was warm enough, though in the canyon with no direct sun it was chillier.

When we started off I knew this wasn't going to be easy. It's a slight uphill to start but I was very slow off the line, with my first 500m in 3:12. Ugh. I sped up and did two 3:07s before the real hill started, and then all bets were off because I've done ZERO hill training! I tried to keep it a little under what I was capable of, knowing there would still be 3k after the turnaround. I did 3:15, 3:19 (!) and 3:15 up the hill...geez, slow. But the downhill was reasonably fast, and I finished in 37:12 by the chip for 5:59/km with a low ave HR of 156. I felt I was pushing hard, but I think I could've pushed harder up the hill and a bit after the turnaround (my HR went down after the turnaround so I guess I should've gone faster). The problem was that I wasn't confident enough on the hill to push that hard and know I'd have something left. Too cautious. Oh well! It's still my 4th best on this course, and given where I'm coming from I think it's reasonable. It was fun to be out there.

Calvin did a PR of 31:27, but the competition was stiff this year and he finished 6th with a time that would've won 1st in the age 9-11 group last year. This is his last year in that age group, so he was hoping to do better, but he was pretty good about it and said he had run a good hard race and was very happy with his time, even if he was disappointed with the fact that all the fast boys showed up. The male overall winner did just under 20 min (wow!!!) and the female overall winner did just over 22 min (and was only 17! wow!).

All in all, a great way to start our holiday weekend.  Photos below, including one of the hilarious costume of a hunter...in camo tights with flannel hat and reflective vest and fake gun and nothing else --- brrrr!