I wanted to elaborate just a wee bit more on yesterday’s turkey trot.  (Here’s my Thanksgiving post, such a wonderful day!)

Jen and I decided to run the Kirkwood/Webster Groves Turkey Day Run.  There was a 3 mile and 6 mile option.  The 3 mile started at 7:30, the 6 at 8:10.  The odd thing was that the website said that “walkers should do the 3 mile option, as there would be no course support after 9 am.”  Um, okay.  We’re not walkers, but that doesn’t mean we can run 6 miles in 50 minutes.  We figured, worst case, we’ll finish the race without support.  The main goal was to get a great run in before eating a huge dinner.

We got a nice running hat for signing up!  It’s a nice change (again) from a shirt.

Anyway, it was easy to find parking near the start.  We arrived right after the 3 mile race started, and we got to watch the winners come through.  The announcer was a little annoying as he implied that taking 20 minutes to run 3 miles was SLOW…but that’s okay.

The course was incredibly hilly.  It was always going up a hill or down a hill and rarely was the course flat for any period of time.  It was an out and back, for the most part, so every time we ran down a hill we knew we’d have to run back up.  Jen and I ran together for most of the race until perhaps the last 1/2 mile when she decided to go on ahead.  I kicked it up a notch as well and passed a bunch of people at the end.  Maybe we should have been running a little faster throughout, but my legs were so tired.

One note:  at one point we turned around and saw there was perhaps 10 to 20 people behind us, followed by a cop car, driving slowly with it’s sirens on.  We thought that must be the end of course support…and perhaps the race as well?  I’ve never been so near the end of a race!  I guess the super slow people ran the 3 mile.

I finished in 1:04:41.  (That’s the correct time, not the earlier one.  Must have been tired!).  I was 1046 out of 1123, so I’m thinking that cop car couldn’t have been behind everyone, I didn’t think there were that many folks behind me.  I don’t know though, maybe I passed a ton of people at the end?

On the way home we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to use the bathroom and we may have bought a few donuts.  Oops 😉

Note on the Marathon Relay from last weekend:  The official time was 3:50:25!  We were in 66th place out of 86.  Not last either…and a better marathon time than our fastest runner had run on her own.

A few weeks (months?) ago Jen and I decided to run the St Louis Track Club Marathon Relay.  We needed four team members, and it was set up so each person ran two legs of the relay.  The course was approximately 3.25 miles.  We enlisted Vanessa as well, and then I put a call out on my blog for volunteers.  Natalie from The Sweets Life was first to respond and we had our team!

We weren’t sure what to expect from this race.  We had to make up a team name (team name:  Valkyries) and originally thought we might do some sort of costume/hat/matching shirts.  But life got busy, and then the forecast called for rain, and that just sort of fell by the wayside. 

Here’s how it ended up working: 

I got there early to check in, pick up numbers, and our gloves (we got four pairs of gloves rather than shirts, a nice change in my opinion.)  I was able to park really near the tent for pickup and near what I assumed was the start line/relay exchange line.  It was COLD so after pick up I went back to the car to warm up.  We met up with Natalie (and eventually Vanessa, who had a little trouble getting there…) and the race started promptly at 8.  Jen went first.  It was a small race, probably 75 teams?  I am simply estimating here.

I went second (and would be followed by Natalie, then Vanessa, and then we’d eat repeat.)  The relay pass seemed pretty casual, and the faster teams were doing sort of a high five (no baton or anything) so we decided to go with that.

I love that running is a time you can legitimately wear leggings as pants.

The weird thing about the relay is that rather than running with your friends, you are hanging out with them and then running alone.

The course actually headed out one way and then after about 1/4 mile or less does a loop back, so you crossed over the line again before going about another 1.5 miles, (past the Muny, the visitor’s center, to the road at the bottom of Art Hill, then you turn around and head back.)   In between hand offs we got snacks at the tent and hung out in the car, generally with the heat on.  Some teams had brought tents, one team was even grilling!  But it was cold and almost raining (though luckily it basically held off) so we were pretty happy for the heat of the car.

I didn’t wear my fancy garmin watch so I just ran by feel.  I tried to run the first leg pretty easily, where I felt I was just on the edge of losing my breath the whole time but not breathing too hard.

The hand off to Natalie—she was a speedy one!  Jen finished in approximately 33 to 35 minutes as did I (we didn’t have our exact times for the splits, just what we saw when we remembered to look at the clock.)  Natalie was closer to 23 minutes, and then Vanessa was probably around 30 minutes?  Or less?

Vanessa was wearing a jersey that said "Walkyries."  She was the most in costume.

Jen was not thrilled to run again.  I think that was the toughest part for us all—we felt like we had already run and didn’t want to go again!  I made a joke about turning it into a half-marathon relay.

I like this picture because we are seemingly heading in the wrong directions.  Oops.

I ran the second as hard as I could.  I felt out of the breath the entire time.  I also felt pretty tired, thought I might actually be running super slow even though I felt really speedy.  I think it ended up being about 32 or 33 minutes, which was a great pace for me.

The last hand off!  Note how Natalie is completely in the air!  She rocks.

We told Vanessa we were all leaving at 4 hours so she needed to be done by then.   I think that gave her just under 35 minutes to finish.  No problem!

I’m not sure our exact finishing time (maybe it’ll be posted at some point) but it was between 3:55 and 3:56.  What a fantastic team!

I’m not in love with this picture but it was better than the alternative choices.  All in all it was a fun morning, fun race, with great teammates.  I would absolutely do another relay in the future.