Tacoma City Turkey Trot 5k 2015

Tacoma City Turkey Trot 5k 2015

This is the 4th year they’ve held this Turkey Trot and the 3rd year I’ve run it.

I’m lucky that I’ve been able to run it each year with my friends. Running is always more fun when you have someone to share it with.

Chrissy, Josh, Michaela and I showed up at about 8:30am for the 9:00am race because all we needed to do was pick up our packets. Drew had gotten there early to do Day of Registration and didn’t even need the “wake up text” I sent him to make sure he didn’t sleep through his alarm.

For someone who has a career in the military, this happens surprisingly often.

It was when Chrissy and I went to grab our packets that I discovered that there wasn’t one with my name on it…no matter how much they wanted to give me Teresa Perkins bib number.

That meant, that I needed to get through the Day of Registration line in about 15 minutes before the start of the race.

I made it…barely.

Dennis ran my awesome coat back to the car and grabbed my Garmin for me. He even turned it on so I wouldn’t be waiting for it to connect to satellites when the race started. (Seriously. This coat is amazing. It’s a swimming coat that is lined with fleece and has a rain/wind protecting fabric.) 

We have a fun game that we play while we wait for the gun to go off, and that is to predict who will win the race out of all the speedsters up in the front row. Drew has a bit of an advantage being as tall as he is because he can see the runners better.

We were all wrong though. Yellow Arm Sleeve Guy didn’t come in first. 

The tricky thing about this course is that it starts with about 1000 meters downhill. It’s REALLY easy to start out too fast and burn yourself out on the first mile. BUT with my trust Garmin, I avoided that.

The first mile ticked off in no time. The second half mile went pretty smoothly too.

But then my little brain started talking…more accurately, it started complaining, whining and generally being negative.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with me (other than that nagging quad thing I’m currently ignoring). But after I noticed my Garmin died because SOMEONE forgot to charge it, suddenly all I could think about was that I was running alone, AGAIN. All my running buddies have moved away and I have train by myself (that’s not actually true, since I’ve started running my speed on Tuesdays with the group). But it does mean that I’m running the races alone, and I don’t like it.

Don’t worry Terra. You’re not alone…

The Gasping Guy was running again this year.

For those who don’t know, there was this older guy in last yearsrace that seriously sounded like he was going to pass out any minute. His breathing was so ragged I asked him if he was OK and assured him that there was only half a mile left.

Now that I know he just breaths that way when he runs and he wasn’t about to die right there, I don’t feel bad saying I couldn’t run next to him again this year! He was SO LOUD, and threw me completely off my rhythm. He was throwing off my stride.

Clearly I had to walk, so that I wouldn’t have to run next to him anymore. CLEARLY.

I didn’t even have that flimsy of an excuse the next two times I decided I didn’t want to run anymore. I guess I looked pretty pitiful, because another runner asked if I was OK as he ran by.

I finished the race with a time of 23:43 which frankly is kind of amazing considering all the walking. I somehow even nabbed 4thin my age group. It was my slowest 5k in years and that kind of stung, even though I did it to myself.

Stuffing myself with Thanksgiving turkey later that day certainly helped sooth the soul. 

I walked back onto the course to find Chrissy, Josh and Michaela to join them in their FIRST 5k run as a family! Drew had already found them so we all ran in together.  Josh had taken over the stroller about half way through the race and in the last 100 meters he took off! We’re nearly positive he was racing a lady pushing a stroller that had just passed us, but he won’t confirm this. I’m not sure if he managed to beat her though because a runner blocked my view of him crossing the finish line but it was close!