Race Length: 5 miles on Road
Time: 31:58 (6:29 mi/pace)
Place: 4th/??
Although this my second consecutive year participating in this event, I’m still surprised by the large crowd that gathers in the small town of Murphy’s in Calaveras County, every Thanksgiving morning to run. This event is named the “Klassen Klassic” and there are two options for this out-and-back road run/walk- either 2.5 or 5 miles. I get to Murphy’s Park about 20 minutes before the race is to begin and donate a few canned goods which counts as pre-race registration. After registering, I chat with a group of middle school kids who I helped coach on this year’s cross country team. I ask them which of the two options they are planning to run, the 2.5 or 5 mile, and several say they will decide during the race. Nothing like living in the moment.
I find another runner, Rob, who is local and I ran some of the 37 mile Arnold Rim Trail race with a few months ago, and talk to him about the upcoming 2023 running season. We are both signed up for Lake Sonoma 50 in the beginning of April. A few others join us and I glance at my phone which reads 8:55 am. The run is advertised to start at 9 am and so I figure I have 5 minutes to begin making moves to get closer to the starting line, which is still a healthy several hundred yards away. Right as I’m about to start walking over, I all of the sudden hear the word “Go!” and everyone is off running and I’m no where near the front. I rip off my jacket and toss it in the bushes and try to snake my way through the crowd to get closer to the lead runners.
A mile into the race I settle into the back of the top 10 and I look at the long road stretching ahead of me, where I can see the very front of the pack. They are pulling further and further ahead and I let go of any notions of winning, which is totally fine. I genuinely feel good about being out here, getting to see a bunch of people I know, both kids and adults like, while mixing in some nice tempo running.
I hit the 2.5 mi turn-around where a man is parked on a motorcycle with a case of waters. Last year, there was no one at the turn-around and the 1st place runner allegedly ran past the turn-around, and still beat everyone by 2 minutes running something like a 28:30 for 5 miles (or even a little longer distance with him passing the turn-around mark). That’s holding a smoking sub-5:45 mile pace for 5 miles.
I’ve now reached the point of the race where I’m weaving against foot traffic that is still going out, while I’m coming back. I let the runner who is just ahead of me pick the line and I generally follow that. Over the past mile, I’ve been ever so slowly closing the gap on him, and with about half a mile left in the race, I make my pass. I try to make it as assertively as possible, although that’s easier said than done. I can feel the lactic acid accruing in my legs, making them heavier and heavier to get off the ground. My breathing is now becoming audible, but I tell myself I only have 3 minutes of running left to the finish line. I like thinking in terms of time, as opposed to distances, when the going gets tough. In my experience with longer races, thinking you still have 10 miles left in a race leads just to thinking how long will that take, which isn’t helpful/productive thought. So short circuiting that, and thinking I have an hour and a half left of running, is much more helpful for me. To further illustrate that example, for my 50 mile race at Lake Sonoma, I’m planning on being out there for 12 hours (hopefully running sub 12 which then I’ll be pleasantly surprised I finished earlier!). It’s much easier to fathom what running/power hiking for 12 hours means as compared to 50 miles.
Back to the race, those last three minutes pass quickly enough and as I cross the finish line, I’m told I got 4th. I see the top 3 runners semi-huddled and have recovered enough to be conversing. After I retrieve my jacket from the bushes from the frantic start, I fist bump them all and chat with them a bit. The second place finisher is a senior at the local high school, Brett Harte, and was the school’s top cross country runner. The winner, who ran a sub 29 minute race, says he is in college and runs recreationally.
My experience at the event concludes with me cheering on runners as they come in. What makes this event special to me is how all different ages, from kindergarteners to grandparents, get to share the same experience. The goals of each person may be different, as some go out to be competitive while others have made it a tradition to walk with their family and friends. But whatever the person’s motivation or time, we are all gathered on Thanksgiving morning to walk or run on the same course. Big thank you to the Klassen family for doing the ground work every year to make such a gathering possible.
