Race length: 5 miles
Location: Murphys, CA
Finish Time: 31 minutes, 55 seconds
Place: 3rd/?????
My plan for this Thanksgiving Day is to run this race and then head to SF to spend Thanksgiving with my buddy John and his family. I’ve been looking forward to this race for a while as it is a local event and for a good cause. All proceeds go to the Feeney Park Foundation, a nonprofit organization that runs and maintains Murphy’s local Feeney Park. Also, the entry “fee” for the race is bringing 2 nonperishable food items that go to families in need.
It’s absolutely packed at the starting line when I show up at 8:40, 20 minutes before the race is to start. I see a lot of familiar faces and some of them are students from the middle school I work at. I’ve been running a little with the 6th-8th grade cross country team after school and several runners of the runners are here right now. We talk a little strategy about the race and joke about who is going to pace who out there.
There’s two options for this race, a 2.5 mile and a 5 mile option. I’m doing the 5 mile option and the course is an out-and-back on a long and flat road called “6 mile road”. After a few words about why we are gathered here and the parameters of the race, we are off! There’s one skinny runner with bright green shoes who shoots off in front of everyone. I figure there is no way he can hold that pace but I don’t know anything about racing 5 mile distances. It’s too long to full out sprint but seems too short to cruise any of it. I think of holding what I call an “annoying pace”- fast enough where it’s a little annoying to hold but not so fast that I’m running out of control.
I pass the turn around for the 2.5 mile distance, meaning I’ve ran slightly over 1 mile. There’s only 4 runners ahead of me at this point and I’m feeling good. I keep running hard, moving into 3rd place, and then I begin to wonder where the turn around for our distance is. At this point, it feels like we have definetly ran the 2.5 mile distance for the out-and-back. The runner in second place comes running the other way and shouts at me “Turn around at the gate! There’s no marker, but that’s the turn around!”
I’m a little confused but I follow his directions. I’m just happy to be heading in the direction that gets me closer to the end of the race. My quads feel like they are picking up strain and the pavement is gradually beginning to feel heavier and less forgiving with each point of impact. I try not to show it as I’m literally running against the tide of over 100 people. There are a ton of families pushing babies in strollers completing the 2.5 mile distance as a little exercise on Thanksgiving Day.
I can see the guy in second but he’s a solid 25-30 seconds ahead of me. I try to rally a push in the last mile but there’s nothing in the tank for it. Just holding the pace I have been has felt like a push for the duration of the race. I cross the finish line and get my time and place, which is 3rd place for the 5 mile distance at 31:55. I’m extremely happy with that time- I did not think I was capable of holding sub-6:30 miles. I congratulate the second place runner and talk a little to him about the turn around and the guy who finished in first.
“Dude,” he tells me, “That guy who finished in first ran past the turnaround marker for a decent distance until I yelled for him to come back. He still smoked me and finished the race with a time of 30:08.”
I’m somewhat in awe of this information, as it means he was essentially holding sub 6 minute miles when you factor in the extra distance he ran. I guess he new exactly what he was doing when he shot out of the gates at the beginning of the race. I start to formulate a goal of coming back next year and trying to beat my time this year, and eye a 1st-2nd place finish. But that’s a whole 365 days away, and much more pressing is the need to get to SF and enjoy a well deserved Thanksgiving Feast.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thank you to the Klassens for putting on this awesome local event that contributes to such a good cause!
