Race Recap: Tremont Turkey Festival 5K

The alarm rang through our camper at 5:45am, which felt incredibly early after a six-pack of beer the previous night. The whole family got dressed and made the short drive to Tremont for the Turkey Festival 5K.

The start/finish line was in the heart of the Tremont Turkey Festival

This was an unplanned race for me. A buddy of my husband's was running his first 5k, and hubs wanted to be there for support. Of course I was happy to oblige... under one condition - his teenage daughter watch our kiddos so I could run too. Deal done.

Hubs (far right) and his buddies

I wasn't exactly feeling in mint condition for a speedy run. A PR was the last thing from my mind with this mild hangover. In fact, the thought of running made my stomach turn. But I lined up at the start to make the best of it. I decided to just run how my body felt, rather than trying for a certain pace. I've been running naked for almost three weeks now, so this has become quite natural for me.

It was a perfect sunny morning with cool temps in the low 60's.  The gun sounded and off I went. My legs knew immediately what to do... and in a blink, one mile was done.
Mile 1 - 8:00

Love having my babies at my races!

We headed out a country road for a long out and back, which I personally enjoy. I saw several of my friends - infront and behind me. We exchanged high five's and cheers. The leaders, as always, were amazing to see whizzing past. (Overall winner finished in 15 minutes!) Out and backs give you a good view of the competition ahead. This race had a strong fast field; there were so many runners infront of me! Awards later confirmed that unless you ran a sub-23, you were pretty much shut out of age group awards here.
Mile 2 - 8:29

I was running pretty well (and didn't feel like I was dying), so I tried to make an honest effort in the last mile. There was a gradual incline in the last 1/2 mile that kinda hurt, but I got up it.
Mile 3 - 8:24

When I made the final turn, the 24 on the clock shocked me. Holy cow, how can I be so close to my PR (24:48)? I pushed it down the final stretch in hopes of crossing sub-25. I just missed it, but am still pretty happy with this race. I didn't think I had this kind of speed in the engine anymore...

Official Chip Time 25:01

8:04 average pace
Overall #120 out of 360
Div F35-39 #6 out of 36

We hung out afterwards for the pancake and sausage breakfast, and watched the awards ceremony. The trophies were cool looking, and I was sad I couldn't snag one. Rebecca, a blog reader whom I just met, took 3rd in my age group. Congrats! It was great to meet her, but seriously... we can no longer run the same races until I turn 40 - she's way faster than me!

I love to meet readers... except when they snag awards in my age group!

Bonus... this 5K race was only $22 and came with one of the neatest t-shirts I've gotten in a long time. Most of our local 5K races have skyrocketed this past year to a $30-35 price tag. I don't like it, fundraising or not. We're cutting back our 5K races this summer because of it. I just can't rationalize $70 for us to run 30 minutes... especially when the cheap shirts end up in our garage sale pile the next week.  The Turkey Festival 5K is one we would repeat... especially since we found a really nice campground (Kentuckiana Kampground) just 10 minutes away. I loved the small town friendly feel of this event.